Re: CCIE#25612

Congratulations Ronald!! I've very happy we were able to be part of your
success story!!! Good luck in whatever you choose to pursue now!

On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 2:17 AM, Naveen <navin.ms_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> Congrats Ronald !! Well done.
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 2:51 PM, Ronald Johns <rj686b_at_att.com> wrote:
>
> > 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 couldnb t 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 Morrisb s 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 didnb t have a chance.
> >
> > 3 years later after gaining some valuable experience on the job, and
> > putting together a lab of 7x 2811b s, 5x 2600 series (2 of them XMb s),
> 3x
> > 3560b s, 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 OEQb s, I used the
> IPexpert
> > as well as the Internetwork Expert Core Knowledge sims. Ib ve studied
> for
> > more than 500 hours since May. I put everything on hold b my band, my b
> > music 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 couldnb t have done
> > this without her support.
> >
> > I want to thank IPexpert for putting together some of the most
> challenging
> > material Ib ve 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 didnb t
> > participate much compared to a lot of the other professionals who are a
> part
> > of this awesome community, but Ib ve been reading religiously for over a
> > year now, and that knowledge gained from yall has been a tremendous help!
> >
> > Hereb s a little bit about my lab experience:
> >
> > I flew into San Jose from Austin on Wednesday just so that Ib d 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 CRTb s the last time I was there. The OEQb s 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 keyboardb s
> > 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, Ib m 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, itb s on
> > to the SP track before they add OEQb s!
> >
> >
> > Ron Johns
> > Sr. Network Engineer
> > IT Department
> > CCNP, CCDP, CCSP, CISSP, CCIE#25612
> > AT&T WiFi Services
> >
> >
> > Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
> >
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>
>
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>
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>
>
>
>

-- 
Regards,
Joe Astorino - CCIE #24347 R&S
Technical Instructor - IPexpert, Inc.
Cell: +1.586.212.6107
Fax: +1.810.454.0130
Mailto:  jastorino_at_ipexpert.com
Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net