From: Darby Weaver (darbyweaver@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Jun 08 2007 - 06:01:05 ART
Chika,
Amen - Almost exactly how I felt this past lab attempt
- my third.
So much so, I paid for the re-grade. Still waiting.
I feel something must have went wrong with the grading
process.
I remembered my lab diagram and I got back and drew it
out again for personal study and review - I even
remembered the IP Addressing and most of the actual
vlan assignments.
Then there was the issue of remembering each task and
I even remembered and wrote very nearly everyone and
what I used for an answer.
I had plenty of time, I thought the lab was just easy,
even too easy.
I used the DOC CD for about 1/2 of the tasks, about
25% I knew cold and off the top of my head. I asked
for clarification at least 20 or 25 items and I mean
down to the capitalization and "spaces" - anything
that was subject to interpretation was on my list of
things to be wary of.
I did not get my results till 9:56am the next morning
and it did not say pass. So I tallied my points,
reviewed what I had wrote down for questions and
answers and started to reverse-engineer my score down
to almost exactly each section and each item.
I only had 2 tasks I did not attempt for 5 points and
one was a logical time consumer (at least for me) and
the other was something I could not think of though I
knew.
Both were in the same category.
Nope... I've still got my fingers crossed, feet,
toes, and eyes.
This was my easiest lab (at least I had thought so,
until I saw my score), which was categorically the
lowest score I had yet to receive on any full lab
(except maybe 1 other). This also made me think about
what could have gone wrong.
I mean one should not fail a lab as "straight forward"
as the lab I encountered and not even get points for
the basic stuff - right? And when I say basic, I mean
down right basic. If so, it may be time to hand in my
all my asociate and professional level credentials and
just start over with Juniper.
Juniper is offering free training and certification
exams for most of the rest of the year by the way.
Now, that is not to say that I could not have seen a
scenario where I might have failed due to
interpretation, but should this have been the result,
it should also have been a very very close fail and
not my lowest to date scoring - this means that all
those points that were just there and had no strings
to them would have had to have been just plain wrong.
While possible - I have trouble believing this.
Patience is a virtue and mine is being tried - about
1/2 way through the waiting process.
I have assumed Cisco is right and I have failed, so I
rescheduled a lab for December and I re-evaluated what
I am doing and possibly what I am STILL doing wrong
and made myself a battle plan that calls for about
~700 hours of actual lab hours.
This time I am strictly keeping myself to NMC's DoIT
Labs - about 1 per week - I love their CheckIT
grading/verification system and then about 1 lab from
H.U.'s labs that I received, though more time
consuming to perform than anyone else's they do teach
one to be mindful of speed and accuracy - valuable
skills. I figure 1 per month of these with
review/verification/setup etc. ought to be about
right.
Altogether it will be tough but it will be worth it in
the end I'm hoping.
So about 6 months and about 36 labs to work through.
I figure I'll also revisit the lectures from the IE
COD and spend quite a bit of time reviewing NLI's
Golden Labs and workbooks for any sore spots.
The Cisco UNIVERCD will be used for everything
including at work.
I have not used aliases yet in a real lab and I think
I might want to from here out, so I have started
loading them at work and should be familiar with them
by my next lab showing.
I had already started to debug just about everything
and am pretty comfortable with debugging stuff now,
but I am going to be even more mindful of my debugging
efforts.
Basically, I'm stepping my game up a level (funny
since I kinda thought I had already done this - deja
vu).
Working closely with a co-worker and having daily
discussions literally at the bit level does have its
advantages so this is helpful as well and 6 months
more of it cannot hurt. His advice and perspective on
troubleshooting OSPF was like no one's I had heard
before and really was quite "common sense" if you
think about it. His advice about BGP is quite
inightful as well. He loses me when he starts talking
about light refraction as it applies to fiber-optic
media, but hey... if it is a security hole...
I have yet to go to any company provided training yet
this year and I still have 1.5 weeks of vacation to
use to pursue either training or intense personal
development. So maybe...
--- chika acha <achachika@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Was hoping i was only gonna post this when i
> pass,...but i'm left with no
> choice. I went in for my lab on the 24th of may,
> 2007. Before then, i had
> studied pretty hard....for over 11/12 months. My
> first 6 months of studies,
> i was doing an average of 14-18hrs a day (stopped
> working)...and at that
> point, it seemed like the more i studied the harder
> it became....but after a
> while, i got really used to the feeling, and started
> working 7 months later.
