Re: CCIE#25612

Ronald,

Also congratulations again ...
And nice story you have here ...
Very stimulating for the new students ...

-- 
Regards,
Iwan Hoogendoorn
CCIE #13084 (R&S / Security / SP)
Sr. Support Engineer  IPexpert, Inc.
URL: http://www.IPexpert.com
On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 11:51 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 everyt!
 hi!
>  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
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
> Subscription information may be found at:
> http://www.groupstudy.com/list/CCIELab.html
Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net