From: Leo Seto (lseto@us.cnlink.net)
Date: Tue May 20 2003 - 14:06:06 GMT-3
Last week I said I would pass my lab on Monday and I did -- #11664, but not
without a lot of stress and worry. I didn't get a "Congratulations" email
that people keep talking about, but when I logged on to the Cisco website it
said I had passed.
I took the lab in San Jose yesterday and it was completely different from my
previous lab attempt. I used maybe the last 30 minutes checking over
everything and thought I did a decent job of meeting the requirements, but
in the car on the way to the airport I realized that I had forgotten to do
one 3 point requirement entirely!! Ooops. Max 97 pts -- 17 pt cushion.
Later throughout the day I kept thinking about a few other requirements and
how my config didn't meet them. Max 90 pts -- 10 pt cushion (gulp!).
Luckily, it held.
My mind wasn't 100% yesterday because of a bad headache and allergies. (If
you see an Asian guy on an airplane who is sneezing, don't look at him as if
he has SARS :), it could be he just took an 8 hour lab exam and didn't sleep
well the night before).
The proctor Maurelio (sp?) was professional and courteous. He let us know
that in the past candidates had done some things which had "broken" the lab
for everyone (change an IP to someone else's termserver? I'm not sure what
exactly).
Basically, what helped me pass was failing. It made me read the config
guides slowly and thoroughly. If you don't get it, you MUST lab it up and
see for yourself. One piece of advice I would offer is to use the 12.1
guides, not the 12.2. When they change to 12.2 in November then you should
be studying 12.2. It may save you a few points. The second piece of advice
is never trust someone's solution on groupstudy or any such places -- lab it
up yourself and "nuke the site from orbit," it's the only way to be sure.
I'm wondering who I should be thanking now. First I thank myself for going
through with this, (har har). It has been 1 year of off and on studying
while working a bit with the technologies. Of course the stuff you lab up
is 10x more complicated than the stuff you implement in the field. Without
sheer will and determination and $10,000 worth of equipment, I don't think I
could have done it because my girlfriend, family, or boss sure can't help me
with things like OSPF authentication. There's a huge disconnect between
people who do this Cisco stuff and people who don't, or maybe it is just my
imagination. There were times when I didn't sleep enough and I would hear
the whirling sound of routers in my head for the whole day. I finally can
unplug most of it now and sell it on ebay. Being able to finally sell the
equipment was a huge motivation.
Lastly, what Donny says in the email below couldn't be more true. Failing
may be a blow to one's confidence, but it forces you to be better if you
choose to continue. I always told myself that when I made it to the "other
side of the fence" I wouldn't forget about what got me there and also the
quality intelligent people who haven't crossed it yet. There are some
people out there who are know this stuff better than half the CCIEs out
there but might have failed on their last attempt. It happens, since some
of it is luck and you could get tested on obscure stuff or the lab could
break because some newbie took your ATM or term server IP address, or you
could get the proctor from hell, you get the picture. Heck, the whole DOC
CD situation was confusing. Which one to study? Which one to use as _the_
authoritative resource? Will it match the one in the lab, etc. Bottom
line, if you know the stuff well enough you can pass even with the +0
through -5 pts tolerance for the unexpected factors.
As for me, it's time to move on to something else, like getting a law
degree. It probably will prove to be easier than getting a CCIE. (At least
for me personally)
Leo Seto
CCIE #11664
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On
> Behalf Of Donny MATEO
> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 10:16 PM
> To: Roger McNeace
> Cc: ccielab@groupstudy.com
> Subject: RE: Not a good day
>
>
> While I agree failing the CCIE exam is sort of a black hole
> of confidence specially when you have 3-4 hours double
> checking everything. I learn one thing that is probaly not
> quite obvious. Is that by failing, I study harder, I learn
> deeper, I read the doc
> words by words, I learn to read and understand question more
> carefully and I learn to be a very details and ask the
> proctor to clarify any doubts I have until there is none or
> its close to 0%.
> It hurts when you failed an exam, but sometimes it's a good
> thing. When you lost your confidence you tends to be more
> open to alternative and set aside your ego (i'm right the
> router and the whole world are wrong attitude) and that
> enables you to see
> things in different perspective and learn new thing.
> The point I'm trying to make is failing the exam has earn me
> great rewards, the ability to understand question, the
> details work, the asking atitude (instead of well I think
> this should be like this attitude) and a deeper understanding
> of the knowledge
> required not only by the lab test by also in real life.
> Specially since I don't have any opportunity to join any of
> those bootcamp classes, limited equipment (I dig my own
> pocket which is not much considering I work in an end user
> company in singapore and
> under paid!) and time.
> So, don't give in, you still have a chance if you do it, you
> won't have a chance if you quit. Even 1/1000.000 is still a
> possibility, which is better than 0.
>
> Donny
> CCIE #11189
>
>
>
>
>
> Roger McNeace
>
>
> <rmcneace@terrema To:
> "'Kim, Wol - BLS CTR'" <Kim.Wol@bls.gov>, "'Joe Carr'"
> <Joe.Carr@oati.net>,
> rk.com>
> ccielab@groupstudy.com
>
> Sent by: cc:
>
>
> nobody@groupstudy Subject: RE:
> Not a good day
>
> .com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 05/20/2003 01:51
>
>
> AM
>
>
> Please respond to
>
>
> Roger McNeace
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I feel your pain. I failed a couple a weeks ago. I finished
> the test with 3
> hours to spare, but I still failed. I also got low scores in
> areas where I
> thought I did well. I believe you are right with the fact that the
> questions need to read very carefully. I may have lost alot
> of points by not
> accurately interperting the hidden meaning of the question.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kim, Wol - BLS CTR [mailto:Kim.Wol@bls.gov]
> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 12:06 PM
> To: 'Joe Carr'; ccielab@groupstudy.com
> Subject: RE: Not a good day
>
>
> I also failed the lab yesterday in RTP and knew I missed a
> few questions,
> which made me think I might pass it. But they gave me scores
> the way below
> I expected even if failed. For example, on IGP section, most of the
> questions were familiar with me and had all connectivities
> for all routers
> but got below 50%...Not even close to... I didn't see any trick
> requirements and I configured without any major problem. It
> could be a
> problem with myself to interpret the questions but at least
> not that below
> scores.
> Now I start wondering if I will ever pass this test. I
> don't know if I
> have to keep going because I know the next preparation for
> the lab will be
> pretty much same as before.
> I also found backbone problem after wasting of quite long time.
> Seems like you have to be very precise to interpret the
> questions to pass
> the test, but I still don't see why I got that such a low scores.....
>
> Wol
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joe Carr [mailto:Joe.Carr@oati.net]
> Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 9:48 AM
> To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
> Subject: Not a good day
>
>
> Well, I took the lab in RTP yesterday and I got the same test as I had
> before. In some sections where I got 100% before I answered
> the same and did
> not get the full points! Also I had asked the proctor about a
> cretin section
> that was not working properly and he did not help until I
> asked him for the
> 3rd time and on another section the second time I asked him
> he gave me a
> different answer. It turned out that the backbone was messed
> up! What the
> %@#!. I have lost a little respect for the CCIE
> certification. I guess my
> question is should I pay the $250 to have them review my
> test? How long does
> that take?
>
> Joe
>
>
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Mon Jun 02 2003 - 15:13:45 GMT-3