From: Dale Kling (dalek77@gmail.com)
Date: Mon Jun 30 2008 - 15:26:30 ART
I will never take the lab again on a Friday, although it's kind of a good
luck day for me now I guess. hmmmmm! Oh and btw, they didn't have any soup
for lunch! It was catered fish......
On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 7:46 AM, Petr Lapukhov <petr@internetworkexpert.com>
wrote:
> 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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