From: iwan (iwan@i-lusion.nl)
Date: Tue Mar 23 2004 - 10:15:41 GMT-3
Hi Doug,
Too bad you failed man....
When is your 3rd attempt?
And where do you live?
Do you have MSN/YAHOO or ICQ?
Thanks
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
Calton, Doug
Sent: dinsdag 23 maart 2004 13:03
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: Failed 2nd Attempt
Well, the first time I took this, I knew I wasn't ready. This go
around, I thought MAYBE I could make it, but knew it was a bit dicey.
Frankly, if I wasn't approaching my deadline (I was side-tracked by work
off site for several months and lost momentum), I would have deferred
another month or two - I am just not "crisp" with it all yet.
Anyway, a few thoughts on my experience:
* Generally, compared to some of the practice labs, I feel that
both labs I tried SHOULD be fairly easy. I was very intent on landmines
and gotchas, and in some sense, the lab seemed to go out of its way to
avoid them. Based on my percentages, I didn't miss anything obvious
like that - BGP, IGP and switching were all high.
* Like last time there are a LOT of things you just can't test
that you have to configure. That means you HAVE to know how to
implement it correctly and perfectly - if you are not solid on how to
set something up, there is just too much chance (for me at least) that
you will forget a small but critical point, and miss the entire section.
I suspect that this happened to me in at least two sections, and that
loses you 6 or so points right there.
* I thought the wording of this test was poorer than my last test.
At least in two instances, I knew they were setting me up for something,
but were not being very good about scoping or explaining it. In one
case, I was pretty sure what they were looking for, but just could not
clarify it properly. Also could not really ask an appropriate question
of the proctor on this, although I tried.
* There is a random occurance of esoteric things that I just don't
and can't know, and cannot find anywhere on the CD. IMO, those points
are a crap shoot. E.g., I may understand perfectly how to set up
notifications for monitored aspects of a router, but cannot know or find
exact parameters to configure for those aspects, such as MIB details or
scalars. Those points, I just made a stab at coding up and hope for a
miracle. I would appreciate anyone recommending alternate strategies
here. I mean, I know we have to memorize DLSW port numbers, SAP filters
and a couple of other facts just not on the DOC CD. But how could I
possibly memorize the entire ASN structure for a specific router or what
70 degrees would translate to (just examples here, folks)? Maybe I
could sort of test this stuff out, but it is HARD to think of all of
this during the test - maybe that is the difference between passing and
almost passing, eh?
* There are also a number of fluff stuff questions in there that I
am beginning to feel a bit like MSCE-type brain-dump traps. I'm not
sure what I think of these, but I wrote a negative about them on my
feedback response. Again, not a real example, but I cannot imagine EVER
using menu stuff on a router in real life these days, and only came
across it in a simulated lab. This is not real comprehension of the
meat technologies, just an artifact/freebie of the IOS. I don't really
care if I EVER know all of these little things.
* There are a few technologies exercised heavily in the boot camps
and simulated labs that I just haven't seen much of in either attempt.
I am beginning to think these are phasing out or moving to other tests.
I wouldn't recommend NOT studying these, but in retrospect I do wish I
had concentrated more on the bigger picture and less on the minor
details of these technologies.
One side story for my day that probably defined the day for me overall:
Early on, I had some debugs streaming on my screen as I typed in copy
run star
And of course, it ended up coming out as "copy runs tar". Anyway, when
I answered the prompt through the blur of debugs, I didn't recognise
that it was asking me if it should erase flash prior to saving "tar",
and not what to name the running config. Had to go to the proctor with
hat in hand to ask him to restore my flash. Maybe I'm just fighting a
losing battle here, eh?
Doug Calton
Program Manager
AN/TSP
Tel: 513-774-8333
FAX: 978-625-1026
Mobile: 513-253-8484
doug.calton@getronics.com
www.getronics.com/us
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