From: Hoogen (hoogen82@gmail.com)
Date: Sat Jun 10 2006 - 14:26:34 ART
Now that is something. Congratulations. I took a lot more time to finish the
lab.
Cheers
Hoogen CCIE#14731
On 6/10/06, Petr Lapukhov <petrsoft@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello group,
>
> As I quickly mentioned, I passed my lab on June 8 in Brussels :)
>
> It was much easier than I thought it would be. Actually, it took
> me only 3 hours to complete the lab...
>
> But now, how many hours did it take for me to prepare? :)
>
> To be honest, I started my lab studies on spring 2005. At that
> moment, I already had about 5 year of networking experience,
> and held CCNP/CCDP certificates. My first "wave" of studies
> begun with NMC's DoIT. Back in days, I planned to take lab on
> Fall 2005, but that plan did not work ;)
>
> After four months of intensive studies, I decided to cancel my lab,
> due to some personal problems :) So I took a break, and shifted my
> target to Spring-Summer 2006. At that moment I had a much better
> understanding of core R&S topics.
>
> At the same time, I realized how many things I were missing :)
> DoIT's approach is a kind of "kickstart", that makes someone feel
> frustration, facing complex topics from very beginning :)
>
> So then I spet Sep-Dec 2005 working on some CQS exams,
> and other regular things, thus having a four months break of
> my CCIE studies.
>
> My second "wave" begun on Jan 2006, with DoIT2. I scheduled my
> lab on Jun 8, and reworked every lab from DoIT2. That time I got a
> much better feeling. Tasks, that seemed to be complex, become
> much more familiar and easy to understand. I also made a habit to
> work with DocCD on regular basis, memorizing it's structure and
> building navigation skills.
>
> At that time I got very solid undestanding of core topics, and felt more
> cofident working with 12.2T/12.3T features. DoIT is especially
> focused on all that new features :)
>
> Up to April 2006, I finished with DoIT2, and started to look for
> some different learning sources.
>
> Fortunately and specially thanks to Brian Dennis, I got a chance to
> work with IE's products. That really changed my vision of "lab reality".
>
> First, IE's approach is incremental and well structured, not single-shot.
> That makes it very attractive for beginners. Secondly, IE has lab
> structure
> really close to real thing, thanks to backone routers. And finally, tasks
> formatting and logic is quite different from DoIT's, and score points
> system
>
> is really useful.
>
> (BTW, both DoIT and IE labs are 3-5 times more harder than real thing :)
>
> Unfortunately, I had no time to begin from the "bottom" again, so
> I decided to spend my time just on IEWB-RS Vol1/Vol2. That was
> really nice learning experience, which helped me to close undestanding
> gaps, as well as to get even more hands-on experience. I finished
> my preparations with IE's Core Labs, to cement my fundametal skills.
>
> After that, I decided to take CheckIT lab, pursuing few goals. First,
> I wanted to test my latest "IE experince" with "independent" tool.
> Secondly, I wanted to know, how much of "NMC-like" stuff I still
> remember :) And finally, CheckIT has automatic grading system
> which would like to see in action. Of course, it was also important
> to test my time-management skills, as well as to feel "pressure".
>
> I passed CheckIT Lab13 with score 95, and finally felt myself
> confident. CheckIT lab was really hard, and it was a real fun to
> pass it :)
>
> Okay, then I had that last week before my travel date :)
> I spent it on IE's Core and Vol 1 labs, as well as DocCD practice.
>
> The rest part is simple. I came to Brussels, and had two days of
> beer-sessions with my friends ;)) That Belgian beer really helped
> me to relax :) Okay, not so fun part was that I also got some sunburns,
> wandering over water-channels :)
>
> I came to lab on June 8 completely relaxed (almost careless :)
> We had Tom from RTP as our proctor, and I must say he was
> very helpful, answering my numerous questions. Our lab
> begun at 8:00, and I was finished at 11:00. Remaining time I spent
> on coffee drinking, as well as doing countless verifications :) I
> hope I did'nt piss that guy left to me, hitting my keyboard
> at really insane rate :)
>
> I got my result next morning, and should say that I had almost
> no worry if I will pass or not. I dont know why, maybe I already
> got too much impressions from my visit :)
>
> To summarize my experience, I can say a few things. First, don't
> be nervous or afraid of real lab. It is simple. If you worked hard
> with workbooks, and really studied in well planned manner, you
> should have no problems at all. Just don't hurry too much to
> get your number :)
>
> Secondly, for me, the most funny part were preparations itself.
> I really enjoyed working through numerous tasks (i guess my wife
> did not :) And the most fun part was communications with really
> interesting people over this list :) Thank you guys, it's the best
> thing I got from my studies - a lot of people, whom, hopefully,
> I could help a little bit.
>
> I guess it's time for me to take some rest, and go farther that
> way, together with all you folks around :)
>
> HTH
> Petr
>
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