From: Pierre-Alex (paguanel@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Jun 10 2006 - 14:48:38 ART
Congratulations again Petr.
Just curious, did you actually follow your plan (the thourough planning
stage, followed by questioning the proctor, then implementation)
or did do just went ahead from your head and did it?
Pierre-Alex
----- Original Message -----
From: "Petr Lapukhov" <petrsoft@gmail.com>
To: "Cisco certification" <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 7:07 PM
Subject: my lab experience
> 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
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
> Subscription information may be found at:
> http://www.groupstudy.com/list/CCIELab.html
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.8.3/360 - Release Date: 6/9/2006
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Jul 01 2006 - 07:57:32 ART