Re: I PASSED! CCIE 25526! Another One for the UK!

Many congrats!!! Thanks for the extensive story

--
Regards,
Rick Mur
CCIE2 #21946 (R&S / Service Provider)
Sr. Support Engineer  IPexpert, Inc.
URL: http://www.IPexpert.com
On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 1:52 PM, Felix Nkansah <felixnkansah_at_gmail.com>wrote:
> I couldn't read all.
>
> Congrats by the way and keep up the good work.
>
> On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 11:46 AM, Andrew Forest <andrew.forest_at_gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I Just wanted to let you know I passed my CCIE R&S lab exam on my first
> > attempt last week in Brussels.
> >
> >
> > I have been a silent reader of GS for over one year now, this is my first
> > post, but I'm sure it won't be my last ;-)
> >
> > I started my cisco education out when I attended CCNA evening courses at
> my
> > local college. I knew from then I wanted to make it to ccie level. I
> worked
> > hard through my course, really enjoying it and finished with a nice mock
> > CCNA lab. From leaving college I didn't touch another cisco router until
> > about 2 years later, when i bought my first cisco 2600.
> >
> > I bought the router because of the fact I had forgotten everything I
> learnt
> > in college, and still hadn't attempted my CCNA exam. So 1 router grew
> into
> > 2, and a couple of 2950's were added to the mix. After studying on my
> home
> > lab, I eventually passed the CCNA exam in August 2006, 4 years after the
> > college course.
> >
> > At which point, I went out and got myself a new job. With one of the
> first
> > things to do when starting the job was to gain CCDA certification.
> > Still feeling good from my CCNA pass, I went ahead with the CCDA and
> passed
> > in November 2006.
> >
> > From then on I stared working my way though CCNP books, one at a time. My
> > lab at home grew bigger, my Dad found me 2 X 3640 routers and by some
> > strange luck 3 X 2500 routers as well. Strange things some people throw
> > out!
> > These all helped me get though the 4 CCNP exams, with the BSCI being the
> > hardest. I ended up gaining my CCNP in August 2007.
> >
> > Next, I went for the CCDP certification. My manager had expressed
> interest
> > in the cert, so eager to impress, I went out and achieved that. Wasn't
> too
> > bad after the CCNP exams!
> >
> > So, after all that I found myself sitting at home with my CCNP/DP and a
> > half
> > built rack of cisco equipment. I knew I wanted to go for CCIE, but just
> > didn't have enough equipment to study on. So I started with the CCIE
> > Written
> > exam in December 2008, and passing March 2008.
> >
> > I looked into dynamips, for around a month or so, but found I was much
> > happier using real equipment, so I decided to make the investment into my
> > home rack.
> >
> > I went out and bought 2 X 3560's, 2 X 3550's, 4 x 2600XM's and a APC
> > masterswitch, all from ebay. This took around 6 months to buy / build,
> and
> > really cost me time when I should have been studying! But after the lab
> was
> > fully built and I was able to access it from home / work / holiday I felt
> > much happier. I think this is one of the key things to my success, to
> have
> > unlimited access to your own equipment, without worrying about time or
> > money
> > was very important to me.
> >
> > In the meantime, I persuaded my manager to fund my first attempt in
> > Brussels
> > for September this year. I managed to book up just before the V4
> > announcement was made. My written exam was due to expire late September,
> so
> > I knew I was cutting it fine..
> >
> > I started out on Internetwork experts VOL1 (V5) Workbooks, man what a
> > shock!
> > The depth and detail of these workbooks were really overwhelming, but i
> > knew
> > I had come too far to turn back now. I pressed ahead with VOL1, and
> finally
> > finished them in August this year.
> >
> > I had just about run out of time, 3 weeks before lab day I started the
> INE
> > VOLII workbooks. I found these labs showed up a lot of my mistakes, and I
> > started to get worried. I also struggled to finish the labs in under 2
> > days!
> > I took the time to try and work out the solutions without just looking at
> > the answers. I made pages and pages of notes, which i took with me
> > everywhere so I could read up whenever I couln't access my home lab.
> >
> > I also used 4 X 4 hour sessions on the cisco ASET labs, the week before
> my
> > exam. I didn't have enough time to attempt the full scale labs so I just
> > focused on the modular technology labs. (BGP/QoS/Redistribution) I found
> > these were really good, slightly different wording / structure compared
> to
> > INE Workbooks which were a real eye opener!
> >
> > So, I caught the eurostar from London St Pancras to Brussels on Tuesday
> > last
> > week. This worked out quite cheap (B#29 each way) but was shocked when I
> > had
> > to get a taxi from Brussels MIDI station to the hotel, costing 42 euros!
> > Brussels MIDI is approx 11km from the cisco / hotels area. Looking back
> it
> > may have been cheaper to fly into Brussels airport and catch the free
> > shuttle bus to the hotels. So be warned!
