From: Moses Polalysa (mpurple7@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Jun 28 2007 - 02:27:42 ART
Congrats Arin for the great achievement.
Where did you go for the lab? Chatswood or St. Leonard?
How was the new lab there in St. Leonard?
Thanks.
Regards,
Moses
----- Original Message ----
From: Arin and Rachel Richmond <therichmonds@gmail.com>
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 11:37:31 AM
Subject: Passed R&S Lab in Sydney
Hi all,
I apologise in advance for the length of this email. It has been a lot of
blood sweat and tears gone into the passing of this exam, and it's difficult
to describe the experience with brevity.
I have been a silent reader of GroupStudy for around six months now, and
have found many of the posts both informative and thought provoking. Some of
the most inspirational posts have been reading the stories of others who
have tackled this mighty exam. In kind I thought I would share my experience
and return the favour to other aspiring CCIEs on the list.
My story is similar to Blaine's (congratulations by the way!) in that I used
one vendor's products to prepare, namely InternetworkExpert.
My preparation for the lab began in mid 2005 when I decided my goal was to
attain the top Cisco certification. I've been working in networks for many
years however I decided to start out slowly and follow the stepping stone
path by taking the CCNA, CCDA, CCNP and CCDP exams. I finished these mid
2006 and studied for the CCIE written exam using predominantly the Wendell
Odom cert guide.
After passing the written in November 2006 I began a wider reading program.
In hindsight I could and probably should have done this before taking the
written. It would have made it a lot easier. I read the usual recommended
texts; TCP/IP Illustrated, Inside Cisco IOS Architectures, Routing TCP/IP
Vol 1 and 2 (brilliant books!), Internet Routing Architectures, Cisco LAN
Switching, BCMSN Cert Guide, QoS Cert Guide and Developing IP Multicast
Networks.
After reading the theory I followed InternetworkExpert's recommended study
plan. I watched the first week of the Advanced Technology Class on Demand,
which is an excellent product, followed by their Advanced Technology Labs
then the second week of the Advanced Technology Class on Demand. The Brian's
do an excellent job of explaining the technologies and then showing you in
these videos. I would definitely recommend them to an aspiring candidate.
After this I worked through the first three labs of the Core Lab Workbook,
followed by the "easy" labs (difficulty 6 or less) from the Main Lab
Workbook, then back to the Core Book to finish it off and then through the
rest of the 20 full scale labs. At any stage if I wasn't sure about a
technology I would read up on it, primarily in the DocCD, but also by
referring back to the books I had already read. As I progressed through the
labs I found myself relying less and less on the DocCD, but at the same time
became quicker at locating material should it be required. Again, while not
without their faults, the Core and Main Lab workbooks (now called Volume II
and III I believe) were excellent products, and the Brian's cover off the
vast majority of the blueprint in these 30 labs.
I took two weeks off work prior to my lab date and finished all the labs
with four days to go until the big day. My preparation ramped up from steady
at six months out to intense (getting up early, labbing before work, labbing
on getting home from work, labbing on weekends) for the last four months and
about 10 hours every day for the last two weeks. I think this gradual ramp
up helped me greatly in that I built the theory foundation and then polished
it with hundreds of hours of practical labbing which ramped up in intensity
and consequently my speed followed suit. Practice is very different to
theory. You need to know the theory to know what and how implement it on the
command line, but you will also learn a lot from doing it.
To practice I built a lab at home rather than use remote rack rentals. I
decided that it was going to suit me best to have instant access to a lab so
that I could fit in as much lab time around work when it suited me. My home
lab consisted of 1 x 3550 and 3 x 3560 switches and two PCs with quad port
ethernet NICs running Dynamips and Dynagen emulated 7206 routers.
The day before the lab I tried not to study, though I will admit I read my
notes from the Class on Demand on the plane and train journey to Sydney.
Other than this I spent my time watching a movie, TV and trying to relax. I
got a good nights sleep the night before. I think sleep and good nutrition
are essential to your mental state on the day.
I got the dreaded email very late the same evening of the lab and was more
nervous waiting to log in to the CCIE website than I had been during the
exam itself. Fortunately the nerves became joy and relief.
I'd like to thank a few people without whom I could not have passed this
exam.
Firstly, my wife for her endless encouragement, support and patience.
Next, the guys at work for their support, encouragement and willingness to
discuss the inner workings of OSPF, STP etc.
Brian Dennis and Brian McGahan from InternetworkExpert as well as all the
others behind the scenes for their excellent products and well thought out
study program. You guys are legends!
My proctor Stefaan for putting up with my inordinate number of questions,
thank you for your courteous and professional approach.
The people on the InternetworkExpert forums for providing clarification,
alternative approaches and discussion on the IE labs.
Christophe Fillot and Greg Anuzelli for producing the worlds greatest Cisco
router emulator and front end respectively, and doing it for the greater
good under the general public license.
Lastly, thank you to everyone at GroupStudy for your insight and
inspiration.
Best of luck to you all.
Regards,
Arin Richmond
CCIE #18318 (R&S)
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