From: Jay Hennigan (jay@xxxxxxxx)
Date: Sat Mar 09 2002 - 15:22:10 GMT-3
On Sat, 9 Mar 2002, Michael Snyder wrote:
> Here's the deal. This study group and the CCIE program fish from the
> same pond. You are saying that you are surprised to see questions about
> scenarios that you know are on the lab exam. Think about it, how could
> it be otherwise? We all have about the same skill sets, and we are
> studying the same things and using the same equipment. If we are
> studying things that aren't on the exam, are we not wasting our time?
Here's the deal. The amount of data in the Doc CD is huge, and Enterprise
IOS has many thousands of nuances of configuration commands. The lab exam
is evolving and typically consists of the core routing protocols along with
"twists" as well as a few off-the-wall configuration commands. The "twists"
and off-the-wall commands change and evolve. It's a _very_ big pond, with
_many_ species of fish.
So you've been on the list, and reading the recommended books, and doing
the Fatkid and commercial lab scenarios. (Odds are that the CCIE group at
Cisco does this as well, so they know the twists and off-the-wall stuff
that's well-documented in the practice material.) You take the CCIE lab
and encounter a twist or off-the-wall that isn't quite like anything you
have encountered in the material you've been pounding into your brain.
Maybe you are able to figure it out, maybe not. Maybe you pass, maybe you
don't.
A few days or a week later, you read Groupstudy, and the *exact* same
unusual twist or off-the-wall command appears. Right down to the same
time interval, or the same router numbers, "You are allowed to do 'X'
on R3 but not 'Y' on R5" for example. Something that has not appeared
here before and you haven't seen in any of the books, and something that
caused you enough grief in the lab that you remember it very well.
And, unlike the typical "How do I keep ISDN from flapping" that gets lots
of answers and comes up periodically here, the response to this *exact*
question that you just saw in the lab but have never seen before here is
complete silence, at least for a while. Silence because most of the
group hasn't seen that question asked before and worked out an answer,
and those who have seen it know just where they've seen it and know that
it would be very improper to respond.
That's the deal. It's dishonest, unethical, and cheating. And it doesn't
work. Because by the time you get the answer and it becomes common
knowledge it will be replaced by a different "gotcha" in the real thing.
I agree that the best response to seeing such a question asked here is
to not comment publicly on the NDA aspects. And, for the record, Chuck
did not comment publicly. A note to CCIE @ cisco with a copy of the
question could be appropriate, or a private warning. I'd prefer a note
to Cisco. They have the resources to see if the person asking just
happened to recently take the lab exam, and which lab, and whether that
question was on it, and take appropriate action. Mentioning NDA publicly
just calls attention to the question being on an actual lab scenario.
This list server is a valuable resource to those who are pursuing this
certification honestly, and many of us who have achieved it also owe thanks
to it and continue to participate out of gratitude. Paul provides it at
what is doubtless considerable expense of his own time and money as a public
service. He can't afford to deal with a flock of angry Cisco lawyers.
If postings here result in such a flock of lawyers, this resource will
cease to exist. Do you want that? I didn't think so.
That's the deal.
-- Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Administration - jay@west.net NetLojix Communications, Inc. - http://www.netlojix.com/ WestNet: Connecting you to the planet. 805 884-6323
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