From: Darby Weaver (darbyweaver@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Feb 18 2007 - 18:07:42 ART
Lab Approach - Getting Ready for the 3rd Shot At The
Title
By the time you are actually ready to pass the lab,
you will probably be able to complete the lab in under
8 hours with or without aliases.
Create yourself goals and work to them.
Example:
Read the whole lab (about 17-25 pages with diagrams) -
Figure about 15-30 minutes - you may want to draw
diagrams or create lists with areas for points to mark
off as you progress.
Frame Relay: 10-15 minutes with verification
Switching: 20-25 minutes with vertifcation
IGPs: (RIP/EIGRP/OSPF/ODR/IPv6) 30-60 minutes with
verification (includes like filtering and
summarizations as well)
================================================
Usually this should be done within about the 2nd hour
or so and any "issues" if you have any should also be
completed by this time.
================================================
A 3-5 minute quick TCL script for routers and a macro
for switches will quickly enable you to verify full
connectivity. Sometimes you may or may not wish to
include BGP in this step - so you could wait a bit and
do it after BGP.
------------------------------------------------
BGP: 30-60 minutes with verification (assume 10-15
minutes to configure any iBGPs and eBGP neighboging
relationships and the bulk of the time to work on
whatever real problems you may be asked to perform or
solve).
Multicast: 20-30 minutes with verification (enable pim
3-5 minutes, figure out what they are asking and solve
the problem)
===============================================
Right about now you may want to reload your routers
and run your TCL/MACRO scripts again - just so you
know where you are.
If you started at or about 7:30am - it should be
around 11am or 11:30 about now...
If you are not here and your head is not clear - your
chances of passing are probably rapidly diminishing.
I'd say at this point, you would have completed some
60-70% of your exam and this is probably where you are
feeling either very relieved or very stressed and the
world is closing in on your very, very fast...
***********************************************
About time for Lunch
30 Minutes
If you look at yourself and you are as pale as the
corpses around you, start thinking about what you are
going to tell everyone about how you almost past the
lab this time but you failed on some 5-6 point
non-essential task. They will comfort you.
If you are wide-eyed and bushy-tailed wondering what
your favorite selection of alcohol might be to
celebrate and where you are finally going to go in
Hawaii snce you finally tamed the beast - you are in
pretty good shape.
In either event, you need to have taken a look at any
security, ip miscellaneous tasks, and qos items so
that you are thinking about how you are going to
approach them when you get back in the ring.
Remember at this point, you have probably 10-20 points
needed to pass but you want to treat each one like it
is the one that will put you over the edge, finally.
***********************************************
Re-run the scripts again - sanity checks are nice and
if they worked before they will now as well. Double
check everything - since this was probably 60-70% of
the exam and likely the easist part so far - why lose
2 or 3 points here and there because you assumed
something...
So you get back in the ring and you have about 4 hours
left - choose wisely, but do not forget the DOC Cd if
you do get stuck and ask the proctors about anything
in the qos or security you still do not understand or
may have mis-interpretted.
Don't make hasty changes that might break your work so
far.
Just thinking - Gotta update my final checksheet aka
modified Jung Soo's Checklist...
=====================================================
Today is February 18th and the while I have scheduled
my lab for a few dates this year, I have re-scheduled
for May 22nd 2007 at the moment - but I am keeping it
tentative pending my ability to get my graded labs
over the 80 point mark consisently and really aiming
for the 90th percentile to account for any
uncertainties that may occur.
I have spent this weekend working out some weak points
and I must thank InternetworkExpert for their website
filled with so many items that I have been deficient
on; I have to add NMC and their wondrous tech library
since it holds more wonders than one can ever hope to
understand in just one sitting; I have to thank NLI
for their workbooks and their per-topic content
guides; and of course IPExpert for their magical
e-Scenarios that bring a lot of topics home.
Basically, this weekend was spent analyzing all the
mistakes I made last year, thankfully as time passed I
also spent time doing more research on each problem
area and hopefully I have grown to understand all or
most of all of them by now. I still have a couple of
items I am contending with but they are fast becoming
strengths instead of just weaknesses.
