From: john matijevic (john.matijevic@gmail.com)
Date: Sat Nov 08 2008 - 19:45:02 ARST
Hello Lloyd,
My advice would be to take a mock lab, several vendors offer it, I think
Cisco does now also, that should give you an idea if you are ready for the
exam, and could save you $1000 dollars or more, between attempts, from the
mock lab you can learn on what weaknesses you have and to work on those.
They didn't offer the mock lab when I started but towards the end of my
studies they really helped me alot.
Sincerely,
John
On Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 12:35 PM, Lloyd Ardoin <lloyd@thewizkid.biz> wrote:
> Thanks to all of you who wrote to me. Finally got a decent night's rest but
> I am still kind of reeling from all of this so I am taking the rest of
> weekend off to visit the folks
> and do some head clearing and will come back on Monday to take another look
> at myself and try and come up with a plan to figure out what I need to
> do to eliminate my weaknesses. i appreciate all the kind words and
> suggestions.
>
> regards,
> Lloyd
>
> On Nov 7, 2008, at 5:04 PM, Lloyd Ardoin wrote:
>
> Let me first apologize for the lengthy post. Although I have been
>> involved in
>> GS for over a year I have not been very vocal. I have submitted a question
>> or
>> two and have attempted to answer a couple of questions when I felt
>> confident
>> that I could provide good information. I needed to talk about my last
>> attempt
>> at the lab and wanted to share it with people who understand the plight.
>>
>> Well I am back from my fourth attempt at RTP for my R&S lab and am
>> starring at
>> another failed email from Cisco. I am writing this in hopes to try and not
>> internalize all that I am feeling and maybe in some small way help some
>> one
>> else. My journey has been a 2 = year one; after leaving a company that I
>> worked for over 28 years and having my networking position basically out
>> sourced to a local communication company as a 'managed service'. I decided
>> at
>> that time to pursue the CCIE certification so that I could work as long as
>> I
>> choose to, make a comfortable living and do interesting work. I spared no
>> expense and purchased the equipment to build my own home lab (several
>> iterations), attended the first of two boot camps with NMC in October of
>> 2006
>> after passing the written earlier in the year. I spent the rest of 2006
>> and
>> most of 2007 doing labs at home and made my first attempt in October of
>> 2007
>> and of course failed miserably. I signed up for my second boot camp with
>> IE in
>> March of this year and after attending felt like I had the tools I needed
>> to
>> get the job done. The boot camp pointed out some issues I had with
>> accuracy
>> and time management so I focused on those. My second attempt was in June
>> which
>> was another struggle to get the lab completed and another fail. Did
>> another
>> lab in September and saw that my core technologies were still the cause of
>> my
>> lack of success so I came home committed to focusing on those specifically
>> which is what I did for the last 30 - 45 days doing core technology labs
>> and
>> attempting to strengthen that area up. Somewhat surprisingly and quite a
>> disappointment yesterday was to see that I still have not been able to
>> bring
>> those scores up with any significance and obviously this tells me that I
>> need
>> to take a step back and figure out where my process is broken. I have a
>> passion for technology and an insatiable desire to understand how things
>> work
>> and immensely enjoy the learning process. I take a lot of pride in how I
>> go
>> about what I am pursuing and always try to be the best I can be. I don't
>> have
>> a PHD or Master's degree and my IQ is definitely not in the 120's but
>> through
>> my life I have been able to achieve though my desire, persistence and
>> determination. I am definitely not throwing up the white flag but I do
>> have to
>> admit after my two nights of very little sleep and my long flight back
>> home
>> this one has definitely knocked the wind out of my sails. I have spent
>> the
>> last 2 years or so dedicating my personal time to one mission because it
>> means
>> that much to me. Through my journey I have been privileged to meet some
>> interesting and admirable people who share a lot of the same feelings I
>> have
>> about this world of technology and all it has to offer. I have provided
>> myself
>> the equipment to study with, acquired study materials from outstanding
>> vendors, purchased and read most of the recommended reading materials,
>> spent
>> most weekends locked up sitting next to my racks doing the work, printed
>> off
>> hundreds of pages from the Cisco web site for reference and yet to no
>> avail.
>> I knew this was going to be a difficult journey but willing and able to
>> take
>> it on but right now I feel like I have been climbing the side of a
>> mountain
>> and have slid all the way back down to the bottom and I am looking back up
>> at
>> the top that seems so far, far away. Again I say I am definitely not a
>> quitter and will go home and get some sleep and wake up tomorrow with a
>> more
>> determined outlook and sit down and do some serious soul searching to try
>> and
>> figure out what is so broken about my study process and pick myself back
>> up to
>> start the climb once more.
>>
>> That is my story without an ending..
>>
>> To all those who pursue.good luck!
>>
>> Lloyd
>>
>>
>> Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
>>
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>
>
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>
> _______________________________________________________________________
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