My first LAB attempt

30 june, my first lab attempt.

The day before 29 june. Tried to relax, have a nice diner and went to bed
early.

Next morning 30 june I woke up early I needed to drive 1 hour to Brussels. I
took 2:15 hours for it. I arrived at 7:30 and talked to some other
candidated who arrived early, one whas from kenia he did wireless, and one
from norway. I didn't spoke to the other ones.

About 8:10 the proctor arived and brought us to the exam room. He explained
the rules and gave us our rack numbers. I put all my things in the lockers
and sit down on my chair. I look arround to make my self as comfortable as I
could. Nice big screen. I had a bit worn keyboard. I think there were 7
candidates in total, most of them did R&S. After everybody sit down the
proctor explained the last exam rules and made everything very clear, Than
we could start.

Troubleshooting section:
I started off with the troubleshooting section the questions were very clear
and good to understand. When I got at question 2 I couldn't solve this
instantly I spended much time on this and kind of paniced out here. I went
to the next questions. I whatched the time and noticed I didn't got very
much time left I rushed a bit and started to worry about failing in
troubleshooting. I knew I had one question wrong. Then the time ended. Wtih
worries in my head I started at the configutation section

First question paniced me out I couldn't solve instantly what they were
asking. I spended to much time thinking what was wrong here. After 20
minutes (way too long) I continued. I knew those things I configured,
configured and configured at some point I looked at the time I had and then
how may questions I needed to do. I kind of scared out of the many tasks I
still had to do. So I stept a way from my stratagy (very wrong to do) I went
on question by question just to finish the exam. I didn't verify well enough
and didn't reboot my routers. I finished every questions but didn't verify
it well enough and hadn't time to read it over again.

The proctor tells us to finish the exam and save our configurations.

I went back in my car thinking and thinking(....troubleshooting went bad,
finshed configuration, not much time, didn't verify well enough...) I
thought maybe, maybe I did it. When I arrived with my wife I talked it over
and thought maybe is not well enough you need to be sure.

Next day logged in to Cisco
Troubleshooting pass
Configuration Fail

So I paniced out on troubleshooting which I passed and screwed up my
configuration part. This first time added lots to my experience. of the real
exam and what to expect.

I was dissapointed about the configution result I thought I did it better
then that. I think the lack of verification and carefully reread of the
question is the cause of this because I knew the technologies and what I
needed to do. Well I need to go on.

What I learned for the next time.
- Take a hotel near the Cisco building where no driving is required.
- Stay focused and keep calm during the exam, skip TB question after 10 min
- Just stick to my stratagy
- Verify verify and verify
- Read the question, read it again and once more to verify your
configuration meets the requirements
 Planning to do the next on 7 Oktober.
I planned 250 hours of studing in between now and the lab date. I'm still
thinking what my study stratagy shall be. I think doing for about 13 labs
and study on technologies which I am the least good at in the evenings.
During the practice labs I will try a couple of different strategies and
look which one best fits me. I especialy want to practice in reading the
questions well enough and verify every requirement.

Any new good advise for my second time are very welcome. Also some good
advise in my study approach is welcome

Kind regards,

Maarten Vervoorn
http:\\ccie.forumotion.com

Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
Received on Wed Jul 14 2010 - 08:39:22 ART