From: Gordon Mac Donald (gordonccie@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Apr 08 2005 - 07:32:56 GMT-3
Hi Jelle, I'd like to to congratulate you on your achievement. Pretty long letter, but those kinda statements are the one that keeps many peeps in here excited! A very important thing you stated in the beginning of your mail was that you had been studying for about a year before you went to give it a shot, those are things that a lot of us need to keep remembering: knowledge and experience just don't go overnight.
Anyway, congratulations again and maybe we'll hear from you again;)
Gordon Mac Donald
Jelle Borsje <borsjej@yahoo.dk> wrote:
Hej all,
In the last few days I have seen a few success stories
flying around. I have now sufficiently recovered from
the shock to write my own story about it, mostly for
those who are still in pursuit after their number.
During the learning process I have often had the
feeling, that is was never going to happen, that I was
simply not smart enough to obtain this certification,
that there was too much to know, etc, etc. There are
probably a few of you out there feeling the same way
at times.
I passed the written exam towards the end of 2003 and
after a year of preparing for the lab exam, I finally
went down to Brussels towards the end of October last
year. I didn't feel too bad about the exam after I
came out, but what I did know was that I hardly had
enough time to finish the exam. It was not completely
unexpected, but a huge disappointment anyway, when I
found out that I FAILed. I worked out that I must
have been around the 70% mark... I could hardly
oversee how I to proceed. I had used a lot of my time
and money on this thing, and failing at the end of
november meant that I could first sign up again in
Jan. 2005. This meant, that IPv6, which I knew nothing
about yet, was to be included.
Anyway, I used December to read everything I could
about IPv6, and to find spare equipment at work to put
a lab together. After the holidays I have used every
single evening practicing and configuring routers,
building up to the exam, which was scheduled for
1/4/2005. Some people a talked to thought it was a bit
over the top to choose such an exam on April Fools
Day, but, I do well on such days (Friday the 13th as
well). This time, I was prepared much better, and had
a battle plan, which reminds me much of Jongsoo's,
posted a few days ago. I had worked out for myself
when I had to be finished with various topics at
various stages into the exam. I was able to stick to
it... and even managed to perform better than I
planned. Around lunch time I had completed everything
up and until BGP (including ISDN) and when we were
called in for lunch, I was almost halfway the security
section. During lunch, I was already working on the
next section in my mind, and was not very social
(there is a time and place for everything, I guess). I
managed to completed the remainer of the exam
(skipping only 4 questions) in the next 1.5 hours
after lunch. This meant, that I had 2 hours remaining
to test, verify and improve on the configurations, as
well as look at the questions I skipped (worth about 8
points). I spent an hour testing everything I could.
Universal connectivity, NAT, the funny security
features, QOS and maybe more. HOW DIFFERENT from last
time, when I just managed to get the exam finished in
time, without testing!!! The last hour I spent working
on the 4 questions I skipped. I managed to come up
with a solution for 2 of them, increasing my maximum
score by 6 points to 96. The last 4 points I had to
abandon. It was a good run, felt good about what I had
made, but felt unsecure after last times failure and
the fact that I was not able to solve everything. The
results were on the Cisco website 3 hours later!!! A
big fat PASS showed, along with my new CCIE number. I
was, and still am, on top of the world. Shocked, happy
and soooo relieved that I dont have to make the
journey again. It was the happy ending of 1.5 years of
on and off preparation.
I'm very greatful to the people that have supported
and helped me. Those people include my girlfriend, who
has supported me through thick and thin. She never
complained in the last months, when I was spending all
my time at the computer, or with my nose in Cisco
books. I'd like to thank all the people on both this
forum as well as the NetMasterClass forums. Lastly,
I'm very grateful to the staff of NetMasterClass, of
which I have used a lot of the materials, including
the DOiT workbook (with IPv6 and 12.2T features) and
the associated AnswerKeys with the solutions. It has
absolutely helped me to get ready for the exam, and
get used to the type of questions I could expect. In
the 2 weeks before the exam, I completed a lot of
CHECKiT exams. It has completely prepared me for the 8
hour exam experience. I am aware that the performance
has to be delivered by oneself (no one can do the exam
for you), but they have definately given me the
structure and guidance I needed to get to this result.
I will probably stay on my pink cloud for a bit
longer, and will always think back fondly about this
experience and the helpful and kind people I met along
the way.
Thanks again! And all of you still in pursuit... keep
up the good work. It can be done!!
Greetz
Jelle Borsje
CCIE #14524
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