Re: 28781 - First and Final Try !!!!!

Congratulations Nadeem.

Regards,

Tyson Scott
CCIE # 13513 (R&S, Security, SP)
Managing Partner/Technical Instructor - IPexpert Inc.
tscott_at_ipexpert.com

----- Reply message -----
From: "Nadeem Rafi" <nrafia_at_gmail.com>
Date: Fri, May 6, 2011 5:31 am
Subject: 28781 - First and Final Try !!!!!
To: "Cisco certification" <ccielab_at_groupstudy.com>

Hi GS!
I have attempted Mobile Lab in Riyadh on 1st May 2011 and by the grace of
God i successfully passed it. Here goes my story for this journey.....

It was around 2000 that i first time came to know about Cisco, as one of
mine friend advised me to go in this particular field of networking. I
purchased "Todd Lammle" and read few chapters. At that time i was not able
to get any kind of help or further information and job nature became
Microsoft oriented. I was just able to study this stuff for 2-3 weeks and
then shifted completely to MS and abandoned Cisco.

It was mid 2006 that i felt i am almost done with my present job track and
started looking into Cisco again. While searching for more info i just came
to know about "Darby Weaver" and his fascinating emails :). This guy impress
me a lot and even i shot him few mails asking for few clarifications and
best recommended books. This guy helped me and later on even he offered me
his racks which i declined as i already have purchased a plenty of rack time
from different vendors. I am really thankful Darby for your amazing emails
and initial support.

Most amazing books for starting were Jeff Doyle's Routing TCP/IP, these
books gave ample knowledge and understanding.

A major boost for CCIE prep was deciding to purchase INE end to end program.
This helped a lot to put things on fast track. I really would like to say
big thanks to Anthony Sequeira for his outstanding support and always being
available when i need him. I would like to say big thanks to Kady Denis
also, she was always very supportive.

I have worked with INE end to end program intensively and without
INE/Anthony's help it was not possible to achieve this number. They are best
and massive. They cover almost every thing you can see on blue print and
mostly more than required. INE's only problem is that they feed you more
than you need to pass :) Their volume-1 is amazing and i have done it more
than 4 times end to end :) If some one can do volume-1 end to end, i am sure
he will not fail the exam. This volume have every thing you need to pass the
exam. If some one want to pass CCIE with extensive knowledge and have no
worries about time then INE is best suited for him. Only OLS will kill some
one with short time, these are around 150+ hours in depth lectures. I
watched them more than twice end to end and some selected lectures
periodically.

I was lucky enough that i get connected with Narbik and he offered me his
two workbooks. These two volumes are master piece of its kind and no doubt
best in market. I have learned a lot from Narbik and his workbooks. His
workbooks are precise and to the point. Best thing about his workbook is
being super fast to perform them. These workbooks dont take a lot of time.
If my memory serve me well i can say i have finished his both volumes more
than 3 times end to end. Narbik You are simply Best.

I would like to thank IPExpert team; Wayne, Tyson and Jeo Astrino. Wayne has
offered me his end to end program along with boot camp. I would like to
admit IPExpert study guides and videos/audio guides are superb. This
material is to the point and concise. If some one want to do CCIE on fast
track then IPExpert is best suited for him. Joe and Tyson are always
available on skype for any kind of question you got. Their audio and video
classes are best. I would admit i have not worked extensively with
IPExpert program, but what ever i have studied from IPExpert it was proved
to be good. Once again Thanks IPExpert Team.

As i was able to work with three vendors i would recommend every one of
these equally. Every one of them have some thing unique to offer. My advice
for any new CCIE aspirant is to take two vendors and this will help you to
clear your doubts more effectively. Second it will help to cover missing
points of one particular vendor's study program.

This journey was not an easy one. I have to steal time from family and my
kids, even my 5 year old daughter was understanding that "baba" is doing
some thing important. When she wants to do some playing or going outside she
would say, Baba when you are done with your studies and free then we will go
play land. These moments were really heart breaking. I am really thankful
for my wife for being supportive and understanding, occasionally she got
frustrated with this non-stop marathon. But without her help and support
this journey was impossible. I am proud of her.... Thanks once again for
your sacrifices.
Most difficult part was when i developed signs of RSI. I was in terrible
pain and afraid of this to be a permanent issue. I shut off the studies for
at least two months and it helped to overcome affectively along with some
other precautionary steps. Thanks God i dont have this issue today. I would
like to thank all of mine friends who met during this journey and we learnt
a lot of things from each other.

