Re: Retreat hell! I just got here!

Impressed with your experience story. Well documented/written.
I am sure you can nail it on next attempt. Also good to know that bar has
been raised and there is almost no room for error on the lab day. Tough has
been made tougher and so will become the CCIEs ;-)

Cheers,
Cisco League

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 10:26 AM, Nathan Richie <nathanr_at_boice.net> wrote:

> 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
>
>
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>
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Received on Tue Oct 27 2009 - 13:08:08 ART