Re: Failed CCIE SP lab and OEQ mystery feedback!

Swap:
Thanks for sharing your experience with the group. I'm sure that many will
benefit from this information.

-- 
Thanks
Larry Hadrava
CCIE #12203
Check Out MyBlog: http://ccie12203.wordpress.com/
On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 3:13 PM, swap m <ccie19804_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> time for feedback..i'll keep everything under the NDA.. -
>
> i got screwed on 2 things -
>
> 1. OEQs!!
> 2. oblivious miscalculation of time and the great proctor
>
> oeqs were too much ..one was too ambigious, there cant be a correct answer
> for tht without more clarification. the proctor had no clue, he is anyway
> not supposed to assist in the oeqs. another oeq isnt a thing to be found in
> books, atleast not in the 5-6 books i have read on tht topic. after srching
> more, i found a reference in the RFC with no reasoning. i'll hv to test and
> do an analysis on it some time later once i chill down.
> only one oeq was directly technically related to the lab, rest all were
> purely theory which have nothing to do with configuration.
>
>
> now the lab..
> the cisco ccie webpage says lab timing 815am to 545 pm....i never bothered
> to count the hours for this range..this totals as 9.5 hrs..always had an
> illusion tht its 8.5hrs including the lunch...a silly mirage..the exam
> started late, so i added the late hours thinking the lab will be over
> around
> 645pm..infact the others doing the lab did the same miscalculation and we
> had a cogent discussion on this thing in the lunch time!
>
> lab was pretty difficult comparing it to any of the vendor
> mocklabs..atleast
> an 8.5 to 9 on IEWB scale.. too much stuff in the lab but i was very well
> prepared to beat it. the difficult part mostly went smooth other than basic
> issues. my lab was over in total 5.5hrs  (including the oeq time) with
> 5-points in one subsection not wrking. i kept doing all my RnD/doc
> cd/multiple restarts etc. no help. i left it after trying for around 1.5
> hrs. silly me still thinking tht i have 2 hrs left while in reality i had
> only 1 hr left...did the reverification very slowly, kept correcting..and
> moving forward..found many basic missouts, corrected, and all was wrking
> flawless, word-by-word as per the instructions..2 sections were left to be
> verified when the proctor came for a final stop..i still thought i have
> atleast an hour left! ...he simply closed all the my console sessions
> without letting me even do the write mem! i asked for a minute to just do
> wr
> mem but the answer was a blunt no. fair on his part, foolish on mine.
>
> game over.
>
> bad score in oeq, and an ok score in the lab. i dont even remember at wht
> stage i saved the config on which device. relating the scores to the
> configuration save, i missed out some of the late config changes for which
> i
> lost point the labs. i'm sure now tht SP rack is reloaded before grading,
> atleast for me it ws done tht way.
>
>
> learning of the day - i covered a hell lot of stuff for the OEQs but it
> fall
> short in the end..and honestly i dont see much improvement in future
> attempts for oeq preparation..after one stage, u feel comfortable with
> theory but a lot of luck is needed especially for the ambiguous ones....the
> intent of oeqs shud be configuration related as the ccie-written is already
> focusing on theory but unfortunately tht's not the case.....for the lab
> part, my current level was pretty much sufficient for the clearing the lab,
> hope i can maintain the same standard for the next attempt...
>
> thanks for the wonderful group...together we win
>
> big best of luck to everyone gng for the lab and the awful oeqs.
>
> Swap
> #19804
>
>
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