Re: Damn, I finished the lab in 4 hours and had 4 hours to

From: Petr Lapukhov (petr@internetworkexpert.com)
Date: Mon Jun 30 2008 - 08:46:41 ART

Congratulations, Dale!
Never doubted you're gonna pass on your 1st :) And I really feel like I'd
better hurry with my Storage lab and CCDE practical ;)

PS
Hey, didn't I warn you about painful experience of taking lab exams on
Friday? :) though I believe that was after you got your lab scheduled.. 

-- 
Petr Lapukhov, CCIE #16379 (R&S/Security/SP/Voice)
petr@internetworkexpert.com

Internetwork Expert, Inc.
http://www.InternetworkExpert.com

2008/6/30 Dale Kling <dalek77@gmail.com>:

> get served that coffee Brian Dennis was talking about.  At least I got my
> number on my first attempt though, 21330 baby!
> BTW, never ever ever take your lab on Friday, the wait was worse then the
> night before christmas as a kid!  I didn't get my results until I woke up
> this morning and have been on edge with people all weekend.
>
> Some people already know me from class and know my story.  I began studying
> because of all the paper CCNPs out there, especially my work.  Now I have
> nothing against CCNPs or any paper certs if you did it the right way, but
> what pissed me off is that our employer thought this other guy was as
> qualified as me because he got his CCNP and this guy announced himself as a
> Senior Engineer. Well this schmuck took two days to get an SVI on a Cat
> 3750
> up and just started networking about a year ago.  While I worked hard for
> mine and have recertified it twice over the past 7 years now, he got his in
> weeks with you know what......  Pretty blatant about it as well as they
> passed them around work talking about how they can get CCNP in just a few
> weeks.  These guys blow and I wish Cisco would do something about their
> testing system.
>
> In any case, I got mad, I mean really mad that nobody could see through the
> charade of these fake qualified network engineers.  February of this year I
> had enough and I knew there was only one thing to do.  Get something that
> they couldn't get or at least they would have to work real hard to get and
> based on their work ethic, I doubt they would ever get it, the CCIE.  I
> worked my @$$ off since I got the materials end of February, and by the
> grace of GOD and my lovely wife I was able to get my number in RTP on June
> 27th.  I pretty much shut my family off for the last 4 months, while my
> wife
> took care of everything, the kids, the house, the dogs......  To give
> everyone an idea of the hours I put in....  I worked 40 hours a week, I
> studied everyday after work, from 6 pm to  2 am labbing and 12-15 hours
> each
> day on the weekends.  I took one day off and that was Mothers day and then
> I
> attended InternetworkExperts 12 day bootcamp.  I actually finished their
> bootcamp material by the 3rd day of the bootcamp and Brian Dennis and
> company was nice enough to let me mock lab the rest of the days I was
> there.  The InternetworkExpert bootcamp was  nice to get away for 12 days
> and lab for about 12-15 hours a day.   I went outside once the entire time
> I
> was there and that was for a 5 min walk to look at the pool and I didn't
> turn on my tv once.  I probably squeezed in about 3 weeks of lab time in 2
> weeks of time.  In essence, I was driven to get the CCIE from start to
> finish in about 4 months.  Granted I have about 8 years Cisco experience,
> but it hasn't been hands on everyday the past 3-4 years because I work in a
> lab environment now and no longer do operational support, thank god for
> that
> too.
>
> It was a hard road, and there was many times I kept telling myself this is
> too hard and will I never get there.  However, I kept telling myself as
> long
> as I keep studying and as long as I keep labbing I will always learn
> something and will get closer.  You might think I'm crazy, but I had a goal
> and my wife said go for it.  As I've said in previous posts, my motivattion
> was not money, but to gain the knowledge these other guys didn't have and
> to
> achieve CCIE status, something most of these paper certifiers won't ever
> get.   I have to say that I must thank these guys at work for the
