From: DWINKWORTH@wi.rr.com
Date: Mon Oct 22 2007 - 14:52:06 ART
I'm going to combine the "ambiguity" thread with this one in this
response.
It is not always straightforward what you need to do in the
InternetworkExpert workbook. Or in the netmasterclass workbook... or
probably the IPExpert workbook.
For some tasks... you CAN'T know what to do until you have determined
what needs to be done for one or more other tasks. These tasks are
inter-dependent. They form an "arch" in the practice lab. Even if you
read the whole lab before hand and try to figure out which tasks will
impact each other, you need to be prepared for the event that one task
seems to be negatively impacted by some 1st, 2nd, or 3rd order effect
of feature/functionality you configured for another task... on the same
router, a next-hop router, or a router three hops away.
To this end, the answer to one task which is ambiguous, will become
apparent in another task or combination of tasks.
It is genuinely misleading to say that you should be able to read and
predict all of this before you go to configure the routers in any
practice lab. You should be validating periodically and ensuring that
your prior task items still look how you think they should look.
That is what really distinguishes the vendors in my opinion. Some of
them really know how to put these archs together so that you learn how
to use the features/functionality of the router to solve problems.
Which is really what the lab is all about.
----- Original Message -----
From: CCIEin2006 <ciscocciein2006@gmail.com>
Date: Monday, October 22, 2007 9:26 am
Subject: Re: Here's and idea for a new workbook - CCIE Riddles!
To: Gregory Gombas <ggombas@gmail.com>
Cc: Cisco certification <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
> I agree.
>
> From a technical standpoint vendor workbooks are excellent - they
> help you
> learn the technologies inside out. And as Brian Dennis says, they
> try not to
> focus on stupid router tricks.
>
> Unfortunately I think the lab has become more about stupid router
> tricksthan core technologies. Or I should say more about stupid
> task wording than
> core technologies. They expect everyone to already know the core
> technologies, so why bother focusing on those?
>
> Because vendors write their labs with the intention to teach you the
> technologies, they make the questions as straightforward as possible.
>
> When I pick up an IE lab I know exactly what they are asking me to
> do. The
> diagram is beautiful, full color, and easy to read (no I don't own
> stock in
> IE). Lines are clearly drawn and you know exactly what kind of
> connection to
> configure.
>
> Without breaking the NDA, lets just say in the real lab the
> diagrams are not
> so pretty. I wasted a good hour trying to figure out what one of the
> connections was because it was not specified in the lab what kind of
> connection to use and the diagram was not clear. The proctor was
> of course
> no help.
>
> Also, as others have mentioned, the wording that the workbook
> vendors use is
> very straight forward. If they want you to confiugre BGP
> confederations,they'll say "hey dummy, configure BGP using
> confederation id 65222 and peer
> R1 to R2 blah blah blah."
>
> In the lab they might say something like "configure these routers
> using the
> guidelines set forth in RFC 3065." Well maybe that's a bad
> example, but you
> get my drift...
>
> My 2cents.
>
>
> On 10/22/07, Gregory Gombas <ggombas@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I have a suggestion for CCIE vendors...
> >
> > With all the recent talk about ambiguity of the lab questions,
> why not
> > write a study guide called CCIE riddles? They don't have to have
> full> lab scenarios, just different word puzzles that will make
> you think
> > hard about what the task is asking you to do.
> >
> > Here's and example:
> > You're manager, who is not very technical, has tasked you to
> design a
> > new network in the San Jose office using routers R1 - R4. He has not
> > told you which routing protocol to use, but if you had your
> drothers,> you would configure R3 and R4 to not talk to one another.
> >
> > Answer:
> > Configure OSPF with R1 and R2 as DR and BDR. R3 and R4 will be
> DROTHER> state.
> >
> > What do you guys think?
> >
> >
>
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