Re: CCIE#25612

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On 10/4/09, 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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Received on Mon Oct 05 2009 - 10:59:46 ART