Re: FINALLY NAILED IT: #25510 is mine !!!

Congratulations ! and thank you for your nice feedback !

--
Niklas
On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 11:36 PM, <mihai.grigore_at_onlinehome.de> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I was not posting too much here, I was reading more what others asked.
> I just wanted to let you know that I passed the certification lab. Number
> is
> 25510, learned it this morning at 4:30AM local time. 4th attempt...
>
> I failed in January 2009 because I was simply too cautious and too slow,
> not
> that I did not know to answer the questions. I simply read all the
> questions
> many times, checked and re-checked and somehow, ran into a time management
> issue, I did not have enough time to finish all tasks. But as you all know,
> this is part of the game and I failed this....
>
> Approximately 1,5 year back, me and a colleague of mine assembled a rack in
> the
> company premises and I can tell you this is the best solution for this
> trip. I
> used before the INE racks for 12 hours/day and this was hell. I had to
> start at
> 6:00AM local time untill 17:30. Now having the priviledge to have my "own"
> rack
> that I can access via VPN tunnel from anywhere, I had a lot of freedom to
> work
> whenever I wanted. I stopped counting how many weekends, vacation days, etc
> I
> spent on that rack. Probably my wife knows much better than me. But I guess
> you
> all know this by now...
>
> Back to my lab yesterday, in Brussels. I was the first one to arrive at
> Cisco
> location, only the security guy was there at 7:05 AM. We started the lab at
> 8:15 with the proctor. Very professional, nice guy. He was helpful in all
> my
> questions when I needed clarifications. And I can tell you I needed many of
> these clarifications. Do not be shy about this. You have doubts, just ask
> politely for clarifications, NOT the solution.
>
> Open Ended questions were fair if you read the many recommended books,
> there is
> really nothing to worry about. I spent on them 10 minutes but checked them
> 4
> times in this period, just to be 100% sure. NO shortcuts here, as many
> indicated in various posts...
>
> I moved to the configuration part. I got the Cisco diagrams that you MUST
> re-draw yourself, as Scott Morris recommended so many times. Again, it was
> my
> (TCP) slow start. By lunch break at 11:50, I was half done with the IGP.
> But
> somehow was not worried, I knew I could do it.
>
> Lunch was just to get some calories into my body, I chatted with the
> proctor
> and other candidates a bit, took the chance to relax and reset from the lab
> stuff. It is very important, you cannot configure 8 hours without having a
> break, your brain cannot stand it. At least mine cannot... I have seen
> posts
> here from people complaining about food quality in don't remember which
> location. I was not interested in that at all, just get your brain some
> calories, to be able to go on for the second round. Took some light fish
> menu,
> a drink and light desert. If I eat too much, I get sleepy afterwards, so
> beware
> of this.
>
> Round two started at about 12:30 with still 4,5 hours to go. I knew I could
> do
> it. Naturally, I read through the whole lab at the beginning, but you get
> the
> small things (which are killing us) only when you actually configure the
> various tasks.
>
> I used DOCCD 4-5 times, but I must say I knew exactly what and where to
> look
> for. Like Anthony Sequiera once told us, it took me 30 seconds to find what
> I
> wanted, the Ctrl+F to search for the keywords. It worked just fine. Be sure
> to
> know where is located what, it will save you time.
>
> I walked away with a good feeling and this morning at 4:30 I could no
> longer
> sleep, opened the mail, my lab report was already available. Logged in with
> wrong credentials 3 times (what would you expect at 4:30AM ???) and at 4th
> attempt, there it was: PASS. Wow, that was a big relief!!! I cannot
> describe
> it...  of course I was no longer able to sleep further...
>
> I noticed that many of the people that passed reported on GS a similar
> behavior, learning the news at small hours in the night, not being able to
> sleep. I guess you simply feel when you do good.
>
> Some years ago there was a movie "Doing time"...  I did my time, now it's
> back
> to normal life, family and friends again. I am now anjoying some drinks
> right
> now...
>
> For those still striving for it, I would recommend to do the ASET labs if
> possible. These are available for Cisco partners through your Cisco SE.
> There
> are 15 mini-labs and 6 full labs. These are free of charge. I scheduled
> about
> 12 sessions, 10 hours each. You get to know the way how the questions are
> asked, how topology diagrams are presented etc. I found particularly
> interesting the reversed lab 6. You get the outputs and you need to
> configure
> in such a way to get those outputs. By doing this, I learned to check line
> by
> line and word by word. This way I could find some minor mistake in my
> configuration in the lab and saved me some points.
>
> John Galt Kupec is the person supporting the ASET labs and he was a great
> help,
> very responsive and professional when I indicated some issues. These were
> addressed and corrected immediately.
>
> Besides that, I spent my last 6 weeks with the INE R&S WB Volume1 ver. 5.
> It is
> a great source of information, VERY well written, with lots of details and
> clarifications that I have seen nowhere else. It helps immensely understand
> how
> things work. I cannot recommend it strongly enough!
>
> I was using mainly INE's materials and I would like to thank them for their
> materials and great instructors. Especially Scott, he was simply great
> during
> the boot camp last November in Reno!! Enjoyed both the style and
> contents...
>
> I will mention again INE Vol1 version5. Peter's 400 pages CoS section (but
> not
> only) is simply amazing. Of course, I used all 3 volumes.
>
> Brians were also great instructors on the CoD. I still cannot understand
> how
> Brian Dennis can speak so fast for so long. I had to listen CoD 3 times in
> order to get ALL the details they talk about.
>
> I learned also many interesting things on this GroupStudy, lots of
> knowledge
> here and many helpful people. Just put your question there, someone will
> answer
> you.
> Of course, a lot of noise, like in any forum that I participated, but I
> guess
> this is human nature...
>
> All this helped me during my preparation. Thank you again and sorry if I
> missed
> anyone.
>
> Thank you for your patience to read this, hopefully it would help you too.
> Wish
> you all the luck with your preparations.
>
> NOW, you might think I am crazy, but I will still seriously ask this: HOW
> DO
> YOU KEEP YOURSELF UP TO DATE?
> A colleague of mine has got his number more that one year ago and he has to
> re-certify soon. But with the blueprint 4.0 now. Naturally, I have some
> ideas
> but would like to hear yours.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Mihai Grigore
> CCIE# 25510
>
>
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>
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