From: Andrew Bruce Caslow (abcaslow@netmasterclass.net)
Date: Thu Nov 16 2006 - 23:35:52 ART
Hi Dennis,
Here are some links related to end-to-end Lab testing taking strategies and
tactics:
The first was posted by Jongsoo Kim last April
http://www.groupstudy.com/archives/ccielab/200504/msg00126.html
The second is a detailed response that I made to Jongsoo's checklist at the
same time.
http://www.groupstudy.com/archives/ccielab/200504/msg00129.html
As we discussed on the phone, it is essential to have many Checklists and
procedures formulated in your mind on the day of the CCIE lab. You want to
have several technology specific checklists and multiple test taking
strategy checklists.
Some of the test taking strategy checklists include:
(1) An end-to-end test strategy checklist like the ones described in the
links above.
(2) A general practices checklist
(3) A pre-exam checklist
(4) Even a desperation checklist to help you in difficult situations
All of these are described in some manner in the NMC Technical Library.
Furthermore, you want to have multiple technology specific checklists that,
at the very least, outline an "opening move" strategy for configuring a
specific technology. At the very least, you need such checklists for the
following technologies and topics:
1. Frame-Relay
(Note: check out our new Class-on-Demand Frame-Relay module:
http://www.netmasterclass.com/site/cod_fr.php )
2. Catalyst 3550/3560
3. Point-to-Point Interfaces
4. Address Assignment Techniques including DHCP
5. RIPv2
6. EIGRP
7. OSPF
8. Redistribution
9. BGP
10. Multicast
11. QoS
12. Security
13. IPv6
14. NAT
15. All First-Hop Routing Protocols (HSRP/VRRP/GLBP/IRDP)
It cannot be over-emphasized, you need to have an "opening moves" strategy
for the above listed 15 topics. These topics very likely will comprise at
least 65% over your CCIE lab. Many of these topics - such as BGP, Multicast
and QoS - are vast. You need to formulate multiple checklists/and
configuration procedures for sub-topics within each of these larger topics.
We attempt to help get students started with formulating these technology
specific Checklists with our Decision Diagrams in the NMC Tech Library.
Oh, it must be also noted that you need to formulate similar "opening moves"
strategies and checklists for the many IP Services as well. However, I will
say this: Focus on mastering the 15 topics listed above first. It has been
our experience that these are the dominant topics in the Routing and
Switching CCIE lab. With the exception of IPv6, they are also the dominant
technologies in enterprise internetworks as well.
Over the last few years, we at NetMasterClass have worked hard to develop
one particular product on top of a robust web platform. That product is the
CHECKiT assessment product. We currently have 10 in inventory. When a
customer performs multiple CHECKiTs, we record their results in the
customer's personal web-portal. From the multiple CHECKiTs we trend their
results. It is very cool sutff. You should check it out at our web-site (No
pun intended.) However from a perspective of trending, we go one step
farther, we collect data from all CHECKiT users that go on to pass the
actual CCIE lab. From the data of this statistical "group of special CHECKiT
users", we compare all other CHECKiT users trend to provide a probability of
passing the actual lab. This really helps in answering one of the ultimate
CCIE preparation questions, "Am I ready for the lab?"
Why do I bring this up? Since we have lots of people in the CHECKiT program,
we are able to see what candidates are successful and what candidates are
not. We oftentimes perform an exit interview on the successful candidates
and many of them attribute their success to formulating the multiple
checklists I have mentioned earlier. Many of them say that they can
visualize the operation of a technology, they can "become the technology"
(this is called the "be the packet approach"); others say they can mentally
walk through the configuration process.
I suggest you pursue this same objective for, at the very least, the
technologies I listed above. At NMC, we are very big on ongoing assessments.
Central to this is our CHECKiT technology and our web-portal. Our mantra is
the "you don't need one assessment, you need multiple, ongoing trended
assessments". This is what we try to supply with bundles of CHECKiT labs.
