From: Paul Lalonde (paul.lalonde@telecomcomputer.com)
Date: Tue Jun 10 2003 - 22:23:38 GMT-3
Well, it's finally my turn to post the good news. I am now officially CCIE
#11749 after passing the CCIE R&S lab in RTP.
Although I received my results a week ago, I haven't had time to post my
follow-up to the list until now.
I've only been a casual contributor to GroupStudy over the last year or so.
Most of the time, if I needed to find the answer to a problem I would find
it quickly in the archives. The fact that I've been so quiet on this list is
a testament to the wealth of information found in the archives. There's
probably enough content within the archives alone to serve as ample
preparation for the CCIE! Word to the wise.
Although CCIE preparation techniques have been covered at length in the
past, I'll briefly outline my study regimen for the benefit of aspiring CCIE
candidates.
During my lab preparation, I thoroughly burned the print off the following
titles: Cisco Certification: Bridges, Routers, Switches (Caslow), Routing
TCP/IP I and II (Doyle), Internet Routing Architectures (Halabi), and the
Cisco IOS 12.1 Configuration and Command Guides. Other books were
recommended to me, but I found these to be sufficient.
For actual hands-on work, I first went through the CCIE Practical Studies
labs (which are good for an introduction to complex lab scenarios) and the
Fatkid labs. I also was able to take advantage of some Cisco ASET labs by
contacting my Cisco Channel Account Manager. He got me in touch with inside
SE's who were able to provide some sample lab content.
However, the most important part of my preparation was attending the
CyscoExpert training program in Chicago. Although my grasp of overall lab
topics was pretty good prior to attending, the eight days that I spent with
CyscoExpert proved to be the most effective preparation of all. I worked
through their various Labs and Simulation Labs and was hammered on technical
issues I thought I knew. In my opinion, the CyscoExpert labs were easily
more difficult than the actual CCIE lab and provided a wonderfully
challenging, yet rewarding means of identifying and resolving complex
issues. By the time I arrived in RTP, I was ready for anything.
I know a lot of these "success" e-mails tend to come across as blatant
advertisements or endorsements, but here's my story: without the assistance
of Bahram, Brian, Mitch, Peter, Naren, and Tom from CyscoExpert, I'd be
scheduling my next flight as we speak. I learned of CyscoExpert through a
friend who spoke highly of them, and I owe my CCIE # to them. You guys are
the best!
Anyway, I'm going to wrap it up here. Anyone pursuing the CCIE will need to
have a sound grasp of routing protocols, switching, bridging, ISDN, voice,
etc. Leave no stone unturned and look for the answers yourselves before
posting the questions to GroupStudy. Most of all, practice, practice,
practice. Stick with it, you'll get it!
Thanks to Paul for offering this amazing resource (GroupStudy), and thanks
to everyone for contributing for the benefit of others.
Regards,
Paul Lalonde
CCIE #11749
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Fri Jul 04 2003 - 11:10:56 GMT-3