Re: Introducing CCIE #24347!!!

COngrats M8
Thanking You

Yours Sincerely

Divin Mathew John
divinjohn_at_gmail.com
divin_at_dide3d.com
http://www.dide3d.com
+91 9945430983
+91 9846697191
+974 5008916
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On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 11:32 AM, Alexei Monastyrnyi
<alexeim73_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> comgrats!
> A.
>
> Joe Astorino wrote:
>>
>> Yes, it's official!!!! After a grueling 9 hour wait, most of which was in
>> my
>> hotel room here in Raleigh, I just got my score report, and I am
>> officially
>> CCIE #24347!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! The greatest 5 #'s I have ever heard!
>> Keep
>> in mind, that I am 5.5 beers in at this point as I decided around 10:30
>> that
>> no matter what I was having a 6 pack for my troubles hehe. So what can I
>> say?
>> I guess I will give you my experience today and a little bit about my
>> preparation.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I flew into Raleigh Sunday afternoon, and stayed at the Wingate. The
>> Wingate
>> came highly recommended by the many that have gone before me, and they
>> were
>> right on. I can't recommend it enough. They picked me up at the airport,
>> and
>> took me right to the hotel. When I inquired about where I could walk to
>> pick
>> up some redbull for the lab the next day, they DROVE ME to the nearest gas
>> station like it was just normal. I guess that is the southern love...being
>> from Detroit, I'm not used to that sort of thing hehe. When I was picked
>> up at
>> the airport I was told I was the 3rd CCIE candidate being picked up that
>> day...they knew exactly what I was there for, and exactly what to do.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> The lab started at 7:15, and I was told the shuttle from the hotel to
>> Cisco
>> would leave about 6:30, giving us plenty of time. I woke up at 6:00 AM,
>> threw
>> on my jeans and T-shirt (opted against the sweatpants!!!), grabbed my 3
>> large
>> size redbulls from the fridge and headed down to the hotel breakfast area.
>> I
>> was too nervous to eat a thing. I chatted up the other 2 candidates
>> staying
>> there and passively sipped a cup of coffee. The other 2 guys were doing
>> voice,
>> so there wasn't really much to talk about. The shuttle drove us over to
>> Cisco
>> and we were there by 6:45...in total there were about 6 of us waiting
>> outside...it was the most awkward thing EVER....after some brief
>> introductions
>> by a few of us, it was DEAD SILENCE for 30 minutes as we stood outside and
>> waited for the proctor to show up. Our proctor pulled in about 7:10, and
>> took
>> us into the lobby where we were ID'd and given our temp stickers and rack
>> numbers. The proctor gave us all the regular instructions and told us
>> basically where the bathrooms and drinks were, and gave us the general
>> rules
>> of the lab (get rid of any macros at the end of the day, save your configs
>> often, etc...).
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I sat down at my pod and started in on the OEQ ... the first one threw
>> me....it seemed very simple. All I can say without breaking NDA is that it
>> was
>> some command output and a diagram, and I couldn't place the answer... I
>> gave
>> it my best shot and moved on. The other 3 questions were no problem at
>> all,
>> although later in the day I feared I might have messed up the wording of
>> one
>> of them....all in all it took me about 5 minutes. Guys, after reading all
>> the
>> posts and fear regarding this I have to say, IF you have studied properly,
>> there is nothing to fear!!!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I moved on to the lab just like I would any other mock lab I've been doing
>> for
>> 10 months....followed the method Jared Scrivener gave us at IPexpert
>> bootcamp,
>> which was AWESOME. Yes, I read the entire lab first, which was a good
>> thing,
>> because there were things towards the end that definitely effected how I
>> did
>> other tasks. I made a list of tasks, point values, and notes for every
>> task. I
>> redrew the diagram...I made 1 diagram with all my L3 and IGP information.
