Re: How to prepare for my August lab?

I completely agree with learning the technology, my focus at the moment is trying to maximize my studying to best serve me for the exam in two weeks. I have a huge respect for the CCIE certification and CCIE's, I most definitely do not want to be someone who does this great certification no justice.

After attending the bootcamp with Narbik, and the hours I have put in to studying, the e-mail list I have put together to help me and a few friends pass our CCIE's, I can already see a difference in my knowledge. Both in my ability to understand, summarize the technologies, and implement it.

I've even had some opportunities to implement some of it in real world environments. Private VLAN's for instance, I had the opportunity to use my knowledge of them to design a PCI compliance policy, in the process I learned the private VLAN's were not compatible with voice VLAN's, which was a requirement, sticking with the idea of not re-subnetting and trying to get the benefits you get with private VLAN's and still have voice VLAN functionality, I ended up implementing VLAN ACL's.

So the studying has actually had an immediate impact on my ability, and I feel confident that when I pass this test I will be a CCIE, and not just a number.

What I'm hoping to get out of taking a graded lab is not memorization, and I'm not looking to buy 30 graded labs, I think for my purpose 1 should be sufficient to identify where I may or may not be weak. I realize it is just 1 lab, and it definitely does not cover all aspects of what I could see on the test, but I do feel it is worth the $35 self assessment. I would encourage anyone taking a mock lab to use it as a self assessment tool and not a practice tool.

You guys have all been great with the encouragement and quick responses, I truely appreciate the help you all are willing to give.

Craig

--- On Wed, 7/22/09, Narbik Kocharians <narbikk_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Narbik Kocharians <narbikk_at_gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: How to prepare for my August lab?
> To: "Darby Weaver" <ccie.weaver_at_gmail.com>
> Cc: "Anthony Faria" <tfaria72_at_gmail.com>, "Bajo" <bajoalex_at_gmail.com>, "Ryan West" <rwest_at_zyedge.com>, "jack ripper" <ripperthejack2001_at_yahoo.com>, "Joe Astorino" <jastorino_at_ipexpert.com>, "ospfv2" <ospfv2_at_gmail.com>, "ccielab_at_groupstudy.com" <ccielab_at_groupstudy.com>
> Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2009, 9:13 AM
> Thanks Anthony,
>
> I honestly believe that mock labs do not teach you
> anything. The only thing that you learn by doing Mock labs
> is what to do in that exact scenario, in the next mock lab
> you learn what to do in slightly different scenario.
> Now...let's say you are in the lab and you get a
> different scenario (Which you will) what are you going to
> do?
>
>
> Whereas, with tech focus labs, you will learn the
> hairs within each protocol, you will see the behavior of
> that protocol and because of that, you will know what to
> do.
>
> Graded Mock labs and OEQ practice labs ONLY do one
> thing, they take 100 -200 dollars out of your pocket and put
> it in the vendors pocket, that is ALL.
>
> I had many students that failed the graded labs and
> they failed it pretty bad, but they passed the lab on their
> first attempt and let me tell you, they are pretty
> smart.
>
> There is no short cut, there is no easy way to do
> this, there is only one way to get your CCIE and that is by
> knowing your stuff, learning and NOT memorizing, you need to
> dive in each protocol separately and exam, verify and more
> importantly test, you don't get that with mock labs or
> graded labs.
>
>
> But if it makes some people feel good, GR8 go for it.
> But remember this cert should NOT end up costing you lots of
> money.
>
> I totally agree with Brian, Learn the technology and
> then passing the lab would be a natural occurrence.
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 22, 2009 at 5:56 AM,
> Darby Weaver <ccie.weaver_at_gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
> Brian Dennis would sa the same thing. Learn the
> technology and then passing the lab would be a natural
> occurance.
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Narbik Kocharians
> CCSI#30832, CCIE# 12410 (R&S, SP, Security)
> www.MicronicsTraining.com
> Sr. Technical Instructor

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Received on Wed Jul 22 2009 - 10:31:58 ART