From: Chuck Church (cchurch@optonline.net)
Date: Thu Nov 28 2002 - 12:18:15 GMT-3
Karl,
Congratulations. To get this far in 7 months is pretty remarkable.
Quite a display of determination.
Chuck Church
CCIE #8776, MCNE, MCSE
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Brusen" <karl@brusen.com>
To: "ccielab" <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 1:19 PM
Subject: Passed R&S in SJ on 11/25 (long)
> After seven long months of intensive study, I passed the R&S exam in San
> Jose on Monday. It was my third attempt. For what it^Rs worth, here is
some
> advice and encouragement for others.
>
> First, some background on me. My situation is probably a bit unique. I
am
> 47, and prior to April of this year, I had zero hands-on experience with
> routers or switches. Although I am an engineer by training,
internetworking
> technology was in its infancy when I received my BSEE in 1981. Over the
> past 13 years I have held a variety of management positions. In late 2000
I
> decided that I wanted to move back to the technical path (my first love)
and
> started my Cisco studies. I achieved CCNP/DP without ever using the
> equipment. This is not something I^Rm proud of -- it^Rs just that I
didn^Rt
> have any equipment available to me at the time.
>
> Earlier this year I built my own lab and started the lab exam prep in
> earnest after passing the written exam in April. In addition to working
> with my own equipment, the local Cisco people provided me with access to
> some of their equipment and I rented some Telnet access.
>
> Again, my situation may be unique, so keep that in mind when considering
my
> advice below.
>
> I do not want to violate the Cisco NDA, so I will not discuss what was on
my
> exam. However, I am free to talk about what I actually did to prepare for
> the exam. It obviously worked for me.
>
> Here are my suggestions:
>
> 1. Books: Caslow/Pavlichenko, Solie, Doyle 1 & 2, Halabi (for BGP),
> "Enhanced IP Services For Cisco Networks" by Lee and the official Cisco
> Press CCNP study guides. I literally wore out Caslow and Solie. It was
> necessary for me to glue both books back together again several times.
> Although Halabi is a must-read for BGP, I found Doyle^Rs coverage of BGP
to
> be more practical and applicable to the exam prep. Reading these books is
> important; however, it is not enough.
> 2. The Cisco Config Guides. If I had it to do over, I would have put more
> focus on them earlier. Perhaps I could have passed on attempt 1 or 2. I
> don^Rt think you have to read all of them, but you need to be very
familiar
> with all the config guides that are relevant to the exam. As you do
> practice labs, try to resist looking things up in your books and use the
> config guides instead. I printed relevant configuration task lists and
put
> them in a binder. When I was done, it was about 4-5 inches thick.
> 3. The Cat 3550 manual is not only a great reference on the 3550, it is
also
> a good review of general IOS features. I read most of it and printed
pages
> with actual configs.
> 4. Practice, practice, practice. I estimate that I have over 500 hours of
> lab practice behind me. Again, others with more experience may not need
> this much.
> 5. Practice getting your base network up fast. You need to be able to do
> this on auto pilot. I got to the point that I could bring up a base
network
> with two Cat 3550s and nine routers (including the two 3550 internal
> routers) in about an hour. I would mix it up with different routing
> protocols, redistribution and authentication. Also, I practiced doing all
> my OSPF configs, including authentication, priorities, virtual links,
> neighbors, network types, etc, all at once. It saves a lot of time.
> 6. I used the NLI (CCBootcamp) labs, which I found to be of great value.
> However, I frequently added additional complexity. In particular, after
the
> change to the 3550s, I would substitute 3550 internal routers for two of
the
> standalone routers. Sometimes I had to swap Ethernet for a serial link to
> do this. I also added Etherchannel and trunking to every lab, and I
> practiced many of the features I read about in the 3550 manual.
> 7. Get a study partner. This is hugely important. It is amazing how much
> more efficiently you can study with two people. Not only can you tap the
> knowledge of your study partner, but it dramatically reduces the amount of
> time you waste spinning your wheels. It is much easier to stay motivated
> when you are working with someone else.
> 8. Get organized. This is a weakness of mine, and I had to really work at
> it. I put my config task lists in a binder with labels. I also made a
> comprehensive list of all the topics and sub-topics I thought might be
> relevant to the exam. As I studied and practiced, I added to the list. I
> also made a ^Sthings to remember^T list.
> 9. Practice typing. I am not the best typist so I bought the Mavis Beacon
> typing program on eBay for $5. It helped a lot. I know that the lab exam
> is not a typing exam, but the reality is that time is the critical
resource.
> If you can type fast and error-free you will have a big advantage.
> 10. When you take the exam, don^Rt get flustered if you encounter
something
> that you are unfamiliar with. I skipped about 12 points worth of such
stuff
> and focused on getting the stuff I was familiar with done quickly. When I
> got to the end, I had about two hours to look things up. I managed to
find
> everything except one minor item. With enough time and good familiarity
> with the config guides, you can find what you need.
>
> Well, those are my suggestions. For me, I plan to start on CCIE security
in
> the next few months.
>
> Karl Brusen
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