From: Alexei Monastyrnyi (alexeim@orcsoftware.com)
Date: Fri Jan 18 2008 - 13:28:49 ARST
comgrats on the achievement!
Wollmann, Bruno RQHR said the following on 1/17/2008 7:26 AM:
> Hello GS,
>
> Sorry for this long-winded message. I just wanted to share my
> experience in hopes that it helps others attain their CCIE goal.
>
> On Monday, January 14th in San Jose I passed the CCIE lab on my second
> attempt. I was very surprised at how quickly I found out. 3 hours
> after we were booted out of the lab I got the email telling me to check
> the website for my results. After a few nervous clicks, I saw the great
> news.
>
> I want to thank all who contribute to this list as it is a great
> resource for learning. I joined this list in July, 2007 and I think I
> have only had to post 2 questions as all my other questions were
> answered by reading the archives. This is a fantastic group.
>
> I want to thank the proctors in San Jose. They were very helpful.
>
> I also need to thank my family and especially my wife. I have 3 kids
> who are very busy with sports and my wife took over my parenting duties
> to allow me to study. I am truly lucky to have such a great wife. I
> can now go back to being a father, husband, friend and coach as I used
> to coach my kids hockey and baseball teams before I started studying for
> CCIE.
>
> Final thanks go to IPEXPERT and INTERNETWORK EXPERT as it was their
> products I purchased to help me study.
>
> I also have to apologize as I will most likely be decreasing the average
> salary for a CCIE. I live in a place that doesn't have a very large
> population and not many large networks (I think I work on the 2nd
> largest network in my area already) so the only way to get a higher
> paying job is to move. There is no way my family wants to move. I do
> like my current job so it would be hard to leave. The only other option
> is to become a traveling or remote consultant. Let me know if you're
> looking for such a person :)
>
> STUDY MATERIAL:
> IP Expert WB version 9.0
> IE WB version 4.1 Volumes I, II & III
> IE Advanced Technologies CoD version 4.5
> Cisco UniverCD - many, many hours spent here
> Group Study Archives - many, many hours spent here as well
> ftp://ftpeng.cisco.com/ipmulticast/training/index.html
>
> STUDY STRATEGY:
> My study strategy for my 2nd attempt was very different than for my
> first attempt (June 2007). For my first attempt the only thing I used
> to study was IP Expert WB version 9.0. This book got me very close to
> passing but I didn't use it the right way. I completed this workbook
> from cover to cover and that helped me come up with a very good strategy
> for taking the exam itself but I still had holes in my knowledge. I am
> in no way bashing IP Expert. I am very happy with their product and I
> would recommend it to anyone. My problem was I stuck 100% to the
> workbook. I didn't go exploring to change any solutions to see the
> affects that different commands have on a working system. I also spent
> no time with the UniverCD. I went into my first attempt being very weak
> in QoS and Multicast. This was a bad idea. It truly is an expert level
> exam and weaknesses will be exposed. I took 6 weeks holidays from work
> right before this attempt and worked from morning to night. I think I
> burnt myself out and really gave myself no chance to pass.
>
> I started studying in October 2007 again after taking 3 months off to
> enjoy summer and so that I could get involved with my family again. I
> started by reading the UniverCD and trying different commands to
> understand how they work and what they do. I spent many hours in the
> QoS and Multicast sections.
> ftp://ftpeng.cisco.com/ipmulticast/training/index.html was next. I felt
> very comfortable with multicast after reading everything on this
> website. I then went through the IE CoD. This was a good refresher for
> topics I already knew and felt comfortable with. It was a great tool
> for building a good foundation for my weak areas.