> motivation, and I will today when I go in to work in 2 hours after I get my
> Cisco polos embroidered with the CCIE logo and install an LED behind it. :P
> Seriously though, they gave me that spark that I was missing for years and
> passing this lab attempt has ignited it even more.  Now if you've managed
> to
> endure the past few paragraphs of blah, all you first time CCIE candidates
> enjoy my recommendations, which you've all heard time and time again I'm
> sure.
>
> Study the Core, lab the Core until your fingers bleed.  Get your Core down
> to at least 3 hours or less.  InternetwokExpert WB3 labs are awesome for
> this, I got those down to 2 hours or less, some of the hard ones took 2 1/2
> hours.  Speed and time management was huge for me.  I probably put in about
> 500 hours of harcore lab time the last 4 months.  I initially started
> InternetworkExperts WB2 doing labs in like 10 hours, learning and
> understanding the theory behind things.  They were tough at first, but I
> constantly would go back and reread the DOCCD and reference all my books, I
> have ton of books.  I watched their technologies COD 2 1/2 times in it's
> entirety.  It took a lot of coffee and doing it hands on with them to stay
> awake.  Brian Dennis's jokes couldn't even keep me up anymore after the
> first go around. ;)  After a few months I started completing their labs in
> entirety in about 4 hours.  Once this happened, I would do them and then
> look up everything in the DOCCD, no matter if I knew it or not.  This was
> my
> DOCCD familiarization stage.  I actually picked that up from Scott Morris
> from somewhere I believe.  Here it comes, you've heard it before, and
> you're
> going to hear it again....
>
> KNOW YOUR DOCCD..  I guarantee you will get something in the lab that you
> haven't seen before.  This is where speed on the CORE was essential for me.
> By lunch I had completed the lab once over , ran my TCL script, and was
> feeling a little uneasy still, but I had the meat done.  I'm a paranoid
> guy,
> you can ask others.  The only thing left was verification and digging in
> the
> DOCCD for those few things I didn't know.  I verified twice and each time I
> found one small mistake that would have cost me 2 or 3 points each.  Oh and
> by the way, I still don't know the answer to one of them weird questions,
> even now that I'm home and I have google, so here it comes, here it comes
> again, KNOW YOUR DOCCD.  My last suggestion is make sure you know theory
> very well in the CORE IGP, well everything you learn really, but especially
> your CORE.  you've heard time and time again Switching, FR, and IGP
> probably
> will be half your points.  If you understand the mechanics and how things
> work, no matter what scenario you get you can work through it.  If you
> memorize the vendor WBs, it won't help in the real lab.
>
> So I guess I should recognize people and materials that have helped me.
> First off, my wife and GOD.  If I don't mention her first, she might kill
> me
> and probably the same about GOD... O_o  Next, InternetworkExperts ver 4 WBs
> and their Technology COD.  I have the Brians' voices engrained into my
> head.  Brian Dennis, Josh Finke and crew from InternetworkExpert were nice
> enough to hook me up in the last hours.  Also, IPExperts audio CD with
> Scott
> Morris.  I bought their WB package, but I only used the audio portion.  I
> thought it was very good and I probably listened to it about 5 times in
> it's
> entirety driving to and from work everyday.  It was just an extra tool to
> feed my brain the knowledge it needed.
>
>  I already have the materials from InternetworkExpert for the SP track and
> will hit that at work starting this morning since this is what I do at work
> everyday and my boss will let me study while I lab it up on our 7604s. :)
> MMM Knowledge, I think these guys at work turned me into an animal.  Watch
> your back Petr, I'm coming for your CCIEs and I'll probably pass up Brian
> Mcgahan in 6 months because he's a slacker. j/k man. ;)
>
>  Good luck to all other CCIE candidates and I hope this email helps.
>
> regards,
>
> Dale
>
> P.S.  Don't unicast me for any NDA crap either, I'll turn your ass into
> Cisco.
>
>
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