However, I will also say this, while ongoing assessment is key to the
success of many a CCIE candidate, the most important ongoing assessment, is
one that does not cost a penny, and you don't need a CCIE preparation
company to perform it- it is a "self-assessment". In fact, you need to
perform multiple self-assessments on the many technologies that you may
encounter in the lab. Central to this self-assessment is the construction of
checklists, decision trees, configuration algorithms, configuration
procedures - whatever you want to call them. At the very least, these
checklists-procedures should clearly frame all of the necessary and
invariant steps of configuring a specific technology. You should be able to
literally see and feel these steps. Furthermore, you should be aware of each
and every configuration option at each step ("Know thy Options/Spot the
Issues"). Common general options found in these procedures are: "static"
versus "dynamic" configuration options; of the dynamic options "Cisco
proprietary" versus "open standard" configuration options. You should also
have very well defined procedures for both configuring a technology and
verifying the stablility of the configuration. To borrow my collegue Bob
Sinclair's words, "You must constantly configure and verify at each step,
configure and verify; verify and configure". Bob is very, very big on this.
Once you have formulated these technology specific checklists and
procedures, you must not be hesitant to apply them. Apply them to all lab
workbooks such as the IE workbook or the NMC DOiT workbook. These two
workbooks have the reputation of having hard and challenging labs with
highly detailed answer keys. If your technology specific checklist is worth
a damn, it should at the very least help penetrate the targeted section of
even the most challenging lab workbook.
To quote, my collegue and Mr. CHECKiT himself, Val Pavilchenko, these types
of labs are designed to "shake the foundations of your knowledge". Val, is
very, very good at this. Val is very good at shaking people's CCIE level
knowledge. Try taking one of his CHECKiT labs! OUCH!!! : ) Again, if your
checklists are worth anything they should be able to allow you to penetrate
anyone's most challenging CCIE level labs, whether they are from IE, NMC or
the actual CCIE lab itself.
In many respects, the CCIE lab is all about your knowledge and analysis
skills versus anybody's lab. Or restated, your knowledge and analysis skills
clearly formulated in a collection of "checklists and procedures" versus
anybody's lab.
I hope this posting is of help. I hope it is not too long and boring. I just
want to say that you don't want to create one checklist to prepare for the
CCIE lab, you want to create many. This should also help to modularize your
approach. If you, or anybody else wants to discuss how one can modularize
their CCIE preparation approach, I would be glad to discuss this further.
At NMC, we have many ways of doing this: we commonly call two such
approaches the "horizontal" approach and the "vertical" approach.
More info on these approaches can be found at:
http://www.netmasterclass.com/site/i_approaches.php
Related to a "horizontal approach", a new product we have just introduced is
our Frame-Relay class-on-demand product.
http://netmasterclass.com/site/cod_fr.php
This product is designed to help a CCIE candidate formulate all of the
necessary checklists and procedures for configuring all aspects of
Frame-Relay - from LMI and inverse ARP, to configuring all routing protocols
over Frame, to configuring the advanced features of Frame-Relay (PPPoFR and
FREEK) and finally, my favorite, QoS over Frame-Relay. The QoS section alone
is worth the value of the product. By the way, this Frame-Relay CoD module
features Mr. Bob Sinclair as the host and Mr. Anthony Sequiera in an
introductory role. Anthony is currently working on an IPv6 Class on Demand
module for us. We are planning to launch many more of these technology
specific building blocks over the next few months. We have an excellent
platform for doing so. By the way, if any of you are interesting in
developing content for CCIE preparation material, please let me know off
line. Our platform is perfect to support many education topics - CCIE SP,
CCIE Security, Voice, Nokia training, law school education, auto
mechanics.... I am only kidding about the last few, however if any of you
are interested in developing content for other CCIE topics, let me know off
line. We are looking for good content developers to develop VoD's, quizzes,
workbook labs, mini-assessments, comprehensive assessments, etc.