In light that while I have closed some gaps since my
first and last showing at RTP, I also realize that I
have not spent so much time doing full scale labs and
only a very few "Core-Labs == Thanks to IE for making
these gems - 2 hours of speed drills".
So I decided to go to another round of Mock Labs this
year and due to my work schedule and vacation package
I had to wait a bit, but March is only a few days
away, so this time I figured I'd start out with Mr
Heinz Ulm and so he let me in and I've paid and booked
to see the German born CCIE-Maker himself.
To prepare for this meeting and his arsenal of Mock
Labs, I decided to set a bit of a nightmare schedule
for just doing labs, as I get better and better with
more practice and practice under stress.
So here's what I decided for a warm up scedule:
Feb 19-23 ~6 hours of labs per night - NMC Workbook
Feb 24/25 ~36 hours non-stop labs - IE Workbook
Feb 26 - March 2nd ~ 6 hours of labs per night - NMC
Workbook
March 3/4 ~36 hours of non-stop labs - IE Workbook
March 5-9 ~6 hours of labs per night - NMC Workbook
March 10/11 ~36 hours of non-stop labs - IE Workbook
March 12-15 ~6 hours of labs per night - NMC Workbook
March 16th - Quick Read during trip of NLI Workbooks
March 16th - NMC-1 Cat-QoS Labs that night till about
midnight or so.
March 17th - NMC-1 BGP/Multicast Labs Review
March 18th - NMC-1 QoS Labs Review
At this point, I should have covered a lot of ground,
be ready for a lot of topics and also be pretty well
warmed up for whatever I might encounter during the
week with Heinz Ulm.
As far as I know the week will cover 4 challnging lab
scenarios and I believe he is said to supply one more
for the road.
Immediately after this battery of stress tests, I
expect to want to rest after class - and get some
sleep.
Till the morning of the 24th, I thought I might try
and schedule both CCIE Accessors and see where I am
with Cisco's own labs.
The 25th I'd be traveling again and reading my lab
workbooks from NLI - Love the Q/A guys - keeps me
humming along.
The immediate week after, I expect to be fairly weary
but at the same time would have time to adjust my
schedule for my lab and/or make appropriate plans for
further study.
If by some stretch if the imagination, my scores are
in the high 80's or even 90's on average, then, I
expect my lab date would be modified to the earliest
available date. However, if they are not then, I
might try to take some more Mock/CheckIT Labs to
conduct further analysis of my remaining deficiencies.
In any event, I am expecting to be able to afford at
least 2 - 4 more weeks of classes either prior to May
22nd or thereafter, since my co-worker is starting his
own study as well and two of my former co-workers are
as well, chances are one or more of them may accompany
me at a class.
So this is about where I am after getting serious
about my studies this time last year.
I still remember speaking with Bruce Caslow at NMC-2
later in April of last year and actually believing
Imigh actually close about a 25-point gap in about 2
months or so...
Actually to be truly lab ready I would have required
more like 35+ points and these points would be a bit
harder to amass than the previous 55 points had been.
I did have warning signs with both the CCIE Accessor
and with IE's Mock Lab Workshop where my scores did
not fare much better again being about in the mid 50's
- even on the 8 hour timed level (recall at NMC - I
had a bit more time and more access to help so my some
of my points would have been artificially elevated as
a result).
All of the warning signs for a lab failure, but I was
naive as many of us are, my lab was then within the
30-day window and my written 18-month period was ready
to expire soon after the lab attempt on June 16th...
So like many of us I tried anyway and I went again in
October, though truthfully the only thing I had
improved upon was a little speed and the ability to
attain a Golden Moment. I left a few critical areas
areas behind in my studies and they did not magically
appear to save the day when I was in my hour of need
during the my seocnd lab attempt either. It just does
not work that way.
Well that's it... for now.
Let's see how many hours I can actually clock
according to my stated timeline and if I actually can
close my own known gaping holes before I meet Mr. Ulm.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Thu Mar 01 2007 - 07:38:47 ART