> Before i went it, i met some guys that had theirs
> lined up as well,..so we
> studied extensively for over 5 weeks........doing
> and average of 4/5 hrs a
> day, while i still carved out time to study on my
> own. A week to my exam, i
> was feeling realy nervous, but in the same vein, i
> was fired up....cos my
> knowledge of the core topics were spot-on....(so i
> thot). I traveled to
> Brussels with nothing but my little note that i've
> had for over
> 10months....no laptop...nothing. Trust me, i was
> pretty nervous that night,
> that i found it hard to sleep. But when i got to
> Cisco Systems, the
> atmosphere wasn't really that bad. When i started my
> lab, i seemed pretty
> tense,...but after a few hours, i was on top of my
> game........everything
> seemed to work pretty well.......the questions were
> just plain english, that
> i wondered y it was. I had some issues before lunch,
> but i was able to think
> them thru during lunch, and i finally got them
> working.....truth is....I
> THOT I NAILED IT! Came out feeling really
> confident...only for me to get
> home and BAMM!!!! I was down for the count.....i
> failed!! I said to
> myself....."wot did i do wrong? what else can i
> provide for cisco to make me
> a CCIE?" at that point, i thot it was just too
> impossible to to make CCIE. I
> almost lost hope doing it again, but man..........i
> dont want to believe at
> this stage that cisco just tries to be calous to
> some people...if that be
> the case, then we'd rightly say cisco has got it's
> preference....and i dont
> want to believe that. I'm going in on the 17th of
> July for as second
> round........and it doesnt end there. I know i
> should save this till i make
> CCIE, but i'll go ahead anyway.........thanks Brians
> for your wonderful CoD
> and IE workbooks.
>
> On 6/7/07, anthony.sequeira@thomson.com
> <anthony.sequeira@thomson.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Yeah - I have posted this before and I want to
> throw it out there
> > again...why did it take me (an obvious genius ;-))
> 5 times to pass?
> >
> > Here are some of the reasons:
> >
> > 1) I had a bunch of disposable cash at the time
> and became "addicted" to
> > trying the lab whether I was ready or not. Let's
> call it the Brute Force
> > method. P.S. My employer at the time paid for two
> of the attempts. The
> > first and the last.
> >
> > 2) I dragged my feet on truly addressing my weak
> areas. I really enjoyed
> > studying certain areas (IGPs), but detested others
> (Multicast). As a
> > result of my feelings, I did not study Multicast
> like I should.
> >
> > 3) I failed to embrace many of the tips shared on
> this group. For
> > example, on one of the attempts I did not sleep at
> all the night before.
> >
> >
> > 4) I am not good at this type of an exam.
> >
> > There are other reasons, but I will stop there for
> now. Don't let these
> > things happen to you!
> >
> > Anthony J. Sequeira
> > #15626
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Gary Duncanson
> [mailto:gary.duncanson@googlemail.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 10:01 AM
> > To: Sequeira, Anthony (NETg)
> > Cc: ccielab@groupstudy.com
> > Subject: Re: 2nd Attempt Curse
> >
> > A friend of mine passed at the 5th attempt. A good
> engineer. Nothing to
> > be
> > ashamed of that. Depends what you get on the day
> often times. No one
> > knows
> > it all.
> >
> > Gary
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: <anthony.sequeira@thomson.com>
> > To: <smorris@ipexpert.com>;
> <eric_dobyns@yahoo.com>;
> > <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
> > Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 2:25 AM
> > Subject: RE: 2nd Attempt Curse
> >
> >
> > > "The level of "easy" or "hard" is certainly
> relative..." Yes indeed -
> > if
> > > you happen to draw topics X, Y, and Z in section
> Q and you are weak in
> > > those areas - you will think it is the hardest
> test imaginable.
> > >
> > > After passing on the fifth attempt - I firmly
> believe there is
> > > absolutely NOTHING to the rumors you heard.
> > >
> > > Anthony J. Sequeira
> > > #15626
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: nobody@groupstudy.com
> [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf
> > Of
> > > Scott Morris
> > > Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 8:56 PM
> > > To: 'Eric Dobyns'; 'Cisco certification'
> > > Subject: RE: 2nd Attempt Curse
> > >
> > > And here I thought it was that the second one
> was supposed to be
> > easier!
> > > (I passed second time)
> > >
> > > The level of "easy" or "hard" is certainly
> relative... And keep in
> > mind
> > > that most people who fail the exam come out
> thinking it was "hard".
> > > Most
> > > who pass come out thinking it was "fair and
> balanced".
> > >
> > > ;)
> > >
> > >
> > > Scott Morris, CCIE4
> (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/Service Provider) #4713,
> > > JNCIE
> > > #153, CISSP, et al.
> > > CCSI/JNCI-M/JNCI-J
> > > VP - Technical Training - IPexpert, Inc.
> > > IPexpert Sr. Technical Instructor
> > >
> > > A Cisco Learning Partner - We Accept Learning
> Credits!
> > >
> > > smorris@ipexpert.com
> > >
> > > Telephone: +1.810.326.1444
> > > Fax: +1.810.454.0130
> > > http://www.ipexpert.com
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: nobody@groupstudy.com
> [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf
> > Of
> > > Eric
> > > Dobyns
> > > Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 8:47 PM
> > > To: 'Cisco certification'
> > > Subject: 2nd Attempt Curse
> > >
> > > Any truth to the rumour that Cisco gives the
> hardest test for those
> > who
> > > are
> > > on their 2nd attempt? I've heard the throw a
> relatively easy test out
> > > first, which people usually fail for poor time
> management, and then
> > > throw
> > > the hardest out on the 2nd attempt, which is why
> those that pass are
> > > usually
> > > on their 3rd or 4th try. Anyone else
> agree/disagree?
> > >
> > >
> >
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sun Jul 01 2007 - 17:24:47 ART