In conclusion, many companies possess several excellent products for
learning the technology as well as products to challenge you with the
technology. Use whoever and however many you want to use. Many are very,
very good. However, each and every CCIE candidate must extract from all of
these workbooks, VoD's, podcasts and labs, a clear and structured procedure
for configuring specific technologies. This should lead to a highly modular
and incremental CCIE preparation approach. Once this is formulated do some 8
hour practice labs like the IE Mock Lab, or CCIE Assessor, or our CHECKiT
labs. See how your procedures work with challenging scenarios AND under time
pressure. By doing these practice labs, you should be able to roughly gauge
"how close you are to passing the actual CCIE lab". To us at NMC, this is
the ultimate question from our customers, "Am I ready to take the actual
CCIE lab?" or put another way, "How close am I to passing the lab"?
Our answer to this is: you might consider taking a bundle of CHECKiT labs
let's say 3 of them. We will then apply our ongoing assessment methods and
determine your "trend" of performance. We will then compare your "trend" of
CHECKiT scores to the scores of the group of CHECKiT users that took the
exact same labs that you did and went on to pass the actual CCIE lab. From
this comparison to this "special group", we can provide you with a
probability of passing the lab. This is the power of bundles of CHECKiT labs
combined with the NMC web platform. We generate some cool graphs to
represent the trend of your CHECKiT performance on a per topic basis. If you
want to learn more, go to our CHECKiT sample feedback page and click the on
"My Progress" tab:
http://www.netmasterclass.com/site/checkit_demo.php
My apologies for the shameless plug of our products. They are simply one
source of CCIE preparation products among many excellent ones - IE, Scott's
products, etc.
In conclusion, build out many checklists, attempt to proceduralize many of
the tasks that you may encounter in the CCIE lab. If you go back in the
archives you will see that people like Jongsoo and Sam Hilgendorfer created
multiple technology checklists/procedures as well. We were lucky enough to
have these folks as CHECKiT users. It is truly remarkable to see the raw
talent of many of these CHECKiT users. If there is one thing that we see
from CHECKiT, there is lots of incredible internetworking talent all over
the world. When I see the trends of many of these CHECKiT scores, it is
truly inspirational. These CHECKiT users reflect what many GroupStudy
participants say once they pass their lab: "Hang in there fellow CCIE
candidates!! You can pass this lab. CCIE certification is definitely
attainable!!!"
Good luck to all members of GroupStudy in your pursuit of the CCIE!!! Take
this very complex and challenging task and divide it down into smaller more
managable tasks, conquer each one and then combine them all back together.
Yes, divide, conquer and combine!!!!
Best regards,
-Bruce Caslow CCIE #3139
www.netmasterclass.com
PS. Related to the recent changes in the Routing and Switching CCIE Lab,
please note:
NetMasterClass has updated all of its equipment and content to reflect the
recent equipment changes in the Routing and Switching CCIE Lab. Click on the
following link for more details:
http://www.netmasterclass.com/site/doit_layout.php
Also, click on the following link to view the latest NetMasterClass pod
layout:
http://www.netmasterclass.com/pdf/nmc_pod_layout.pdf
These equipment changes have been incorporated into all NetMasterClass
products including the RS-NMC-1 and RS-NMC-2 courses, the DoiT workbook, the
Technical Library and the CHECKiT practice labs.
Thanks!!!!
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
> Dennis Worth
> Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 5:24 PM
> To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
> Subject: Last Minute Checklist?
>
> Hi All,
>
> It's almost time for 2nd attempt and I am anxiously awaiting. I just
> wanted ask anyone out there if they have one of those really cool last
> minute Checklist sheets that have helped many others on this list. I
> would like to make sure as much as possible that I don't brain fart on
> the basics. :0 )
>
>
> Thank You in Advance,
>
>
> Dec 1st 2006 SJ (2nd Attempt) - anyone else going to be there on this
> day?
>
> Dennis Worth
> Network Engineer
> Option One Mortgage
> Phone 949-790-3687
> dennis.worth@oomc.com
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
> Subscription information may be found at:
> http://www.groupstudy.com/list/CCIELab.html
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