Re: CCIE#25612

Congratulations! Great to hear the long weekend was worthwhile!

Scott

---- Message from Ronald Johns <rj686b_at_att.com> at 2009-10-04 16:51:19 ------
>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
>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
Received on Mon Oct 05 2009 - 08:30:00 ART