>> The
>> BGP diagram they provided was sufficient enough for me, and I didn't feel
>> the
>> need for a seperate switching diagram. Having initially read through the
>> lab,
>> I felt pretty good. There were only 2 things I had not done before...it
>> was
>> just a matter of implementing all the things I had learned and practiced
>> time
>> and time again, and making sure to pay special attention to detail.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I was not going for speed...I knew one of my weakest areas was not paying
>> attention to detail enough, so I took my sweet time. I knew I had good
>> speed
>> coming in and I'd likely have plently of time.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Just as the proctor called lunch (11:15) I was starting in on multicast
>> and
>> had full IP reachability, so was feeling pretty good. My personal
>> experience
>> on the point system was that all my points added up to 80. At lunch time I
>> had
>> 42 points and was feeling pretty damn good. Lunch was basically
>> silent....they
>> had a pretty decent tasting chicken contraption with soda, water, and
>> salad.
>> It was pretty good. I was actually so juiced up on redbull and coffee that
>> it
>> didn't really matter, as long as it was food : ) We had to wait through
>> the
>> whole lunch time that was allotted to us. Actually, the proctor let us
>> start
>> working 5 minutes earlier, noting to everyone that we would lose 5 minutes
>> at
>> the end, which I found fair. I approached the proctor more than anybody
>> else
>> in the lab...probably about 4 times. Guys, you are paying $1400 for his
>> time,
>> do not be ashamed!!! Most of my questions were just verification of things
>> to
>> be 110% sure of what they were asking!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Later in the day I felt a bit less confident, as I hit my weaker areas
>> (QoS,
>> Multicast)... I felt 75% sure on about 75% of these tasks....maybe 85%
>> sure...like you know you are right or very close to right, but the kind of
>> thing where you want to look at the solutions guide to double check
>> yourself.
>> No solutions guide today gentlemen : ) I completed all the tasks by about
>> 2:00
>> and started verification, which was SOOOOO important to my success I can't
>> even explain! I went through task by task and did the appropriate show
>> commands to prove I had done it right. What I found was suprising. It is a
>> little unnerving to have already marked down points and with 90 minutes to
>> go
>> find you have one section broken completely, and a routing loop somewhere
>> else
>> , as well as about 3 other stupid minor mistakes. Had it not been for
>> verification I don't know if I would have made it out OK. I wasn't in it
>> for
>> speed...I stayed until they called time verifying and reverifying with my
>> trusty TCL scripts. At 3:28 the proctor told us we had 2 minutes left and
>> to
>> save our configs, remove any macros and TCL scripts (which I don't get
>> because
>> TCL scripts are not saved), return all the devices to priv exec mode and
>> reboot our PCs. I found it a bit alarming that they didn't say something
>> like
>> "OK you have 30 minutes left" but just like that BAM , OK you are DONE in
>> 2
>> minutes! Oh well...I got about 75% through re-checking everything.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I counted up about 68/80 points I thought I had for sure....and I had
>> about 8
>> points "on the fence" that I just wasn't sure about...so I felt pretty
>> good
>> walking out. I felt like I probably had a good shot at it.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> The worst part of my entire day was the waiting game...I am staying the
>> night
>> here in Raleigh, and have no car and nothing to do...I coudn't sleep, I
>> couldn't eat much...I pain stakingly sat here refreshing my email and
>> watching
>> TV for about 4 hours....finally I decided to go take a walk. I walked
>> about a
>> half mile to a gas station and bought a 6 pack of beer while listening to
>> the
>> new Dylan album on my iPod. When I got back I killed some time talking to
>> a
>> friend on the phone....right before he hung up the email came in...I
>> checked
>> it live on the phone. I HAD PASSED!!! CCIE #24347! Obviously, I couldn't
>> even
>> describe how I felt, but it was a great experience to share with a friend!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Wow this is getting long, so let me tell you a bit about my preparation. I
>> am
>> a straight forward kind of guy and I am not on here to promote any company
>> over another, just to tell you my experiences. As far as vendors go, I
>> uses
>> STRICTLY the workbooks and blended learning solution from IPEXPERT. Their
>> blended learning solution came with all 3 of their workbooks (1 technology
>> focuses, and 2 workbooks of full scale labs), as well as the full Scott
>> Morris
>> Video On Demand / Audio on Demand series (When Scott was still with
>> IPexpert.)
