From: Joe Rinehart (jjrinehart@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Mar 24 2008 - 13:26:34 ART
Congrats!
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of Lars
Christensen
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 8:35 AM
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: Passed on 14 March 2008
Hi GS
Finally after my third try, I passed the R&S on Friday the 14th of March in
Brussels.
My journey started some five years ago, when I decided to strive for a CCIE
before my 30th birthday. My CCNA was passed without any particular study,
since I had been working part-time with Cisco based networks for some time
then (from 1999 - 2003 I worked with the largest dorm network in Denmark),
but after failing the first test for BSCI for the CCNP, I gave it a break. I
also at the same time got a new full-time job as a network engineer at a
Danish ISP. Because of that, I didn't have the same amount of time to fulfil
my quest for the CCIE.
In the spring of 2005 I participated in a contest held by Cisco Press with
the grand price of 12 vouchers for Cisco based tests at VUE or Prometric,
all valid for 12 months. Suddenly I had a time limit of one year to complete
12 exams. Because of that, I gave the whole quest for the CCIE a large burst
of energy. Within that 12 month period, I completed my CCNP and most of CCIP
(still missing MPLS, Do'h!!). I also had some tries left for CCIE written
R&S and I passed the written after a few attempts in June 2006.
I then took a roughly 6 month break from the studies, partly to relax a bit,
but also because of increased work load on the job. I the spring 2007 I
started to look for some boot camps, preferred in Denmark. During the summer
I trained a lot using various online labs, mostly IPExpert and their labs. I
signed up with Global Knowledge and in October and November 2007 I attended
two weeks of boot camp in Oslo, Norway.
On December 13 2007 I did my first try in RTP, but failed miserably. I
didn't expect to pass, but I hoped. I did another try in January in
Brussels. I was quite sure I passed even tough I didn't complete 3
questions. When I saw my score report, I went completely stunned. I didn't
receive any points for the security part. I didn't understand this, because
I believed I did a configuration of OSPF authentication and SSH integration
completely and it worked. During the next week or so, I was unsure whether I
should demand a reread or not. The 14 days expired and I didn't demand any
reread.
I decided to wait some time and without any hard studies during the next few
months, only briefly overlooking some of the topics I knew I had problems
with, I passed in Brussels at last.
I was a kind of surprised during the exam. Part 1 and 2 was done just before
lunch. Knowing that more than half of the points were completed, I was
satisfied. After lunch everything speeded up, even more than I was
expecting. With more than two hours left, I had completed all questions. Now
what to do. I simply started all over again and verified that all questions
were completed as expected, consulting the proctor several times (thanks
Eric) and doing some rather basic debug and show commands, I was completely
satisfied and finished with roughly 45 minutes left.
When I left the building at Cisco, I was more than convinced that I nailed
it this time. I knew if I failed, I was probably no able to pass for some
time. Friday evening I was rather shaking when I saw the email from Cisco
saying "Score report". It took some time, actually several hours to take
down my hands when I saw the result. I was just SO happy, especially because
this was the last attempt I could make before my 30th birthday with just 3
days to spare. I had fulfilled a journey I started some five years before
and on time.
Therefore I'm proud to announce that I'm now known as CCIET no. 20292 with
thanks to all who helped my along the way.
Best regards to all on Groupstudy,
Lars Lystrup Christensen
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