From: Alexei Monastyrnyi (alexeim@orcsoftware.com)
Date: Sat Jan 27 2007 - 11:23:05 ART
cool result! get some rest, you sure deserved one
A.
Nick Griffin 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
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Thu Feb 08 2007 - 23:46:57 ART