From: Scott Morris (swm@emanon.com)
Date: Mon Mar 19 2007 - 18:45:56 ART
While it may sound like a lofty goal, Pericles... Passing the lab exam does
not make one anything else other than human. While you have put a lot of
work into the details of technologies and all the evil practicing from lab
workbooks that enhances those skills and exposure, that does nothing for the
direct, impending, psychological aspects of the CCIE lab exam.
Quite honestly, much of it has to do with your methodology. Methodology and
time management. Believe me, time managend outside of the lab exam is not
one of my strong points. But in the lab... It's an art form.
I'm sure you've seen many of the missives in the archives, whether from
myself, or other people working on this goal (some who have passed, some not
yet). Read the entire exam first. Read it twice. Jot notes down. Make
diagrams and more notes. Hopefully you'll be able to spot many of the
debilitating issues ahead of time. Anticipation is key!
As you said, you can navigate the DocCD quite well, this helps a lot when
you don't know something. It doesn't help nearly as much when something
goes wrong. Troubleshooting is another art form. Quick, tactical, accurate
troubleshooting. What is supposed to happen? (either known or read from
DocCD) What IS happening? Therefore, what is not happening? How to fix
it?
Spend no more than 15 minutes troubleshooting whatever you are working on.
If anything requires more attention, don't waste your time. Stop
troubleshooting. Work on something completely unrelated (services 'n'
miscellaneous crap at the end of the exam is great for this brain exercise).
Go to the restroom, breakroom or whatever. (Resist the urge to call TAC!
(grin))
Come back and get back in troubleshooting. Not as difficult as it looks.
But this change will free your mind up from whatever #*&#$#ed up goofy thing
that got it there to begin with. Staring at something too long is bad.
When I did my R&S (back in the old days), I was fairly convinced I was going
to pass the first time. Just being young 'n' cocky and all that. Needless
to say, I didn't. I ran into a problem (found it and fixed it finally) but
ran out of time to do everything else.
Between attempt 1 and 2, the ONLY thing I did was decide to change my
troubleshooting methodology. Nothing else changed. I didn't even touch a
router (outside my job at the time anyway) between the two attempts. At the
second time I finished day 1 with several hours left to go. THAT scared the
hell out of me. After going back through again and again and again, and
even counting the pages because I was SURE I'd had pages stuck toghether
that I missed, I told the proctor I was done and left.
The next day, I'd found I had passed on to Day 2, and repeated my process to
go on and pass the lab exam.
I hadn't learned anything new between #1 and #2. I simply changed my
process that I was using to work on the lab, and troubleshoot the things
that went wrong. They will happen. It's just nature. How we deal with
them is the difference.
From a practicing perspective, I believe I sent an e-mail to the list a few
weeks ago about some methodology.
http://www.groupstudy.com/archives/ccielab/200703/msg00372.html
Best of luck in your next lab! It'll get there!
HTH,
Scott Morris, CCIE4 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/Service Provider) #4713, JNCIE
#153, CISSP, et al.
CCSI/JNCI-M/JNCI-J
IPexpert VP - Curriculum Development
IPexpert Sr. Technical Instructor
smorris@ipexpert.com
http://www.ipexpert.com
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
briapolo@wm.com
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 4:31 PM
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: On the behalf of mere mortals like myself...
Like many who have posted on GS, I came up short on my 1st attempt Friday at
RTP. Things looked promising at the beginning though. After one hour into
the lab, I had read twice through the lab, spotchecked the issues, drawn all
diagrams I would need and came to a startling realization there was hardly
anything unfamiliar blocking my path to the magic number. Trying to contain
my excitement, I began to score points. Shortly after, I ran into a major
issue, definitely not one of those "duct-tape and move on". I had to
resolve it to have a chance at passing. I will spare you the painful
details, but I wasted 1.5 hours to finally get this working properly. This
was devastating and by now I found my excitement being rapidly erased by a
feeling once experiences when running late for an important appointment -
realizing it is mathematically impossible to make it there on time. To
make the long story short, I punched and kicked quite well in round 2 and 3,
but the heavy hemo!
rrhaging I sustained in round 1 left me incapable to secure enough points
in the remaining time to win the fight. So sad...
Groupstudy archives contain encouraging replies of those who failed at one
time yet pressed on to claim the prize - I do not seek those at this time,
though I do appreciate the kind intent as well as time spent. This time, I
would like to solicit advice from the alien species living among us who
manage to mysteriously finish up the lab before lunch or so (we know who
some of you are and that your stories are true, not legends or myths). How
Does a Mere Mortal Get to Be Even Just a Little Bit Like You? I know what
it will take for me and scores of others to get the number - SPEED (not the
mind-altering substance). I have read a considerable amount of the nebulous
"to get faster you need to get better" posts (i do not mean to offend
anyone). What are some of the techniques do you, superior forms of life,
use to get there?
I have studied for about 10 months, am armed to teeth with worn-out Cisco
Books, DOC CD (which I navigate faster than the corporate network), two
workbooks (pretty sure do not need more), approximately 600 hours of
personal lab time, attended a bootcamp, completed numerous vendor labs, set
up even more of my own scenarios to gain understanding and speed. My
biggest issue - most of the time, after carefully dissecting a particular
technology, getting it to work, making notes, after 2 -3 weeks (when I have
moved on to other problems) I find myself rusty with the technology I felt
so comfortable 2 -3 week earlier. I am too painfully familiar with this
scenario from my own studies - to forget is human. At the same time,
someone finishes the lab by lunch...
Can those who have passed share what got your faster (or better, whatever
you want to call it) and put your over the top? Specific
examples/strategies would be wonderful. I really think there are many
(including myself) studying for the lab who cannot quite work out how to be
faster at OSPF or how to be faster at Layer 2. How does one jump from doing
the lab in 8 hours to finishing in 4 - that is a significant leap that seems
indeed superhuman to those of us unable to defeat the exam. How can a mere
mortal jump from being able to configure networks to making them appear in
front of your eyes in a matter of minutes/seconds (that is with
verification)? My post is not that of desperation (possibly more of
frustration of not being able to squeeze more out of myself). Those that
pass after 4 hours are doing something different from what I am doing. For
instance, there are guys at my work working on their CCNPs. I had to pass
it once and know there are longer roads and short!
er roads (not shortcuts) to get somewhere. For the most part, I have had
to take many longer roads only to discover that there is a shorter, less
traveled road. As someone said, "the secret of walking on water is knowing
where stepping stones are." Your thoughtful comments will be appreciated.
A less intelligent form of life,
Homo sapien, no CCIE #.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sun Apr 01 2007 - 06:35:51 ART