From: ruth wainwright (ruthwainwright@yahoo.com.au)
Date: Tue Mar 27 2007 - 18:36:56 ART
You go for it Olayemi - the Force is strong in this one!
----- Original Message ----
From: "Salau,Olayemi" <Olayemi.Salau@southampton.gov.uk>
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Sent: Tuesday, 27 March, 2007 9:59:17 PM
Subject: 1st Lab Attempt - Once Beaten, Twice Bold!!
1st Lab Attempt - Once Beaten, Twice Bold!!
Hello Lads,
To be honest, I don't know where to start from, never envisage that I
will have to put up such a mail after my first attempt. There was
nothing uncommon, which happened to me, it's been a norm that people
don't pass at first attempt, I was baptised into this norm 24hrs ago.
It all started when I decided to pursue my magic number, based on my
background and lots of commitments here and there, couldn't afford the
pricey trainings and bootcamps around. So I decided to do it all alone,
believe me it was 99% successful. I didn't even have to buy any
textbooks ... my textbook was the DocDVD from which I read in-to-to. But
I must give credits to the IE team for without their materials, I
wouldn't have learnt so much from this wonderful experience.
Surprisingly, in the exam didn't had to use DocDVD much, I spent less
than 30mins altogether checking the DocDVD in the Lab. Believe me, I was
very close to getting my magic number. I think I knew what went wrong
and I'm saying this for those who are yet to have the baptismal
experience of R&S Lab. I knew my stuffs, not boasting now but as
expected, I knew how things work in and out ... very thanks to the
GroupStudy Members, can't begin to start mentioning names now ...
writing this on the train back to London. As a matter of fact, I
finished all the tasks in the Lab, so why did I fail then ... only one
answer.... I learnt on the 26th of March 2007 that the almighty CCIE Lab
is not only a test of technologies but also a test of time management.
I literally completed my final task when the proctor asked us to stop,
the approach I used in the exam was: verify after each task, although it
works for some and don't for others. Being my first real test under
pressure, this affected me, big time. I was so nervous, by the way, I
found Diegem to be the most boring town that I've ever been to. Maybe
partly due to the "Industrial Estate" - Pergasus Park where I stayed, it
was too quite for my liking. But like I told someone earlier today, I
wasn't there to watch the sky scrapers, so I kept my focus, but I was so
so nervous. I arrived 2 days before the exam which I regret doing now, I
couldn't sleep for 48 hours, finally got the Lab, Proctor was so nice,
He made me undo the idea in my head about how evil Proctors can be. He
even noticed I couldn't eat during launch and persuaded me to take
something even if it's Banana and water. But didn't have the course to
approach him, I was very conformable with the tasks. Again what went
wrong ... ok, I'm don't feel bad, disappointed, disgusted or sad at all,
I really am proud that I had to fail on first attempt in other to learn
about time management in the hard way. With CCIE one thing, is knowing
the technologies and how they work, another is time management in the
Lab. Personally, I discovered you must have a TIME MANAGEMENT APPROACH
to the tasks and think at a very high and fast speed. Oh! I was so close
to getting the number ... now is not the time to feel sorry for myself
at all, infact, I've quickly booked another Lab for July 1st in Dubai,
that was the closest I could get, by the way, if any of you (outside US)
want to drop your Lab Date, I need one in May very badly. I won't
relent, no retreat, no surrender ... It's such a mixture of salt and
sugar, an awful and wonderful experience. At least, now I have first
hand information of what it takes to pass the CCIE - that would be not
only the technologies, but also a good management approach to things.
Troubleshooting wise, I discovered all the bad configs injected for the
sake of testing whether candidates know their stuffs ... but on 2
occasions ... had memory block, and it took about 90mins to figure out
what went wrong. Before I knew it, it was launch time, and before I knew
it, it was all over. You guys want to know the most difficult of all the
tasks .... Waiting to know about your result ... a part of you says
PASS, another says FAIL ... I had to wait close to 14 hours to discover
that Cisco gave me another opportunity to attempt the Lab, ofcourse, I
don't see myself as a failure, but saw that I needed to work on speed,
speed of thinking and managing, and trust me ... I WILL BE BACK ... I
will not stop until I get those numbers, even if it means going into the
Lab every quarter of each year ... I now see how honourable the CCIE
logo and number is, I commend all those who have them, and for those who
are aspiring, never relent, it's not that difficult afterall, don't let
anyone scare you, if you know your stuffs and can beat your chest to it,
then work on speed and time management ... I had to learn the hard way
... But I'm proud of this, once beaten - twice shy in deed.
I've ordered some new kits, I will start practising and brush up on
speed asap, if any one has a free slot in May/June (Outside US, US Visa
is proving difficult to get these days, got Belgium visa in 2 days), let
me know ...
KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE!, LIVING THE DREAM SOON!!
Olayemi Salau
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