From: Sundar Palaniappan (sundarp@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Apr 07 2005 - 00:13:01 GMT-3
Guys,
After having read and been inspired by so many success posts on
groupstudy I finally get to write my own success story here. Yes, I
passed my CCIE R&S Lab in RTP on April 4, 2005.
Excuse me for the email being too long. I had enjoyed reading all the
long success stories and decided back then when I pass I was going to
write an elaborate email. First of all I want to dedicate this to my
beloved late sister Sornam Palaniappan and to my dear mother
Thirulogam, loving wife Uma, precious son Karthik and all my family
members. I couldn't have achieved this without the sacrifices made by
wife and son. I was like a guest at home during the last few months.
I attempted the lab on March 4th and missed it by 10 points.
Initially, I thought Cisco errored in grading my lab, thought about
challenging and eventually decided not to do so. Later, I was able to
identify almost all the mistakes I had made. The very next day I
scheduled the lab for the earliest day I could take which was April
4th. I decided to focus only on my weak areas QOS, multicasting and
ISDN during the last 1 month. I used every available resource that's
out there to get a better handle of these topics. Another thing I
learnt was I assumed certain things in the lab which I shouldn't have
and clarified with the proctor and I was determined to do that this
time. I felt I was ready but was not over confident this time.
On Sunday, day before the exam, I reviewed 45 pages of notes I had
taken during my entire prep. During my last attempt I couldn't focus
real well 2 3 hours into the exam because I must have ran out of
gas, I guess. On my wife's advice to have a good breakfast, this time
I stopped by MC Donalds and had a deluxe breakfast it probably had
3000 calories in it who cares, just for one day, right?
All the racks were taken. Exam started at 7:15 and ended at 3:35 with
a 20 min lunch break. Howard and Settle were the proctors and both of
them were helpful. I would have clarified the questions with them
atleast 10 times. Layer 2 portion - Switching, ATM, Frame-relay - went
smooth. IGP went smooth too except for a fine tuning 3-pointer which I
couldn't get it to work. Then came the most dreaded section, ISDN.
Here we go, started off with a basic ISDN problem spent 15 minutes on
it running debugs and trying to get it work. I told myself I wasn't
going to spend more than another 10 minutes on this as it was getting
close to lunch time. I was quickly able to figure out the problem,
identified the backup solution that meets the criteria and applied it
in less than 10 minutes. Ran the ping script and every network
responded with a !!!!! Ran the script again with ISDN link up and
could ping everywhere. I felt good at this point but was not
overconfident.
Got BGP done quickly after lunch break. I spent atleast 21/2 hours on
all the other sections as I didn't want too take any chances. During
the last = hour checked the work again and tried to get a couple of
things I had missed to work and didn't succeed as time was up. I felt
I must have not missed more than 10 13 points. I left the lab
thinking I passed but there was a remote chance that I missed out
narrowly. I would have challenged if that had happened. Anyway, got on
the flight back home to Philadelphia, I had a bad headache and took 2
8-hour tylenols. Checked the email after I got home and there was all
the groupstudy email nothing from Cisco. Tylenol effect must have ran
out I guess, I woke up at 4am and was still having headache checked
the email and nothing yet. I was surfing for the next hour and went
back to check my email at 5am and there you go the email with the
subject "CCIE LAB SCORE REPORT" was there. I had my wife check the
result for me and her face turned bright and told me "You did it". My
CCIE journey has ended on happy note for now. I don't have any
intentions of pursuing my Security certification immediately but that
might change later due to the fast changing tech world.
Here's a list of resources I used.
1. TCP/IP by Jeff Doyle Vol1. & 2 Great Books
2. BGP Halabi Excellent
3. CCIE practical studies by Karl Solie Good
4. Routers and switches by Bruce Caslow - Good
5. Internetwork Expert Excellent.
6. Cyscoexpert boot camp taught me how to check my work, how to
interpret the questions and filled in some gaps and those really
helped.
7. Groupstudy.com Excellent resource. Believe it or not, during the
course of the lab I was trying to figure out something and couldn't
find anything on the doc cd. Something that was discussed on
groupstudy may have helped. Thanks Paul Borghese! I have used
groupstudy to benefit and I plan to be around and contribute.
I wish all the best for those who are in pursuit of CCIE!
Thanks,
Sundar Palaniappan
CCIE # 14532
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