From: Jason Sinclair (jason@jasonandchell.net)
Date: Thu Apr 07 2005 - 01:01:00 GMT-3
Sundar,
Congratulations - your email gave me a feeling of dij` vu about my own
experience a while ago.
Cheers,
Jason CCIE #9100
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of Lee
Gillespie
Sent: Thursday, 7 April 2005 1:34 PM
To: Sundar Palaniappan; ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: Re: CCIE # 14532
Congrats!
--- Sundar Palaniappan <sundarp@gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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