Re: R & S Lab experience

Congratulations! Enjoy your number and success!

On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 12:22 AM, Brad Ellis <brad_at_ccbootcamp.com> wrote:
> Congrats Nate!
>
> thanks,
> Brad Ellis
> CCIE#5796 (R&S / Security)
> CCSI# 30482
> CEO / President
> CCBOOTCAMP - Cisco Learning Solutions Partner (CLSP)
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: nobody_at_groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody_at_groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
> Nate Lee
> Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 8:21 PM
> To: Cisco certification
> Subject: R & S Lab experience
>
> 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 :)
>
>
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-- 
Regards,
Joe Astorino - CCIE #24347
Sr. Technical Instructor - IPexpert
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