Lab:

It was CCIE Mobile lab held in Riyadh 1st of May. I reached almost 1 hours
earlier. we started lab around 9:10 after short introductory lecture
from proctor. TS part proved to be quite easy for me i never panic in this
part of lab although my first ticket took more than 20 minutes to be solved,
and i was thinking it was most easiest ticket to attempt. Lab topology was
huge but very well documented. Almost every thing you need to know about it
was on diagram. Monitors were big enough to hold a lot of open session
screens, but i had strategy to open only those sessions which involve with
one particular Ticket. When i was done with that ticket i would close all
those sessions. I was able to verify 90% of tickets working as expected.
When i was done with TS section in 1:55 minutes. Over all experience with TS
section was quite satisfying. Speed of the terminals was quite amazing. IOU
is really fast as compared to GNS.

My advice for TS section, as it worked for me.

I think candidate can start from any vendor's workbook to understand and
enhance his TS skills. Then he should create his own topology for 30-40
routers in Dynamips. He can try to put as many configs as possible and then
break them, getting help from friends to break configs and don't let you
know, whats have been broken can make this whole process a lot more "fun",
and it helped me a lot.

 To solve issues, diagram in lab is very crucial, it has every thing you
need to understand the scenario. But plz dont waste time to understand in
depth whats going on, its not required to do so.
Time is very important factor to solve the lab, given 120 minutes for 10
tickets, if you stuck on any ticket it will give you a lot of stress while
solving other tickets. First try to solve tickets which you feel are easy to
fix and then return to other tickets. Solving each ticket is not required
but at least 8 are must. TS is all about basic skills, not in dept or
gotcha/tricky commands. If you know basic skills, its more than enough to
pass TS.

Try to increase the speed which can only be done through practice. This
practice will help you to make your plan to solve tickets in different
approaches, like top down approach, from down to upward or try to solve it
from middle. No single approach can help, and practice will give you what
all you need to work with TS. TS is best part of Lab which i liked and it
helped me a lot to understand things in quick and precise manner.

Try to work with debug and show commands as much as possible, but don't
forget that there is no restriction to "do sh run". You just have to find a
proper equilibrium among sh run and other show/debug commands.

These are just my recommendations and every one can have his own way of
doing stuff.

Config Section:
Config section proved to be a real heart breaker for me. It was a very
lengthy lab, with lot of services and non-core stuff, and fun was that this
non-core was actually "core" of the lab. I struggled with this part, and at
least tried twice but it was not working. At one point i was thinking to
leave the lab after lunch but then i decided to leave this "non-core" topic
and finish other tasks. When i was done with my all other tasks i was left
with only 20-30 minutes. As a final try i checked again this "non-core" task
and found some very silly mistakes, as soon as i rectified these mistake i
was up and routes were behaving as expected. At that point i was sure that i
have nailed this big day. I have to consult doccd on few occasions and this
is only friend you can get in your lab, so be friend with it during your
prep time.

If any thing is on Cisco Blue Print then its fair game, you can expect it in
your lab. Even if you heard that this is just introductory stuff dont
believe, that stuff can be a "core" in your version of lab. If you have some
thing in blue print do that stuff in depth.

I have studied following books during this journey and these helped a
lot............May be i am missing some other books but....

CCNP Self-Study BCMSN Official Exam Certification Guide, 4th Edition
CCNP BSCI Official Exam Certification Guide 4th Edition
CCNP ISCW Official Exam Certification Guide 1st Edition
CCNP ONT Quick Reference Sheets 2007
Cisco Press CCSP SNRS Exam Certification Guide 2nd Edition
Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks (BSCI) (Authorized Self-Study Guide)
(3rd Edition)

KnowledgeNet - Cisco Multicast
KnowledgeNet - Cisco QoS
KnowledgeNet - Cisco MPLS

CCIE Routing and Switching Exam certification guide 3rd
CCIE Routing and Switching Exam certification guide 4th
CCIE Routing and Switching Flash Cards (Sequeira and Wallace, ISBN#
1587201291)
CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Quick Reference Sheets: Exam 350-001 v3.0
(Sequeira, ISBN #1-58705-337-3)

Cisco LAN Switching (Clark, Hamilton, ISBN# 1578700949)
Cisco Press LAN Switching Fundamentals

Routing TCP/IP, Volume II (CCIE Professional Development)Routing TCP/IP,
Volume I, Second Edition (Carroll, Doyle, ISBN# 1587052024)
Routing TCP/IP, Volume II (CCIE Professional Development) (Doyle, DeHaven
Carroll, ISBN# 1578700892)

Cisco OSPF Command and Configuration Handbook (Parkhurst, ISBN# 1587050714)

Cisco Press Configuring BGP StudentGuide Vol.1
Cisco Press Configuring BGP StudentGuide Vol.2
Internet Routing Architectures, Second Edition (Sam Halabi, ISBN#
15787050862)
Cisco BGP-4 Com

Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
Received on Fri May 06 2011 - 10:11:57 ART