Re: R & S Lab experience

Congrats.

Inspiring...

On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 8:57 AM, Alexei Monastyrnyi <alexeim73_at_gmail.com>wrote:

> great achievement, congrats!!!
>
> A.
>
> On 4/6/2010 1:20 PM, Nate Lee wrote:
> > Hey everybody, took the lab on Friday, March 26th and wanted to do a
> quick
> > writeup on it before it fades from my memory faster than OSPF with a dead
> > interval set to minimal.
> >
> > A bit of background on my preparation.....
> >
> > I bought the INE Vol I and II workbooks but had a problem getting
> dynamips
> > running that many routers on my laptop, so I didn't get too far with that
> at
> > first. I signed up for Narbik's bootcamp last November (I wrote up a
> review
> > of that, it should be in the archives somewhere) and received his
> advanced
> > workbook to start work on as part of the bootcamp package. This is more
> or
> > less equivalent to the INE Vol I workbooks. As I stated before, Narbik's
> > bootcamp was great and a terrific value on top of the quality. He is a
> > great teacher and has really been there every step of the way helping me
> out
> > in a personal manner that you don't find too often these days. Going
> > through the workbooks before attending the bootcamp really helps so you
> > aren't trying to learn everything from scratch in 5 days. I did it in
> > November, but I think taking a boot camp 4 - 6 weeks before your lab date
> > after you are already familiar with all the topics would probably be the
> > best way to go so you aren't hearing it for the first time in class.
> >
> > After the bootcamp I went through Narbik's books again, and the last 6
> weeks
> > before my lab I broke down and rented rack time from Narbik (again, a
> smokin
> > deal, $400 for the entire month 24/7 if you have attended his bootcamp).
> I
> > mostly did INE workbooks for those last 6 weeks, Vol I for the topics I
> > wanted to get stronger on and Vol II to get a feel for a full lab. I
> didn't
> > have much time, so I only did the difficulty 8 and 9 labs once through.
> I
> > gotta say, you INE guys are some tricky bastards! I had a ton of fun
> > solving some of the more....esoteric tasks in your labs. They were like
> > puzzles that you have to really press your brain to work on. Good times!
> >
> > That being said, I thought the Difficulty 8 and 9 labs were decently more
> > difficult than the actual lab. They helped a ton by making it less
> > stressful once I was in the real lab as it seemed easier than everything
> I
> > had been working on. THAT having been said, I don't know if it is ever
> > possible to feel TRULY on top of every topic for the lab. I felt solid,
> but
> > some of the tasks on the Diff 9 labs worked me over like a drunken
> > chiropractor. My hat's off to you guys, some of those left my brain
> twisted
> > in a knot and really reminds me that there is always something more to
> > learn.
> >
> > I also bought Ruhann's short notes which are spectacularly done, but
> alas, I
> > printed them out and then promptly forgot them on my desk at work so they
> > didn't get used for review. They are really great though, probably
> better
> > than the CCIE Exam guide for last minute review, definitely something to
> > check out.
> >
> > Now onto the meat....
> >
> > I arrived in San Jose a couple days early and visited some friends and
> > family on Wednesday and then went for a 12 mile hike over in Big Basin
> State
> > Park on Thursday to clear my head climbing waterfalls and checking out
> the
> > redwoods. Very peaceful and relaxing, highly recommended.
> >
> > The night before the test I ended up having to take some Tylenol PM to
> get
> > to sleep because I couldn't stop thinking about the test. I studied a
> bit,
> > but honestly, the entire week of the test I had a hard time studying.
> You
> > just feel overwhelmed by all the possible things that could be on the
> test
> > that you could know better and 3 or 4 days hardly seems like it will
> matter
> > at this point. I tried my hardest but wasn't able to get much done but
> some
> > light reading and a bit of playing around in Dynamips.
> >
> > The day of, I arrived about 15 minutes early and all the candidates were
> > already waiting in the lobby. Weird vibe. Nobody talks because
> everybody
> > is so nervous and trying to gather their thoughts. There was a couple R
> and
> > S, a couple voice, a guy doing Sec and a guy doing SP. They gave us the
> > brief rundown of how everything works and then set us loose. The chase
> was
> > on.....
> >
> > The OEQ started and I found out that any time you have left from that 30
> > mins you can add to your config section, so there is a 25 min bonus.
> Maybe
