Re: PASSED R&S (with kids!)

Congrats man.

I can feel you, I had my son between my first and second attempt (which I
passed) but wasn't easy.

Regards

-----Original Message-----
From: Muzammil Malick
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2010 10:16 PM
To: ccielab_at_groupstudy.com
Subject: PASSED R&S (with kids!)

Hey Everyone

Apologies in advance for the essay!!!

I cant believe my journey is finally over. I took the R&S lab
yesterday and found out today that I passed.
CCIE should come with a warning "CCIE study is hazardous to your life
if you have a wife and kids"

My journey began in January 2009 when i began preparing for my
written, my study was based purely on
reading lots of books and making lots of notes. I used the Cisco Press
R&S Certification Guide and TCP/IP Vol 1 and 2.
At the time of studying I was working away from home and so I had lots
of free time to study whilst my wife took care of my 2 year
old son and I would visit them on the weekends.
I passed the written mid 2009 and it was around the time when v4
blueprint was announced. So I decided to book myself a date
for the v4 exam and work aggressively towards it. I took the first day
that v4 was introduced in Brussels.

Now from here on in I would just like to say that what I did was
probably not something you would want to follow if you are preparing.
It was a learning experience for me!!

I began by studying the Doc CD in detail! I worked through all the
blueprint sections and read lots of RFCs, books, blogs, Internet and
made sure
I knew all the commands for all technologies relevant to the blueprint
and understood how they worked.
This included 3 hours every evening, and entire weekends labbing all
the technologies using the DOC CD as a guide. I made notes on all
these commands
and technologies.
I did this for 6 months all the way to my lab date in October.
My first attempt was an eye opener. I had OEQs which I failed but
kicked myself later. My troubleshooting was miserable and my config
was even worse.
Overall I came out of the exam and decided that I could definitely
pass but I had a lot more work to do.

This is where the problems started. I had found a flat near work and
my wife and son moved in with me and my wife was expecting in November
2009.
I knew it would be tough to take the lab again in this period and so I
was forced to take a break. My second son was born on December 1st and
I did not start
studying again till February so I had a fair few months out of the game.

Now I will say that between the time I took my next attempt and
yesterday's I have taken a "few" attempts. I wont go into them but
what I will say is that my study pattern changed
drastically throughout the year and I think it is this change that
enabled me to pass.

When I started studying again I focussed my attention on INE Vol 1 and
made sure I knew the technologies inside out. This reinforced the
notes that I had taken in my first 6 months of
studying and taught me loads. It also helped me fill in a lot of gaps
I had. I still kept my focus around the DOC CD and at no point did I
ever do a full 8 hour lab at home.
I focussed my attention on mini scenarios making sure I understood the
technologies and command inside out.

During my last couple of attempts I came to understand one important
thing and it was a post that Narbik made on GS that nailed this down
for me.
Cisco don't want you to do ninja tasks! There were a few questions
that cropped up on my attempts that I still do not know the answer to,
to this day. However I know that if you know
the fundamentals, these cannot stop you from passing.
From my failed attempts I learned that I didn't understand the basics
well enough, and I could not implement them at speed.
So in the last couple of months I trimmed my study down to doing very
simple labs and making sure I could do all the "simple" things fast.
This year was like torture for me. I had to spend loads of time away
from my wife, son and new born baby. My wife has endured endless
nights looking after them both whilst I locked myself away to study.

Thank you Darling!!

There were times where I seriously just wanted to pack it all in and
call it a day and just accept that it wasn't meant to be but I have
amazing friends and and amazing family (wife!!) who kept me going!

I arrived in Brussels (from UK) the night before my exam and stayed at
the NH Hotel. Didn't sleep very well due to feeling a little ill and
got up feeling a bit crap! The lab started on time and to my shock I
spent 20 minutes
on the 2nd trouble ticket. I could not for the life of me figure it
out! But as soon as it clicked I was well on my way. I still managed
to finish with 15 minutes to spare after having checked everything. I
solved all tickets.
I moved on to config which generally went well. There were a few tasks
where I just did not know the answer to but I knew that I could get
the majority of points elsewhere so I went after them at speed.
I read the questions down to the "word" to make sure I was doing them
correctly. I ended up using the full 8 hours because one of my routers
played up during the middle of the exam. Had to reload a couple of
times
but it sorted itself out eventually! (was a bit of a nightmare but I
guess it can happen). Went home feeling less than confident because I
didn't get as much time as I would have wanted to check everything
over because of
the router problem. I was driving home from airport and convinced
myself that I had failed! Got home 11pm and results weren't posted,
checked at 4am today and there it was, a PASS!
I couldn't believe it and kept refreshing and closing down browser and
restarting until I was finally sure and I woke my family and told
them!

I just want to say a special thank you to all the following, some of
who dont even know me but unknowingly have helped me through a reply
to my postings, past posting, blog or God knows what:

Marko, Scott M, Narbik, Carlos Mendioroz, Tyson S, Brian M, Brian D,
Kambiz, Bob Sinclair, Paul Negron, Anthony Sequeira, Gary Baker, and
just a general thank you to everyone on the list!

Thank you

Muzammil Malick

Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
Received on Mon Dec 13 2010 - 10:21:31 ART