From: Antonio Soares (amsoares@netcabo.pt)
Date: Mon Aug 13 2007 - 08:55:57 ART
Congratulations !!! Well deserved.
May i know the preparation materials you recommend for the 350-029 exam ? I
see that the recommended book list is incredibly large. Maybe you could help
shorten the list with the "Must Have" books ?
Thanks.
Regards,
Antonio Soares
CCIE #18473, CCNP, CCIP
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
Marko Milivojevic
Sent: segunda-feira, 13 de Agosto de 2007 10:42
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: #18427 ... With a Short Delay :-)
I don't really know where to begin this e-mail. I had it all worked out in
my head long time ago, but I am almost out of words right now.
I will drop the bombshell now and see what I can write afterwards.
On Wednesday July 11th, I passed CCIE SP in Brussels on my first attempt!
I wrote this email few days after that day, but I was on Internetless
vacation for the past month. Deserved one ;-). Here it goes...
My story is a little bit different than most that you read here and I will
gladly share some bits and pieces with you. These "success stories"
helped
me a lot during my preparation and I wish to return the favour.
Background:
I have been working with service providers my entire career, which now spans
some 10 years. Approximately 75% of that period I have been on middle or
senior networking positions with tasks involving planning, design,
implementation, staff training, operational support (we call it 4th level
support), troubleshooting, etc. Please, have that in mind when you read the
next paragraph - this experience should not be taken lightly when it comes
to the exam itself. I started my Cisco certification path in 2002, when I
passed CCNA and CCDA. Later on in 2004 and 2005, I finished CCNP, CCIP and
CCDP. I failed SP written once in 2005 (I have an excuse that I was hangover
after Cisco Norway party on Networkers and that it was Metro Ethernet beta
exam ;-) ) and passed it on my second attempt in April this year (350-029).
Preparation:
I have been actively preparing for the lab in the past 1.5 months. Yes, you
read that correctly. I passed written in April and only in May I secured
funding for the lab which I scheduled for July. It consisted of thorough
understanding of technologies covered in the blueprint and what I suspected
would be on the exam. I have completed 7 full-scale labs, only for the
reasons of understanding the stress levels and time management. As I believe
you are all waiting to hear what magic workbook I used, I will share that in
the order in which I purchased. I will also comment on the content and my
impressions. Your mileage may vary and all of you reading this who are
authors - please, take this is a constructive criticism, not a negative one.
I used IPexpert SP workbook with Proctor Guide and later on I purchased
Internetwork SP Workbook, Vol. 1. Week before exam I spent reading through
entire 12.4 configuration guide and command reference. However, ever since I
started thinking about CCIE, I used UniverCD as my primary source of
information for IOS - without using search. This was invaluable, as it will
become clearer when I talk about my lab strategy and experience below.
IPexpert:
Thank you very much for a very nicely laid out material. It nicely followed
my philosophy of understanding the technologies and focusing on one at the
time. This was tremendous resource that nicely follows ~95% of the
blueprint.
That being said, Proctor's Guide needs some rechecking. It's a book that
costs several hundred dollars. It is unacceptable to have some mistakes
contained in there. I'm not talking about "wrong configurations", I am
talking about Workbook using one addressing scheme and Proctor's Guide using
different one. It is as if there was no QA. Another issue that I had with
IPexpert's material, was not actually IPexpert, rather their daughter
company ProctorLabs. IPexpert's labs are supposed to be used on ProctorLabs
racks. Even though the price was a bit higher than some of the competition,
I liked the interface, there were available slots almost any time I needed
them and it was very smooth using their system. I highly recommend their
racks... except 7200 racks, which are, let me be fully honest, total
rubbish.
Almost every time I had problems with startup configurations not being
cleared. This has been remedied _very effectively_ by their tech support. I
was also generously reimbursed for wasted time. However, that doesn't change
the thing that IPexpert labs that were designed for those racks (as
explicitly stated at the beginning of every lab) are unconfigurable as
presented. First of all, IOS software versions do not allow for all
solutions to be implemented (this is mentioned in PG's
solution) and interface mappings on some routers are totally off.
Furthermore, workbook presentation of pre-configuration requirements are not
as clear as they should be - IMHO, it is not very acceptable to learn that I
need to preconfigure another BB router 3 hours into the exam when I'm fully
concentrating on other things. Also, BB configurations downloadable from the
IPexpert website contain some errors that will cause solutions not to work
unless BB itself is troubleshooted. Again, for the material that costs
several hundred dollars - unacceptable.
Overall: Very good material for learning and practising, but it requires
some QA and polishing. I would recommend this as a preparation. Errors in
the configs would actually aid you in understanding why certain things don't
work.
Internetwork Expert:
When I finished all the technology and full scale labs from IPexpert, three
weeks into my preparation, I realized that I still have things to work on,
but I was unsure what further steps to take - should I focus on increasing
my theoretical knowledge or should I work more labs. I was unsure, but I
succumbed to marketing ;-) and I decided to buy one more workbook. I must
admit that I was "mislead" into believing that Vol. 1 contains full-scale
labs. It doesn't - it's a technology labs workbook (with solutions
included). To be honest, I was shocked to see that, almost furious, but...
I was mistaken. That buying accident was actually blessing. It just
supported my way of learning by focusing on isolated problems, without
forcing me to learn tricks. Excellent material, very well presented,
however, I must state that tech. support was somewhat disorganized :-).
