From: Kemal YILDIRIM (kemalhy@gmail.com)
Date: Sat Jun 10 2006 - 15:05:16 ART
Congratulations Petr,
You were always so helpful, thank you very much.
It was obvious that you would pass the LAB.
I wish you every success in your life!
Regards,
Kemal
Objects are what is unalterable and subsistent;
their configuration is what is changing and unstable.
So, you need PRACTICE, PRACTICE, AND MORE PRACTICE...
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of Petr
Lapukhov
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 8:08 PM
To: Cisco certification
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
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