Re: CCIE #18397; Cliffs notes included

From: Sean C (upp_and_upp@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jul 09 2007 - 15:18:20 ART


Hi James,

Congrats on the digits!! How you were able to do this with a preggy wife -
most impressive.

Congrats again,
Sean C #17085
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Russell" <osuphd2b@yahoo.com>
To: <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 12:25 PM
Subject: CCIE #18397; Cliffs notes included

> Ultra-short version: Passed R&S on 1st try at RTP. Woot!
>
> Short version: Passed R&S on 1st try at RTP. Thanks to (in no particular
> order) my pregnant wife for being so understanding, The Brians, Scott
> Morris, Narbik, those of you who took time to answer my unicast questions,
> and everyone who posts on GS.
>
> Long version: Wow, I'm still shaking! I started my journey in June of
> last year. I had no Cisco experience at all, but I started the CCNA. Got
> that on July 19th. Got hired as a network engineer and got my CCNP in
> October. Started on the written in Jan of this year and passed on Feb
> 3rd. Then I started on the lab. I used a well-known vendor's workbook,
> and the following books:
>
> Routing TCP/IP Vols I and II
> Internet Routing Architectures
> Wendell Odom's QoS Exam Cert Guide
> BCMSN Exam Cert Guide
> The DocCD (duh!)
>
> My study routine usually consisted of renting 11 hours of rack time every
> Saturday, and doing one of the labs 2 times. I would then spend the next
> week reviewing the lab and configuring any confusing parts on my mini-lab
> at work. As the weeks progressed, I would take some labs and do them all
> in Windows notepad. No tabs or question marks to help. I also read the
> complete command references several times for all routing protocols,
> QoS, frame relay, IP applications, IP addressing, switching, etc etc.
> Anything I couldn't understand, I labbed it up until I did understand it.
>
> Ok, now for the lab itself. While doing the lab, and after completing it,
> I was kind of confused about the whole thing. Either the test was pretty
> straightforward and I had passed, or I was completely missing stuff and I
> failed miserably. My initial feeling was that it was pretty
> straightforward. By lunch, I had read and at least attempted to configure
> every single question on the lab. There were 3 or 4 that I had to skip
> and come back to, though. After lunch, I went back and did those, which
> took about an hour. I checked the whole thing and found a few errors.
> Checked it all again, and found 1 or 2 errors. Checked it all AGAIN and
> found nothing that looked wrong. By this time there was about 45 minutes
> left in the lab.
>
> People say time management is key, and they are right. In my case, it was
> make sure you slow down and triple-check everything. In other cases, it
> might be to not spend too much time on 1 problem. The proctors were very
> nice and helpful. They even asked me about one of my tattoos!
>
> Well, that's it. I'm going to eat some lunch!
>
> James Russell Jr.
> CCIE #18397
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha!
> Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo!
> Games.
>
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