From: Alexei Monastyrnyi (alexeim@orcsoftware.com)
Date: Mon Mar 03 2008 - 18:58:31 ARST
congrats on the achievement!
A.
Ed Balow wrote:
> Finally, I get to send out this email! I passed the R&S Lab in RTP on Sunday,
> March 3rd. I'm going to do a pretty lengthy email
> simply because I liked to read them as encouragement while I was studying, so
> I'm going to try to return the favor.
>
> I've been working on the CCIE off and on for the past 10 years. I completed
> the CCNA back in 1999 but was working primarily with servers
> at the time. It wasn't until 2004 when I finished the CCNP. I began picking
> up home rack equipment at the time and knocked out the CCIE Written. I also
> picked up the IPExpert workbooks. I was just never able to put together a
> regular study regiment and therefore never progressed.
>
> Last year I became a father and my priorities changed a bit. Realizing
> studying would likely get harder and harder, I knew I needed to get on
> the ball. While my wife was expecting, I picked up the IE CoD and watched
> every last minute of it. I also listened to the
> Audio CDs during my commute. The material was excellent and really helped get
> me to the CCIE level of understanding required for the lab. In September I
> then took the IPExpert bootcamp with Marvin Greenlee. Monday through Wednesday
> went well. On the Thursday lab I told Marvin, "On the bad side,
> I'm painting myself into every corner the lab leads me into, but on the good
> side I'm able to work my way out of it." Then after the Friday lab, I realized
> I was nowhere near the level I needed to be. I even told Marvin I feel worse
> now than I did before the class.
>
> For those of you that think this is odd, let me assure you this was a blessing.
> It is IMPOSSIBLE to get someone to the CCIE level in a week. The bootcamp did
> three very important things. It was the first time I dedicated 8 continuous
> hours to a lab on a daily basis. It gave me immediate feedback whenever I had
> a question on a task, instead of searching online to find the answer when the
> DocCD just wasn't enough. Finally, it made me wake up and understand I had a
> lot more to do before even considering attempting the lab.
>
> After the bootcamp, I did a full, relatively uninterrupted 8 hour IPexpert lab
> every weekend. Once January arrived I did an IE graded lab on
> Saturday and a IPexpert lab on Sunday. I really cannot say enough about the IE
> graded labs. I had no idea how many little mistakes I was
> making that I wasn't catching before that.
>
> Within a month, my IE graded lab scores raised up to 65%. I took the first lab
> attempt on January 25th. I walked out feeling I could have
> passed. Unfortunately I wasn't even close. By looking back at my IE graded
> labs, I realized how accurate they really were at gauging performance.
>
> Naturally I was a bit bummed out I didn't make it the first time. Marvin
> offered some words of encouragement and explained how close I really
> was. He recommended I take the test the next month.
>
> I continued doing IE graded labs on Saturday and IPexpert or IE workbook labs
> on Sunday. On my last IE mock lab I scored over 90%. Of course
> all my score report says is PASS, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was close
> to what the actual score ended up being.
>
> So what did I do differently between the 1st and 2nd attempt? The bottom line
> is on the 2nd try I spent much more time on verification. No matter
> how insignificant, I did another "show run" to ensure the config looked right,
> and then the appropriate show commands to verify it "took".
> Another major change is I used a single terminal window from the terminal
> server on the first attempt. I went with 10 windows on the 2nd
> try. I highly recommend 10 windows so you can see your debug and logging
> messages on multiple devices on the same time. I was originally
> worried of using more than 1 because I was afraid I'd get the windows mixed up.
> Getting practice with multiple windows helped stop this from
> happening. Another thing is I made a detailed Layer 2 diagram where I drew out
> every single switch port. I also made a high level BGP diagram to
> draw every adjacency. Last, I added multicast information to the Routing
> diagram to help with visualization.
>
> The bottom line is even though I knew the material well enough technically the
> first time, I needed to do better planning and verification. I also kept a
> picture of my son on the desk while I worked. Whenever I began to feel drained
> he would inspire me to keep going.
>
> Also on the first attempt I only asked a few questions. This time I must have
> asked 20-30. I wasn't going to assume ANYTHING. The proctor, Tom,
> is back from a one year hiatus of working at the lab. He's now proctoring on
> weekends. He was always very patient and did a great job of
> clarifying several questions for me. It only took him less than 2 hours to
> grade the lab. So if any of you are worried about a grading delay on the
> weekend, there isn't one.
>
> A few of the materials used:
> Routing TCP/IP (Doyle), especially Volume I was my favorite book for actually
> learning the technologies in preparation for the written.
> OSPF Network Design Solutions (Thomas), was an excellent OSPF resource both for
> learning and reference
> InternetworkExpert Class on Demand, priceless for bridging the gap between
> being "booksmart" on the materials and actually being able to configure them.
> InternetworkExpert Labs, have the best explanations and verification
> demonstrations
> IPExpert Labs, vague wording really helped in preparations
> IPExpert 1 week bootcamp, very motivating and filled in a lot of gaps
> CCIE Assessor, great for understanding the question formats and how the labs
> are graded.
> Groupstudy, I've been a passive reader for nearly a decade. Thanks for all the
> tips and inspiration over the years.
>
> And of course I have to thank my wife. I would never have been able to stay
> focused, especially with a newborn at home, without her help and sacrifices.
>
> Ed Balow
> CCIE #20152
>
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