RE: Advice on reading the whole lab before starting?

Hi!

One of the many beauties (and complexities) of passing the CCIE Lab Exam is
the fact that the strategy you use to pass it, the EXACT strategy, will most
likely be pretty unique from anything you have been taught or heard.

My own personal strategy for reading ahead in the configuration section of
the lab exam (that was my only section way back in Feb '06) was a bit of a
hybrid of what I learned from Keith Barker and Brian McGahan.

I chose to "skim" the entire Config section. This took under 5 minutes. I
then started with Layer 2 Cat regardless of what section they presented
first. In this Layer 2 Cat section, I read all of the tasks carefully before
starting any config. This would take well under 5 minutes as well.

One important caveat to my approach of solving the lab is this...you need to
be "inherently" aware of interdependencies with the technologies and
potential future lab tasks. For example, in a Frame Relay configuration, we
need to be extremely cautious regarding OSPF network type requirements that
might explicitly or implicitly exist. I certainly became "expert level" at
catching these issues and embraced my own personal lab strategy as a result.

One of the beauties of workbook and graded labs practice is that you have a
chance to develop and practice your own personal strategy at a dramatically
reduced price compared to practicing in the actual lab! :-) Be sure you take
advantage of that.

- Anthony Sequeira
www.INE.com

-----Original Message-----
From: nobody_at_groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody_at_groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
groupstudy_at_nyms.net
Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2010 7:47 AM
To: ccielab_at_groupstudy.com
Subject: Advice on reading the whole lab before starting?

Not sure if anyone commenting on here has passed v4, but I've tried and time
is definitely of the essence.

So I'm wondering - for all you guys who've passed v3 or v4, did you read the
whole task list through first? I know INE recommend to read it (and if it's
good enough to read once, it's good enough to read twice). Problem is - when
I do this, it takes at least 30 minutes to read through just once. You read
the task, have a preliminary look at the routers involved on the diagram and
make some notes (which often just regurgitate the task).

If I read through, I spend time on each task familiarising with the topology
and state of the part of the network relevant to the task. Then I move onto
the next task and by the time I go through the whole task list, the first
bits are largely forgotten.

So I'm wondering, would it be SO dangerous to just do the tasks in a linear
fashion, reading a task through, then completing it before doing the next
task? I figure I can gain an extra 45 minutes odd doing this, and the tasks
are designed to be linear anyway.

Or am I just being too detailed in the task reading? Is the point in this to
get a general idea of what's coming without assessing the finer points of
the topology on each task?

Very keen to hear the strategy of passers, especially recent ones...
THANKS!

Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
Received on Thu Mar 04 2010 - 13:39:29 ART