RE: CCIE#25612

Ron:
Congratulations again!!! Thanks for sharing your journey with us.

So, where are you taking your wife for the belayed anniversary?

Thanks

--
Larry Hadrava Larryh_at_INE.com
CCIE #12203 (R&S)
Internetwork Expert, Inc.
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody_at_groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody_at_groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of Ronald Johns
Sent: Sunday, October 04, 2009 5:51 PM
To: 'Cisco certification'
Subject: CCIE#25612
I know I already posted a quick response to my "lab score" question, but wanted to tell my story.  Hope this encourages anybody still hammering out their studies for the R&S lab.  Thanks to all who have already congratulated me including tv.  Sorry I flew off the handle a little - I was a bit stressed out playing the waiting game.
My journey began a little over 5 years ago.  I had already obtained some Cisco professional level certs and figured the CCIE couldnbt be much harder so I booked a lab and a bootcamp with IPexpert.  I had some experience, but nowhere near the skills necessary for a CCIE candidate, which I realized the first day of Scott Morrisbs bootcamp back in 2005. That was back when ATM and ISDN were still on the exam. At any rate, I barely made it through layer 2, and got stuck on layer 3.  I knew I didnbt have a chance.  
3 years later after gaining some valuable experience on the job, and putting together a lab of 7x 2811bs, 5x 2600 series (2 of them XMbs), 3x 3560bs, and a 3550, I started hitting the books.  I purchased the IPexpert Blended Learning Solution, and worked through all 3 volumes (Volume 1 I worked through twice), watched the videos and listened to the audio throughout my study time, and read the following Cisco Press books:
Cisco QOS Exam Certification Guide
CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Quick Reference Sheets
Routing TCP/IP, Volumes 1 and 2
Internet Routing Architectures
CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide
Developing IP Multicast Networks
I started studying on a regular basis after I passed the written back in October of 2008, but really started hitting it hard the day they announced the change and I scheduled my lab date.  For the OEQbs, I used the IPexpert as well as the Internetwork Expert Core Knowledge sims.   Ibve studied for more than 500 hours since May.  I put everything on hold b my band, my bmusic to pray byb blog (http://www.musictoprayby.com), and my wife and 1 year old child.  In fact, we sacrificed celebrating our 10 year anniversary on September 25th so that I could wrap up preparing for the lab.  My wife is awesome b she did this without complaining once.  I couldnbt have done this without her support.
I want to thank IPexpert for putting together some of the most challenging material Ibve ever put myself through.  After working through all the labs and understanding the solutions, I actually felt a little over-prepared, which is certainly not a bad thing.  I would also like to thank everyone in groupstudy for helping me out with the questions I posted.  I didnbt participate much compared to a lot of the other professionals who are a part of this awesome community, but Ibve been reading religiously for over a year now, and that knowledge gained from yall has been a tremendous help!
Herebs a little bit about my lab experience:
I flew into San Jose from Austin on Wednesday just so that Ibd have Thursday to relax and get mentally prepared for the big day.  On Friday morning, we met the proctor b I actually remembered him from my last lab date over 4 years ago.  He showed us to the lab, and to my surprise, there were these really nice Dell 24b displays at each station.  I remember them being junky CRTbs the last time I was there.  The OEQbs were not super easy, and if I would have relied solely on my lab experiences, I probably would not have passed.  I think the reading I did certainly prepared me for these more than anything else.  The irritating things were my keyboardbs space bar made this squeaky sound that was really annoying and the guy next to me had this habit of humming, but once I started my lab; I zoned in and finished in a little over 4 hours.  At this point, Ibm freaking out thinking there has to be a page missing or something.  So I took a little over 2 hours going over everythi!
 ng again very carefully and found a few mistakes.  At 3:15, I figured it was pointless to stay any longer so I did another round of tclsh pings and write mems and left.  As most of you know already, my score came in around 11:00 PM Saturday night.
Thanks again to everyone who has already congratulated me.  Now, itbs on to the SP track before they add OEQbs!
Ron Johns
Sr. Network Engineer
IT Department
CCNP, CCDP, CCSP, CISSP, CCIE#25612
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