From: Scott M Vermillion (scott_ccie_list@it-ag.com)
Date: Mon Oct 20 2008 - 22:39:37 ARST
Hi Charles,
Glad Lloyd and I could be of some help to you. I do agree that the IE lab
strategy VoD is something to have a good look at. I've actually watched the
freely available one and also the sessions on lab strategy that come with
some of their online product offerings, so I'm not 100% clear which one
delves into what topic at a particular level of detail. But one thing they
recommended that I initially rejected was to start to practice drawing out
your own L2 and L3 topologies. My first thought was that I did just fine
with the drawings furnished. Then I did the Cisco Assessors and realized I
shouldn't necessarily make any assumptions about anything. Also I totally
agree with Lloyd (and the vendors that recommend this) on the task chart
thing. Again, something I wasn't too crazy about investing any of my
already stretched time budget in. But this gives you the opportunity to
leave yourself little notes as you read through the entire lab scenario.
This does help you to see the bigger picture and start to tie things
together in a way that won't require too much in the way of backtracking.
Best wishes for your upcoming attempt!
Scott
From: Charles Henson [mailto:chenson@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 6:18 PM
To: Scott M Vermillion
Cc: Cisco certification
Subject: Re: strategy / approach question
That's two similar feedbacks. I think I'm getting the idea. Thanks for the
guidance Scott.
On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 7:09 PM, Scott M Vermillion
<scott_ccie_list@it-ag.com> wrote:
Hey Charles,
No doubt the professional instructors will have some advice for you on this
topic. But just a quick question for you:
What is your own estimate of how much time this costs you per lab, on
average? My guess is that sometimes it doesn't hurt you much. But in other
cases it could cost you around $1400. You're introducing unnecessary
troubleshooting and reconfiguration steps. A good (simple) example would be
BGP confederation. If you go configure BGP but leave some confed task for
last, you're going to wind up needing to start all over.
This is part of the broader test. If you don't address it properly in your
preparations, then at best you have less wiggle room in other areas of the
exam. Obviously at worst you have some additional travel arrangements to
make at some point down the line.
And I say all of this as someone who struggles with time management. I
don't necessarily have your specific issue of not wanting to work out attack
strategy beforehand, but I do tend to be a tad slow. As such, much (if not
most) of my final month of prep for R&S was dedicated exclusively to lab
strategy and time management. I did do a whirlwind review of technologies
and the documentation, but thankfully most of that was "checked off" before
going into the final stretch so that I could apply myself to this critical
aspect of the lab exam.
Regards,
Scott
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
Charles Henson
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 4:57 PM
To: Cisco certification
Subject: strategy / approach question
I'm about a month out from my first attempt. I am at the point where I'm
completing most labs comfortably but I still am trying to work on improving
my time. My question is this: One area I'm not too great on is identifying
the issues ahead of time. I tend to drag my feet thru the lab and when I get
to something that influences how I set things up an hour ago, I work thru it
and keep going. I understand that it's not effecient, that's just my method.
Page 1, Page 2, etc. I'm just curious to hear from other people if they have
had this approach and survived or if the key to passing in a timely manner
really depends on your ability to forecast problems when you initially read
thru your instructions first thing in the morning. My goal for the next
month - "Strategery"
Anyone have any thoughts? Experiences?
-- CharlesBlogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
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