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

Congrats for sure Mihai.

Blogging might help but so will staying active on GS. It's not always
easy to do once you've returned to some degree of normalcy in your
life (I personally have around 2,500 GS messages I keep meaning to go
through one of these days). The level of effort required on your part
will largely depend on your day-to-day function in life. If you're
rarely on the CLI for whatever reason (architect, manager, etc), then
it'll be a bit more of a challenge. Personally, I've been meaning to
maybe take on an 8-hour lab or two but I'm only home one or two days
on the weekend, so it's all but impossible to commit to (lawn still
needs mowed, driveway will soon need shoveling). To a limited extent,
re-certification will keep you honest but more with you theory than
your CLI prowess. If you sat through any bootcamps, you might have
an option there for a relatively small re-sit fee. I've given thought
to that option as well.

Lastly, if you can find a way to teach or tudor, that's very helpful.
I have been leading a weekly class based on the R&S v4.0 blueprint to
the network engineering staff of the company I am currently consulting
for. Fear of being unable to answer a basic question will definitely
get you hitting the books pretty hard!

On Sep 25, 2009, at 12:12 , Jitendra Anbu wrote:

> Congrats man - well done.
>
> Start your own blog that might keep you update to date. Just revise
> everything you've done & review when possible.
>
> ------------------------
> Regards,
>
> Jit
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nobody_at_groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody_at_groupstudy.com] On Behalf
> Of mihai.grigore_at_onlinehome.de
> Sent: Friday, 25 September 2009 7:36 AM
> To: ccielab_at_groupstudy.com
> Subject: FINALLY NAILED IT: #25510 is mine !!!
>
> 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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Received on Fri Sep 25 2009 - 09:13:51 ART