From: Richard Wheat (rwheat@xxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Wed Mar 27 2002 - 13:48:08 GMT-3
Hi there,
Just a short note to say thankyou to everyone. I have not participated
much
over the last few months - responded to questions here and there as I
felt
I could help, but following all the problems raised and the answers
offered
has been of immeasurable value.
I passed my lab on Monday - third attempt. I find it interesting that
some
people seem to breeze through the lab attempts, while others find them
a real trial. It must be influenced to a large extent by
circumstances. I am
one of the latter and found that my stress level during the lab on
Monday
was off the scale - not because of technical issues but because of what
was riding on the attempt. The next day waiting for the result was just
awful - by Tuesday morning I had convinced myself I had failed again
after counting all the things that I may have missed. It's going to take
several days to get used to the idea that I have a number :-)
My major problem technically has always been in understanding the
intentions behind the questions asked. The lab proctor in Sydney -
Henry,
was very helpful - providing much needed clarification on some
questions.
I won't repeat all the usual - my preparation for this last attempt was
very
much the same as many others have already outlined.
One thing I will offer as advice (to the less experienced) - if you find
that
a practice lab question does not make sense, and maybe the solution
offered makes less sense, most of the time the problem will be your
level
of understanding. I have been very frustrated at times with practice
lab
questions - especially ones with with typos. However, after making the
effort to find out everything about a particular
technology/configuration
that there is to find out - the intention of the question usually
becomes
clear - as does the solution. This approach is essential to get the most
out
of practice labs. Don't get frustrated - give yourself time to
understand
the technology. Once you have learned enough you will be able to spot
the typo type issues in practice labs (and text books) quite quickly.
And ... one other thing I will offer - as others have also indicated - I
found the one day format exam is as much about time management as
it is about technical detail. I planned to finish all questions at
least 2.5
hours before time - I didn't achieve it, but constantly watching the
time I was taking gave me the 1.5 hours I needed at the end to recheck
my work. As a plan I used 3 minutes per point + 1/2 hour to read the
whole exam through to start. This seemed to work and I was able to
go through the whole exam again and fix a few missed issues. One
further point - I had to invoke damage control half-way through when
one section caused me some grief and blew my time out badly. I was
getting to the thrashing stage (where you can't decide what to do and
keep running back over the same things - while your anxiety level
steadily rises towards the panic level threshold) when I made the
decision to leave it and carry on (an important strategy). A couple of
questions later it came back to haunt me - but in the meantime I had
the time to clarify my thinking on the issue, lower the anxiety level,
- and I was able to go back and implement a different approach -
which worked (phew!). This was not an overly complicated technical
issue - just one which needed clear thought in a short space of time.
Anyway, sorry I lied at the beginning (just a short note) - that's
enough
waffle.
Thankyou all again.
Richard.
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