>
> I then took another 3 weeks holidays from work for the 3 weeks right
> before my 2nd attempt. In these last 3 weeks I only did 8 full day
> labs. I did a few from IP Expert and a few from IE. Each 8-hour lab
> took me about 16 hours over 2 days. This is because I looked up
> everything in the UniverCD so that I knew where to find everything if I
> needed it during the exam. The other reason was that I tried every
> possible solution to each question. I learned how each option affected
> the solution and I also learned the show and debug commands to verify my
> solutions. I didn't know many show and debug commands for my first
> attempt. As backwards as this sounds, I think taking 16 hours to do an
> 8-hour lab actually helped with my speed. When I got to the real exam,
> I was able to immediately think of a few different options for each
> question and then all I had to do was decide on the correct option and
> apply it.
>
> In the last days leading upto my exam I was getting very good at the
> core topics. For the remaining IE labs I didn't do the layer 2 and 3
> portions. I just read the labs and the solution guides and just
> answered the remaining lab questions on routers and switches without any
> base configs. Obviously I couldn't test IP reachability with this
> method but I didn't need to. I just wanted to be able to read a
> question, understand the problem and know what solution to implement. I
> found this to be a good strategy for Security, IP and IOS Features.
>
> I quit studying at noon on Friday, January 12th. I installed a new
> dishwasher in our kitchen on Friday afternoon and took my youngest son
> to a hockey game on Friday night. I flew to San Francisco early
> Saturday morning and went shopping for souvenirs. I didn't study all
> day. At night I went and watched the San Jose Sharks beat the Toronto
> Maple Leafs. Before I went to bed, I check GS. On Sunday I woke up at
> 7:00am and went on the tour of Alcatraz and then toured around
> Fisherman's Wharf for the rest of the day. Sunday night I went to a
> movie and then checked GS before I went to bed. I kept myself very busy
> on the weekend and did a lot of walking while shopping and site-seeing.
> This was to ensure that when I went to bed at 9:00pm on Sunday I was
> tired enough to get to sleep. This worked like a charm. I was
> exhausted after all the walking and slept like a baby.
>
> EXAM STRATEGY:
> I started off by making a 4 column table. The first column was to
> indicate the status of the question: blank - not done/skipped, check
> mark - done, question mark - solution entered but need to re-verify
> later. The second column was the question number. Third column was
> point value. Fourth column was for notes.
> I read the entire exam once making notes as I read. I then read it
> again.
> I then started the exam and verified every answer using show and debug
> commands as I went along.
> I finished everything with about 2.5 hours left. I used that time to
> re-do the exam. I'm glad I did because I found a few errors that didn't
> affect the solution but also didn't meet the requirements of the
> question. I would most certainly have gotten zero for those questions
> and may not have passed.
>
> I think I went to the proctors about 4 or 5 times and referenced the
> UniverCD about 7 or 8 times.
>
> FINAL THOUGHTS:
> Know yourself.
>
> You must know what your weaknesses are and focus on strengthening those
> areas. I spent 2 months studying only QoS and Multicast. I got to the
> point where I was hoping for a hard question in these 2 subject areas on
> the exam. OK, maybe I wasn't hoping for a hard question but I was
> certainly prepared for it.
>
> You must know what you are capable of. For me, studying 16 hours a day
> for 6 weeks straight last June was way too grueling. I really cut back
> the hours I studied in one day and spread it out using more days but
> less study hours in each day. My brain needed time each day to chew on
> the new information it just received. I couldn't retain anything during
> the 16-hour days.
>
> Don't study the day before or even 2 or 3 days before your exam.
> Because of the 2.5 day break I took before the exam, I was fresh and
> ready to go. I was more attentive and alert because of the break.
>
> Finally, this is a hard mountain to climb but it can definitely be
> climbed. It takes hard work, dedication, intelligence, imagination and
> heart, especially if you've already failed. I read a few posts on GS
> where people are worried that there are too many CCIE's and that this
> certification is becoming de-valued. I say bullsh*t. I don't care if
> there are 20,000 or 200,000 CCIE's out there, it still takes the
> qualities I just mentioned to become a CCIE. These qualities will never
> be de-valued.
>
> thanks and good luck to all those that are still climbing,
> Bruno Wollmann
> CCIE#19817
>
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