Retreat hell! I just got here!

I took the V4 lab yesterday in RTP. Licking my wounds today but not
discouraged. Howard said he was not aware of anyone passing yet. He also said
that the R&S CCIE numbers were on back order and they would not be issuing any
out until November :).

So here are some thoughts in regards to the exam:

7 New format is OK but get used to everything being on the monitor and
not printed. As someone previously mentioned, you are unable to minimize some
windows. What I did was just place them at the bottom of the screen with only
the title bar showing - a manual minimizing. There were 3 of us taking R&S
and I don't think there were any real problems. I had some minor issues but
Howard was able to resolve very quickly.

7 If it is on the blueprint, know it! Everything is fair game.

7 OEQ's - enough has been said about these. I really think it is the
luck of the draw.

7 Troubleshooting - yes you can move on if you get done with this
early, but with 2 hours and 10-12 tickets, you have to be smoking (in my
opinion). I spent a few minutes reviewing the diagrams and quickly read
through the tickets. I then had approximately 10 minutes to spend on each
ticket. One of the things I found challenging was just trying to quickly find
where in the network the ticket was referring to. As has been stated before,
you can have a large number of routers. As well, all tickets seemed to be
independent. I did find a problem that was listed on a trouble ticket. It
was an easy fix, so I fixed it anyways. I was on my 2nd to last trouble
ticket when time ran out. HOWEVER - at this point I was really encouraged.
Although I was sure I did not pass this section, I did feel like it was
completely doable.

7 Configuration - (I will tread lightly here as I am not sure what all
is published by Cisco and I want to respect the NDA). This was the beast for
me (and I am guessing everybody). Five & = hours is not a lot of time. This
was my first lab attempt, so I cannot compare it to anything other than
practice labs I have had. But as has been stated before, 25+/- tasks, you
gotta be spot on and rolling. If you take 30 minutes to read through the task
list, review the diagram, & verify configurations, that would leave you 15
minutes per task with no time at the end of the lab to verify. So as you can
see, it does not leave much room for a weak area or many trips to the Doc CD.

I think this is accomplishing what Cisco wants it to. It has taken the
difficulty up (at least for a while) and the number of people passing down. I
would like to see them drop the OEQ's now that they have added the
Troubleshooting section, but then as Scott Morris often says, "Cisco didn't
check with me on that one". :)

Overall, yesterday was a great experience. I definitely know what to expect
now going into my next lab. Now I am going back home today to prepare my
remedial training plan and subsequent lab attempt. I will continue to be on
GS and will hopefully be posting more questions/answers as I move forward to
master some other areas of the blueprint.

I think that it is going to take mastering each section in terms of knowledge
but also in terms of configuring them as quickly as possible. As I learned in
the Marine Corps, the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war!

Cisco - I don't plan on bleeding next time!

Best Regards,

Nathan

Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
Received on Tue Oct 27 2009 - 06:26:14 ART