> > there is some luck of the draw, but I can't imagine anyone who feels they
> > are prepared for a CCIE lab having trouble with the questions being
> asked.
> > I didn't do any particular preparation for this section other than
> review
> > the written exam guide the night before. If you know your stuff, don't
> > sweat this section.
> >
> > The troubleshooting section was pretty cool. Nothing too hard in there
> at
> > all, most, if not all of the problems were staring you in the face, but
> > finding 10 of them with the clock ticking means you need to have a
> > troubleshooting methodology dialed in. I think this section will really
> > weed out those who have in the field experience from those that don't,
> its
> > kind of hard to teach that without accompanying experience. Don't worry
> > about the size of the topology, everyone talks about how huge it is, but
> it
> > is really manageable and not that difficult to find where you are at. I
> > thought I had 8 of 10 when I still had an hour left but decided to double
> > check and realized I had actually broken something else so I spent the
> next
> > 45 minutes double checking everything and went on to the configuration
> > section with a total extra of 35 minutes (25 from OEQ and 10 from
> > Troubleshooting). I left one ticket hanging that I just couldn't find
> out
> > what was wrong, I'm pretty sure I nailed the rest of them.
> >
> > The configuration section was the one that I was most afraid of going in
> > just because of the sheer breadth of what could be there. It actually
> > seemed easier than I thought it was going to be. No crazy ninja stuff
> like
> > you see in the hardest vendor workbook labs. I think the thing that will
> > kill a lot of people are the little details. You might configure the
> whole
> > BGP section correctly, but if you read through too fast and miss one
> detail
> > of what they are asking for you can kiss those four points good bye. I
> got
> > a bit lucky because I got bored in one section that took a lot of work
> for a
> > few points and decided to skip ahead and grab some easy points. It
> turned
> > out that I needed to do one of those easy tasks first anyways or I would
> > have to redo a bunch of previous work so that definitely worked out in my
> > favor. I finished the config section at 2:30 with 2.5 hours to spare
> (!?)
> > and spent the last time double and triple checking everything. This is
> > pretty much what saved me as I found 3 or 4 mistakes that would have cost
> me
> > 3 or 4 points each, this could have easily been the difference between
> > passing and failing.
> >
> > After the test, I had a friend pick me up, we drove up to Lake Tahoe for
> a
> > few days of snowboarding while I awaited the results (Friday test results
> > come in Sunday night). The email came in Sunday around 11 PM and after
> 10
> > minutes of trying to figure out how to use my friend's Mac (way harder
> than
> > the OEQ), I was able to login and get my report. #25988! To top it off,
> it
> > started snowing that night and dropped 40" of snow so the week was all
> that
> > much better.
> >
> > I am just now adjusting to all the time I have back. You forget all the
> > stuff that you used to have time to do. I have never enjoyed being in my
> > backyard cleaning dog shit more than I did last week.
> >
> > To cap it off, i'd just like to say thanks to everybody on the board who
> > selflessly helps others. Without the community here, knowing others were
> > going through the same trials and tribulations, it would have been so
> much
> > harder. Of course I have to thank my wife, I'm not sure I'd be that cool
> if
> > she locked herself in a room for 6 months to play with a bunch of fake
> > routers running on a laptop. The guys at INE helped out with a bunch of
> my
> > questions and their hardest labs left my crying on the floor :) Narbik
> and
> > Janet over at Micronics have been very helpful and Narbik's bootcamp was
> > really a turning point for me that helped a ton of stuff really click in
> my
> > head. If you get a chance to attend, I couldn't recommend it highly
> enough.
> >
> > To everybody out there studying, keep it up! It is 100% doable,
> absolutely,
> > no question! Of course it is a hard journey, it wouldn't be all that
> cool
> > if it was easy, would it?
> >
> > Thanks again everybody!
> >
> > Nate
> >
> > #25988<-- I still haven't gotten over how cool it is to be able to write
> > that :)
> >
> >
> > 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
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
> Subscription information may be found at:
> http://www.groupstudy.com/list/CCIELab.html

Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
Received on Tue Apr 06 2010 - 09:30:51 ART