From: John Neiberger (neiby@xxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Wed Mar 27 2002 - 20:54:10 GMT-3
Congratulations! Way to go!! Now go take a
much needed relaxing vacation. :-)
Regards,
John
---- On Thu, 28 Mar 2002, Richard Wheat
(rwheat@ami.com.au) wrote:
> 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.
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Thu Jun 13 2002 - 10:57:24 GMT-3