Re: Introducing CCIE #24347!!!

Good work Joe! Yep, that pre-lab silence is a tad awkward but
everybody is too focused or panicked to take much notice.

Congrats sir...

On May 11, 2009, at 11:42 , 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 Thu May 14 2009 - 08:48:54 ART