From: ccie2be (ccie2be@nyc.rr.com)
Date: Thu Oct 07 2004 - 09:14:09 GMT-3
Hey Steve, Patrick, et al,
I couldn't agree more. Although many of the practice lab workbooks
available on the market are pretty good ( although personally, I find the IE
workbook the best by far), the one problem with all these workbooks is that
topic wise these practice labs are all over the map.
What I believe the ccie prep market still needs but is still missing are
workbooks that are technology focused.
How great would it be, for example, if someone wanted to practice BGP to
make sure they knew it cold and could purchase a BGP practice labs workbook
with 20 + labs just focused on BGP or Redsitribution or IGP's or Multicast
or Frame Relay or ATM?
In a perfect world, I imagine such a workbook on BGP, for example, would
include initial config's for all the routers and switches so that all the
layer 2 and IGP config's are already done. So, someone using such a
workbook would just copy and paste those initial config's onto each device
and then focus on BGP. I also imagine that included with such a workbook
would a be Solution Guide (like IE provides for it's practice labs at no
extra charge) which would explain how to think about and approach the tasks
in the lab and include the output of various show and debug commands that
verify the correctness of the solution.
I think that if such workbooks were already available I would have passed
the lab on one of my earlier attempts. Maybe it's just me and my style of
learning but from my own experience, I've found that I don't retain enough
knowledge on a given topic until I've focuesed on it and practiced it
extensively and exclusively of other topics.
For example, when I first began preparing for the lab I knew I would have to
know Multicast. So, I read the Beau Williamson book cover to cover. I also
took notes on what I read and I reviewed much of the documentation on CCO
covering Multicast. But, what I didn't do, unfortunately, was then
immediate apply my knowledge in practice labs. Then, after studying
Multicast, I moved on to another topic and then another topic and so on.
Then, when I started doing practice labs, I discovered that I couldn't
remember enough of the details of Multicast to do those topics well in the
practice labs. And, I had to go back and do a fairly lenghty review of the
material. The reason being because I hadn't made permenent my knowledge of
multicast at the time I had studied it. For me, this was the wrong way to
go about it.
So, to summarize, for me what I've discovered is that to really know the
material well enough to pass the lab, I need to follow a structured format
like this.
Learn, review, and practice each topic on it's own starting with the layer 2
topics and moving on the layer 3, BGP and then the non-core topics like QoS,
Voip, snmp, etc.
Then, after doing this, go onto doing 8 hour practice labs which cover all
the topics.
Hopefully, maybe some of the ccie prep vendors have already thought of this
and are at this very moment developing workbooks of the kind I've just
described. But, if not, there's nothing that prevents anyone from going
through any of the existing workbooks on a topic by topic basis on their
own.
Just my 2 cents,
Tim
----- Original Message -----
From: <steve.skinner@uk.pwc.com>
To: "Patrick Greene" <PatrickG@intellinet.com>
Cc: <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 5:29 AM
Subject: Re: Approach to studying for the lab...
> i find the best way to study is like this
>
> 1.go throught the labs and make a note of your weak area`s
> 2.break up all the major technoloigies your weak in into groups and study
> them seperatly
> 3.Re review the labs and make sure you can do them COLD
>
> before that i broke up each topic and study 1 topic a week ....
>
> i found after my first attempt i was going through labs ...trying to learn
> all the topic`s in that lab i was weak in ....and just got confused ..
>
> HTH
>
> Stephen Skinner
> Senior Network Analyst
> PricewaterHouse Coopers LLP
> Tel +44 02075834182
> Fax +44 02078048235
>
>
>
>
>
> "Patrick Greene"
> <PatrickG@intelline To:
<ccielab@groupstudy.com>
> t.com> cc:
> Sent by: Subject: Approach to
studying for the lab...
> nobody@groupstudy.c
> om
>
>
> 06/10/2004 20:54
>
>
>
> Please respond to
> "Patrick Greene"
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I am having a hard time determining what would be the best way to study
> for the RS Lab. I have the Cisco Lab Prep book and IP Expert. Is it
> better to review all the labs and their solutions or just start with the
> labs and research as you run into areas you are weak. Should you keep
> going through all the labs or should you work on weak points between
> each lab? I have a home lab which I access when on the road working
> (5-days a week) so getting rack time is not the problem.
>
>
>
> Any advise is appreciated.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Patrick
>
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