From: Josh Covarrubias (shmokin@gmail.com)
Date: Fri Jan 16 2009 - 22:00:34 ARST
Great advice Joe! Congrats on your digits. Totally agree with the 8 hours
labs simulating the real one. Did U pass Very Recent?!?
On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 3:54 PM, Anthony Sequeira <
asequeira@internetworkexpert.com> wrote:
> Congrats and thanks for your 2 cents!
>
> Anthony J. Sequeira, CCIE #15626, CCSI #23251
> Senior CCIE Instructor
>
> asequeira@internetworkexpert.com
>
> Internetwork Expert, Inc.
> http://www.InternetworkExpert.com
> Toll Free: 877-224-8987
> Outside US: 775-826-4344
>
>
> On Jan 16, 2009, at 6:45 PM, Joe wrote:
>
> In an attempt to keep this email list from filling up with non-technical
>> and non-ccie related conversations, I won't ramble on about my "success
>> story". Suffice it to say, like most IE's I had to put in a lot of time,
>> money and effort into my pursuit and it finally paid off...If you don't
>> have
>> to sacrifice, then you are either a networking savant or you're not doing
>> what you need to to pass.
>> With that said, I would like to throw out some advice that I think is
>> relevant to this list and hopefully helpful to those of you who are
>> serious
>> about obtaining your IE, especially those of you, who like me, haven't
>> passed on your first attempt;
>> 1st) Do practice labs! It's that easy, do as many as you can from a
>> reputable vendor. I'm not here to prop one vendor over another...just find
>> 1
>> (more if possible) that has a proven track record and do their labs. *The
>> key is not so much the material but how you study it! Do the labs just
>> like
>> you're are going to do the real lab! Meaning...in the real lab you don't
>> get
>> to see the questions or the topology before hand, you don't get to go to a
>> proctor guide or google when you get stuck, you have 8 hours. So, when you
>> have a lab manual, schedule your 8 to 10 hours, don't look at any of the
>> material before hand...then just sit there for 8 hours straight, beating
>> your head against the wall, using only the doc cd. When you start, don't
>> touch a router until you have read through the whole lab, written down
>> your
>> "blue print" and point values and have a plan for the lab. Then go at it,
>> if
>> you get stuck or stumped, don't look up the answer! Track your points and
>> save your configs (maybe a show ip route or ip bgp or what ever is
>> relevant
>> as well) to your PC for grading yourself later.
>> When you have finished (either right after if you're that impatient) or
>> the next day go through the lab and grade it, be honest with yourself, and
>> find out what you missed, then study it, learn it and understand it.
>> (Those
>> are your "off" days). Then, schedule your next Lab session and do it
>> again!
>> At first you'll get owned, feel like crap and wonder what in the hell
>> you are doing. Probably will take you more than 10 hours to get through
>> the
>> labs, but do it all. After the first 5 to 10 you'll get to where you can
>> finish them in 8 hours, hopefully even sooner after 15 or 20 (the
>> assumption
>> is the labs get progressively harder but you are getting even faster).
>> *part
>> of completing a lab, is going back through the questions and verifying
>> each
>> task...without fail you will find at least one thing you did wrong or
>> missed...that means you need to calculate that into your 8 hours. Get in
>> the
>> habit though
>> 2nd) Once you have done 5 or 10 labs, if you are in a position, do a
>> graded mock lab or... 7. See how you do. I wouldn't worry so much about
>> the
>> score or "explanations" after the fact, but more of "did I come up with A
>> solution for every section?" "Did I finish it in time?" "How was my time
>> management?" "How well did I think on my feet?"
>> (While I did not pass one of my mock labs, I always completed them, came
>> up
>> with solutions and learned how important it is to notice the little
>> details)
>> Use the mock labs to evaluate your testing strategy.
>> In all I did over 30 full labs (including my mock labs)...so sitting
>> down for 8 hours in the real lab was nothing for me, I had been doing it 2
>> to 3 times a week for months. That kind of experience is crucial for
>> success
>> in the real lab. What's more, I finish my lab (had a solution in place for
>> each question) in 5 and a half hours and was able to spend the next 2
>> hours
>> going back over each question. I easily earned between 15 to 25 points
>> that
>> way. Having that extra time allowed me to re-read scenarios, pick up on
>> key-words, verify syntax et...You need to be able to get through the lab
>> quickly...if you have done 20+ "labs" all ready, the real lab isn't nearly
>> as daunting in terms of time or manageability.
>> The point is this, you can't do practice labs one way and think that
>> you'll do the real lab another. The real lab should be 2nd nature in terms
>> of your initial read through and assessment, your time management and
>> troubleshooting of individual scenarios, and your re-read and verification
>> at the end.
>> I hope this has been helpful. Doing simple math 8 hours X 2 or 3 times a
>> week = a lot of time and that doesn't include the "off" days where you
>> need
>> to "grade" your self, study weak areas, practice configs, and browse the
>> doc
>> cd. It's a huge investment of time, but if you're going to do it, do it
>> right and don't "cheat" yourself.
>>
>>
>> Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
>>
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>
>
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