> >
> > I didn't sleep much the first night, about 4-5 hours or so, waking up
> > around
> > 10am the next morning. I took this time to walk to the testing centre, be
> > warned it is not the HUGE cisco building with the glowing sign on it, it
> is
> > the building just behind that one. After finding the right building I
> > confirmed all the details for the next day and went back to my hotel room
> > to
> > study.
> >
> > That night, I read through some more of the VOLII labs and refreshed my
> > mind
> > with Doyle's TCP/IP 1+2. I tried not to study too much as I was already
> > feeling tired from the 2 weeks of solid revision and wanted to keep my
> > energy for the big day.
> >
> >
> > Lab Day,
> >
> > I woke up 5:30, took a shower and started my walk down to the testing
> > centre. I arrived there at 7am, greeted by the security guard. I was the
> > first one there. Other candidates arrivied about half an hour later,
> no-one
> > really talking, just sitting nervously sipping coffee. 8am, Bruno the
> > proctor made an appearance, he welcomed us and escorted us up to the
> > testing
> > rooms. I asked if it was ok to bring in a couple of cans of energy drink
> > into the exam, he was fine with it.
> >
> > For those smokers out there, be warned you can only smoke during
> lunchtime.
> > Which was about half an hour anyway, so not much time to get your
> nicotine
> > fix in! Fortunatley I wore a nicorette patch which helped me throughout
> the
> > day.
> >
> > OEQ's were first on the list, which I took around 15 minutes to answer
> > them,
> > after checking them 5 times of course! Again, you've heard it here on the
> > list, they are not to be feared. If you have read up on your books from
> > Doyle / Odom then you will have no problems with this section.
> >
> > Lunch was very good! Large selection of Steak / Chips / Fish / Thai
> > noodles.
> > I went for the noodles, however I only took a couple of mouthfulls as I
> was
> > so nervous. Chatted a little with the other candidates, all on their
> first
> > attempts mostly doing R&S but there was a couple of voice / security
> > candidates.
> >
> > I finished the lab around 3:30pm with about 1hr and half to go back and
> > check my work. Good thing I did as I found 2 mistakes the second time
> > around, worked through them and corrected them as best I could. The last
> > hour was probably the worst part as all of the self doubt came into play
> > and
> > I started questioning my solutions. I carried on tweaking until about
> > 30mins
> > before exam end time, with a couple of things bothering me but didn't
> want
> > to make any major changes this late in the day and just decided to leave
> > them as is.
> >
> >
> > I left the lab with a good feeling, I knew I'd given it my best shot and
> > felt thouroughly exhausted. I met one of the candidates outside that
> wasn't
> > looking too good. He told me he felt it didn't go well and he was on his
> > 9th
> > attempt at the voice track. I was shocked, I couldn't believe that it
> could
> > take someone 9 attempts to pass the lab. From then on, my self doubt grew
> > and grew...
> >
> > On the train ride home, (another 54 euros) taxi ride to the station, I
> went
> > through the lab over and over in my head. I realised I had forgotten some
> > stupid commands. And started counting up the points that I thought I'd
> > missed.
> >
> > I arrived back in the UK around 9pm and made it home for around 10.
> Checked
> > my email, no score report. So I cracked open a bottle of cider I had
> saved
> > for my return.
> >
> > Midnight came, still no score report. Me and my girlfriend were both
> > watching my laptop screen waiting for the email to come in. I didn't feel
> > good. Then at 12:30 the email came through, I logged in and checked and
> it
> > was a PASS!!!
> >
> > Thank god! I didn't really know how to react, I checked it over and over
> > just to be sure, but when I saw my number I knew it was real!
> >
> >
> > So just to recap, the study methods I used to gain CCIE R&S were:
> >
> >
> >   - Internetwork Expert Workbooks VOL1+2
> >   - Internetwork Expert COD
> >   - Internetwork Expert Audio Class
> >   - IPExpert's RS Quizzer
> >   - Jared Scrivener's free CCIE vLecture COD's
> >   http://www.ipexpert.com/index.cfm/a/p/vlectures
> >   - Cisco ASET modular Labs
> >   - Doyle's TCP/IP VOL1+2
> >   - Odom's, R&S Certification Guide
> >   - Krzysztof ZaE D ski's Quick Review Kit http://inetcon.org/blog/
> >   - Jeremy Cioara's CBT Nuggets (Old but still relevant)
> >   - GroupStudy
> >   - + Many blogs / websites / forums I found online..
> >
> >
> > I wanted to thank everyone for contributing to this list, this has been
> one
> > of the best resources I have found for CCIE certification online. Before
> I
> > found groupstudy CCIE felt like a lonely journey, until I found all of
> you!
> >
> > I want to thank all the instructors out there, 2 X Brians, Scott Morris,
> > Anthony Sequeira, Narbik and of course Paul Borghese for keeping this
> list
> > running.
> >
> > Kind Regards,
> >
> > Andrew Forest
> > CCIE# 25526
> >
> >
> > Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
> >
> > _______________________________________________________________________
> > Subscription information may be found at:
> > http://www.groupstudy.com/list/CCIELab.html
>
>
> Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
> Subscription information may be found at:
> http://www.groupstudy.com/list/CCIELab.html
Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net