From: Brian Dennis (bdennis@internetworkexpert.com)
Date: Sat Jan 27 2007 - 10:07:07 ART
Congratulations!
--Brian Dennis, CCIE4 #2210 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/SP) bdennis@internetworkexpert.com Internetwork Expert, Inc. http://www.InternetworkExpert.com Toll Free: 877-224-8987 Direct: 775-745-6404 (Outside the US and Canada)
On 1/27/07 4:25 AM, "Nick Griffin" <nick.jon.griffin@gmail.com> wrote:
> First and foremost I want to say thank you. Thanks to the Paul for the list, > as well as the usual guys. The guys at IE, you have great products and you > are very knowledgeable, thank you. Scott Morris, thanks for answering my > questions and everyone elses. It's great that you guys are active on this > list. Anthony, your network world article help to make this CCIE thing make > sense to people that aren't familiar with it around me. It really showed > what it takes. Victor Cappuccio, genius! You will be a CCIE without a doubt, > multiple CCIE's. Thank you for motivating me, and really helping me > understand this stuff, you are no doubt a master. Sarah Kent, Dave Schulz, > Leigh Nash, Wayne Downing, and everyone else that I am forgetting. Thank > you! > > I had to get my thanks out of the way, for those of you interested in what I > used to get there, please read on. > > Well, it officially started about 1 year ago in January. While working > dedicated on miscellaneous Cisco products for the last 5 years I finally > decided to get serious. I booked my first attempted for March 2006, I > studied on average about 4 hours a night, at that time particularly using > NMC Do It Labs. I never did much with Frame Relay at the time, so the tricks > we are all so familiar with were kicking my butt. By my first date, I still > had issues with binary acl's, so I was nowhere near ready, but I finished > the lab and gave it my best shot. I scheduled my next attempt for May. > Preparing primarily with Internetwork Expert Labs. Again I fell short, got > hung up on some things and couldn't get past my problems. I rushed this > attempt due to projects at work knowing that unless I worked and studied > 24x7 I wouldn't have much time to study. Along came miscellaneous IPT > projects, CS-Mars, Clean Access, etc etc. Stuff that makes it hard to stay > on track for the R/S. So I pretty much took a break from studies from May to > October. I began ramping up for my Dec 19th date in the beginning of > October. Aware of the Nov 13th changes I pressed on working on really > understanding switching, and how the new topology could really change > things. Trying to block out the rumors on G/S with the lab changes, and > people failing I went out for my best performance in Dec on the new format. > All I can say about the lab was wow, what a change from May to Dec! I did > well, so I stayed on top of it and booked January 26th, which happened to be > the time, try #4. > > For those of you pursuing, I will say what worked for me, and echo probably > a bit what others have said. If your on a budget, which most of us are, IE > Class on Demand is a must. I went through this thing end to end at least 3 > times, and other sections more than that. This was great because I could > never afford a boot camp as much as I would have liked to have gone. IE Core > workbook was great as well, I purchased this after failing my first attempt. > IE Mock lab workshop, I got a great deal on this class, I took it two weeks > before my last lab, but it sure helped to keep my speed up. This was > probably the only real labs I did end to end my last month of study. Most of > the other time was spent studying things in isolation. NMC DoIT and NMC > Checkit are great. I find NMC wording nearly as vague as the real deal, from > a difficulty standpoint these things are over the top. I learned a great > deal about redistribution from these guys. Their Check IT labs have the best > results you can get. People say you don't have to buy everything from every > vendor, but I believe it is very key to use multiple vendors. DO not get > accustomed to only one vendor, or you will be unpleasantly surprised on your > lab attempt, especially if you learn by lab. Learn to understand the > technologies. > > About the actual lab I passed. When I went in this time, I went in with the > mindset I am Cisco's customer and they need to support me at least during > the $1250 bout. Over my last 3 attempts, I probably asked 6 questions in > total. They will not give you the answers, if you word it correctly they > will give you valuable feedback. By lunch time I was 90% complete with my > lab, I had completed every task by 1:35 PM. I spent the entire afternoon > verifying EVERYTHING over and over again. Reloading, TCL scripts, show > commands, anything I could think of. I even removed my "ip rcmd" commands at > the end. I answered everything I could. I got to a section where I was a bit > intimidated, so I decided to grab the things I thought of as easy. This > would give me much needed points, while also making sure if I ran into a > problem that I would battle with it for and hour or two only to realize I > still have 40 more points to complete. This comes back to having a game > plan, you have to have one to pass this thing. I also read the recent post > from Alex De Gruter on questions to proctors. This made up my mind, I was > going to clarify as much as possible. I worked through eveything I could and > went to verify. I had a list of 10-15 questions that I took up at one time > and quickly went through the list. Asking questions with their is ambigbuity > is a must. Don't be scared, go ask, it's $1250 bucks. There wasn't one thing > on this lab left un-touched. Being honest with myself, there were some > things I was about 90% sure they were right. I totaled up everything minus > these, and felt I was at 92 points. Brian Dennis gave me a great idea > regarding building this list, it's on their free COD presentation on their > site. I used this my last 2 times. It really helps if you stick with it. > > In summary: > > IE Class on Deman > IE Core Workbook > IE version 4.0 > IE Mock Lab Workshop > NMC Do IT > NMC Check IT > NMC FR COD > CCIE Assessor > IP Expert Workbook ver 8.0 > Safari online subscription, why by all those cisco books? > www.gigavelocity.com flexibile/affordable labs/ great equipment and support > www.racktimerentals.com great equipment > countless hours of study and lab time > > Thanks to everyone. Don't ever give up, you will never forgive yourself. > Obtain what you desire. If you put in the time on Cisco, you deserve it. > > Thanks, > > Nick Griffin > CCIE 17381 > > _______________________________________________________________________ > Subscription information may be found at: > http://www.groupstudy.com/list/CCIELab.html
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