CCIE#25481

All,

I've been reading GroupStudy archives for the last 6 years. I have never
subscribed before. I've been waiting for the opportunity to post my story,
like hundreds of others have done when they passed, so here's my chance.

I passed the R&S test at RTP on Monday, Sept. 21. My 8th attempt. It has been
a long and grueling journey. I passed the Written in August 2003. I've learned
a lot about humility, perserverance, forgetting mistakes in the past,
self-sacrifice, suffering, sleep deprivation, frustration and hard work along
this journey. But now I also know the real feeling of personal achievement!

To sum up the reasons for my eventual success in one sentence, the Bible says
somewhere: 'in the multitude of counselors, there is wisdom.'

Well, I have definitely had a GREAT multitude of 'counselors', and I would
like to thank them all now.

First, to God, Elena, my family and friends, who have all accompanied me on
this journey of ups and downs, a huge thanks! I couldn't have done it without
your faith in me!

To NetMaster: an excellent school. Thanks Bruce, Val and John - you are
excellent teachers, and the labs are brutal. I studied every technology
thoroughly. I also learned so much about considering all of the options,
spotting the issues, and "owning" each technology by labbing each one up.
NetMaster definitely pushed me up to the top of the CCIE hill when I was close
for so long.

To CyscoExpert: I learned so much from CyscoExpert. Their labs were also
brutal. Thanks Bahram, Naren, Mitch, Bacho, Peter and Tom. You taught me so
much. Besides the technologies, I learned from them the value of configuring
accurately, verifying everything, reading slowly to catch all of the details,
and that passing the test depends on understanding, not typing speed.

To my friends John and Dewan, who are also going for the lab next week: Thanks
for your constant encouragement and for drilling me with questions. You guys
helped enormously.

To my first CCIE teacher Pete Koulouris: Thanks for your help also. What I
remember most from Pete is that the CCIE requires sacrifice, for some people
enormous sacrifice. After flunking the test so many times, this advice helped
me to keep going to the end.

To my friend Miguel: Thanks. Miguel's advice was to read the doc CD and the
blueprint closely. I read through each command on the doc CD and analyzed all
relevant commands very thoroughly, including configuring them and typing ?
after to see all of the available keywords. Also, I found some surprises on
the blueprint, like DVMRP and no IPv6 BGP!

To Mike Dongvillo, a quad-CCIE I used to work with: Thanks. I learned the
value of details! Details really make the difference between passing the test
and failing.

Last but definitely not least: Thanks so much to GroupStudy! I owe so much to
people like Scott Morris, Brian McGahan, Brian Dennis, Wayne Lawson, Narbik
Kocharians, and so many others who have generously contributed to this website
over the last 6 years by patiently answering questions.

My journey is finally complete, and it was well worth it!!

To all of those who have failed a few times, my advice is:

I have felt your pain. Even as recently as last week. But now that I am on the
other side of the line, I feel such enormous relief that I didn't give up.
Don't ever give up! Like Scott Morris said before: What do they call a doctor
who passes the medical exam after failing a few times? A doctor.

Sincerely,

David Hunter

CCIE#25481

                                               
Received on Fri Sep 25 2009 - 12:12:29 ART