There were some errors in the electronic workbook (diagrams didn't display
correctly). Luckily, they were in labs that I didn't much care about, but I
decided to see how fast they will be fixed. Basically, within a week, I had
a new version that had graphs corrected. Two days after receiving the new
material, I was contacted by tech support to apologise for new version not
being available :-). Back to material.
Brilliant is the word. Very well laid out, very clear diagrams, easy to
understand tasks and solutions provided in a form of configurations. I
highly recommend this workbook in a learning process. Furthermore, topology
is readily available for Dynagen/Dynamips - major plus!
Overall: Very good material for learning. Lack of full scale labs is offset
by existence of Vol. 2, which contains them - I cannot comment on that book,
as I don't have it.
Week Before the Lab:
I decided to take the last week as a special part of the preparation
strategy here, and I think it was crucial. I focused on UniverCD and on
doing two and only two full-scale labs on the weekend. On Sunday, I stopped
all studies. I relaxed, went to the swimming pool, met some friends, had
nice dinner. On Monday, I packed my stuff, went to bed early. On Tuesday, I
went to Brussels, checked in hotel (NH Hotel -- very close to Cisco,
excellent rooms and they have crocodile (!) on dinner menu). I went to see
where Cisco is, how do I get in there. Had one small beer to relax, ate nice
dinner (not a croc, I left that for the day after) and went early to bed.
__I HAD A VERY LONG AND A GOOD NIGHT SLEEP__ <-- make that bold, too.
The Lab Day:
I woke up early, had a quick shower, had a nice, but not very big breakfast
and I went to Cisco. I was 2nd to arrive and soon after few other joined us.
Some first timers like I was, some experienced lab takers and some...
quadruple CCIE's taking their 5th! :-) Erik soon joined us and took us to
the lab. This is where I become vague ;-)
The Lab:
You have three assets available to you in the lab. Yourself, UniverCD and
Proctor. Let me just digress here for a second.
Erik, thank you so much for putting up with all 25 of my questions.
Thank
you for being patient and thank you for telling me to read my workbook :-).
For the rest of you, I believe that pretty much sums up how important
Proctor can be. Seriously, I asked about _everything_ that wasn't 100% clear
to me. Even for some things that were crystal clear, I asked, just to make
sure. Every time I went to see Erik, I made sure that he fully understood
that I knew what I was talking about, that I knew the solutions and that I
was inquiring about which alternative may or may not be preferred. I believe
I left an impression of a man who knows his stuff.
Still, if I was him, I would have told me to get the hell out, especially
when I thought that exam had totally messed up information. It turned out it
was my brain that was messed up :-). Which neatly brings me to the strategy.
This will be another surprise.
I had none. Except a very good advice from a friend (Sasa Milic) who gave me
Yoda advice: "Do or do not do, but do not try". My main strength was my
knowledge and I had it as a mantra: "I know this stuff. Anything that they
throw at me, I can handle. Bring it on!" Boy, oh boy, was I not prepared for
what I had coming :-). Let me just say that I spent at least 30 minutes in
UniverCD reading about stuff that I should've taken blindfolded, while
asleep under the influence. You must, absolutely must, beyond all doubt know
where to find stuff on the CD. You _will_ get things that you do not know
about and you better know where to find them. Quickly. Note, I spent my time
reading, not searching. Big difference! As the time went on, there came the
lunch. Very nice food they have there. I had a juicy steak :-).
After lunch, the pressure started piling up. Things started not working and
I ended up in a long troubleshooting sequence that was taking my time at an
unaffordable rate, with approximately 7-8 unfinished tasks. 45 minutes
before the end, I was still fixing one major section when I decided to stop
and "finish off" the simple things. I did and I am so happy I did, because
if I didn't, you wouldn't be reading this right now. This is why I think it
was important for me to do only few labs in the preparation process. I knew
my stress levels. I knew to pick up the signals when I started losing it and
refocus on the stuff I knew. 15 minutes before the end, I had an eureka
moment how to fix one thing that I thought didn't work. I decided not to do
it, because it could break so many other things. I willingly let the points
go.
After the Exam:
I thought I had failed. I was more under stress then than before the exam.
I informed all my friends about my failure and I actually tried to book
another lab right there from the hotel. Luckily, the system does not allow
for that. I counted "lost points" in my brain and I was pretty depressed. I
had few beers, tried the croc (interesting stuff) and went to bed for a not
very long and not very good night of sleep. At 6:15 AM, I woke up, logged
into Cisco to see the exam report and there it stood #18427. I blinked my
eyes, had a shower, came back, had a Coke from mini bar, looked at the
screen again and the number was still there staring back at me. I actually
screamed as loud as I could. There it was, the holy grail right in front me.
It was mine. I was one of only 600 or so people with Service Provider CCIE
and further more, I was only of handful who have ever passed CCIE on their
first attempt. Then, I started having a headache as a result of all
suppressed stress. I was happy to have it.
Few Days After the Exam:
I am now on my month-long vacation in the place of my birth, with family and
friends. I don't have too much of an Internet access and I don't care.
I would like to thank all of you on GroupStudy for the great support you
provide to the people like I am. Had it not been for GS, I would have not
passed this exam. All the questions we have, all the doubts, all the
answers, both correct and the wrong ones, all the success stories, all the
failure stories. It all helps! It helped me and I am now obliged to help
others. Thank you all! Good luck all of you who are going to The Lab.
May the force be with you ;-)
Kind regards,
Marko Milivojevic, CCIE #18427
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Sep 01 2007 - 11:32:11 ART