>> This was my bread and butter guys. I passed my written at the end of July,
>> 2008 and immediately started on the material. I read most of the usual
>> recommended books cover to cover, and really tried to grasp the
>> concepts...I
>> went through the entire video on demand, and listened to the audio portion
>> countless times. In fact, my wife even does here Scott Morris
>> impersonation
>> now : ) Thats how you know you have a keeper hehe....Anyways, I worked
>> through
>> these labs with all my heart and soul for 10 months. I got involved in the
>> various communities, and I can't say enough about them. Groupstudy
>> especially...there are so many guys on here that you can learn from, it is
>> just awesome!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Just when I thought I was ready, I booked an IPexpert 5 day instructor led
>> bootcamp just to touch up my weak areas and hope that it would be mostly
>> review and a confidence builder. I did this 2 weeks before my lab date,
>> and it
>> was well worth it. You can read my review of that that I posted earlier as
>> well. Jared Scrivener was our instructor and he was at the top of his
>> game...just a really great experience for me.
>>
>> Going into the lab I felt confident...coming out of the lab I can honestly
>> say
>> I was exteremely well prepared.
>>
>> And now the obligatory thank you section : )
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Big thanks goes out to -- Scott Morris -- Dude, no matter what shirt you
>> were
>> wearing you were ALWAYS willing to help me with my issues, and I can't say
>> enough about how much I appreciate that. Weather it was a question on a
>> lab
>> you had authored at previous jobs, or an annoying IOS bug I was struggling
>> with, you helped me. Even when you had moved on professionally, you gave
>> me
>> honest and productive support. Yes, your voice is forever etched in my
>> brain
>> from the VoD and we know you don't pay for therapy!!!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Huge thanks to Jared Scrivener, Tyson Scott, Mike Down, Sean Orr, Wayne
>> Lawson
>> and the ENTIRE IPexpert team, who have been with me from start to finish.
>> These guys have been just awesome...from Mike and Sean in sales, to Tyson
>> and
>> Jared with the technical material. It's been a fun and good experience! I
>> got
>> what I expected -- world class training, support, and customer service,
>> and
>> THAT is hard to find these days! A special thanks personally to Jared for
>> his
>> excellent teaching methods, and willingness to go the extra mile time and
>> time
>> again, and for giving his students personal 1-1 support!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Huge thanks to cciejourney, the guy that runs our blog at sunpenguin.net!
>> Carl, I couldn't have done it without you buddy, and you WILL get your
>> digits
>> soon man! We will all still be here pulling for you, and don't forget it!
>> Carl
>> was nice enough to give me a login here, and a place to dump my thoughts.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Group Study and the OSL -- You guys have been my life for the past 10
>> months...I'd read the threads every day, and hopefully I helped a few
>> people
>> along the way. It is so awesome to have a community of people just like
>> me,
>> willing to help just because well, we love it and enjoy giving back to the
>> community. Special thanks to Scott, Narbik, Anthony, Petr, and so many
>> others
>> that have chimed in. Bryan B, who achieved his CCIE # just a month or so
>> before me...we were study partners and bounced things off each other all
>> the
>> time...good times! Thanks to everybody that helped me along directly or
>> indirectly weather I mention you by name or not.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Last but certainly not least, my family and friends for their unwavering
>> support over the past 10 months and ESPECIALLY my new beautiful wife Beth.
>> I
>> know everybody says this and I know when I read these threads it was
>> usually
>> the part I said "yeah right" and moved on but seriously...they have given
>> up
>> SO much to support me and let me pursue my dream. There were many times I
>> had
>> to come home from work, eat dinner, and by 6:00 PM tell my wife goodnight,
>> I
>> won't see you until tomorrow after work because I have to study 6:00 -
>> 2:00
>> tonight, or do a mock lab, or read the docCD or whatever...to my friends,
>> congratulations I am back : ) I have not had time to do many of the things
>> I
>> used to like to do lately, and now I am looking forward to hanging out
>> more.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I guess thats it guys...I know this was long, and thansk for anything that
>> got
>> through the whole thing...this whole post is sort of stream of
>> consiousness at
>> this point. The CCIE is doable, but like many before me have said, you
>> have to
>> seriously want it, and put in the time, effort, and sacrifice to achieve
>> it.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> - Joe Astorino, CCIE #24347
>>
>>
>> "He not busy being born is busy dying" -- Dylan
>>
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Received on Tue May 12 2009 - 11:38:09 ART