CC1E::7B56/128 I'm in the 0.3% club

I recently got my digits, and am so thankful to have this portion of the
journey completed. My last lab, I took in October, and managed to blaze
through TS, and had 30 minutes left to verify everything was working and
within TS guidelines. Next was the CONFIG section, and managed to have
that completed with 1 1/2 hours to spare. As I went back and verified, I
correct things that were put on the wrong router, seeked
clarification/confirmation from the proctor on what the question answered.
I forced myself to stay in my chair, and keep going through the lab to
check, double-check, triple-check everything etc.

When I left, there was only a couple of tasks that could be interpreted a
different way; but they only totalled up to about 6 or so points. I left
the lab in full confidence knowing that I had finally passed the infamous
Route/Switch Lab. While at the airport bar, I knew that I was done
performing the cross-country journeys to validate my knowledge, and can
start spending my weekends with my family again. I checked my email
during my flight change in ATL which showed my lab was graded. So I
quickly fumble through logging onto Cisco's Website.

FAIL. TS score was below 80%.

I feel sorry for the guy sitting next to me on the next flight, as I was
furious, and he knew it. I was going to request a re-read, so i started to
work on my re-read justification. In the words of Scott Morris "If you
feel this strongly about it, and can word it in a nice,
professional-sounding detailed case then I would think it worthwhile to
request a re-read". My BlackBerry was smoking hot at 30,000 feet, as I
typed in my justification. I wrote a novel detailing all of the TS
problems, the solutions, and how I worked around Cisco's caveats. In
addition, I made notes to conversations I had with the proctors in the
configs, to reduce a he said/she said. (You're probably wondering how I
did that.... Banner messages!)

After I got home that night, I paid the $250, and put my novel into the
re-read notes. I got the standard, your re-read will be done in about 3
weeks. Week 3 rolls around the corner, and still no results.

Just as week 4 starts to hit, I check my re-read status, and notice that my
grade report, lab status, and re-read status are gone/disappeared. WTF?
Then I found this website (
http://ccie-quest.driftverket.se/2011/10/ccie-30914-do-not-fear-reread.html).
  The next day I wake up to an email stating that my lab has been
changed from FAIL to PASS.

Rock On! I'm in the 0.3% club! So my advice is to make use of 'Banner
messages' and follow the advice of Scott when you request a re-read, give
them your viewpoint.

Now I start my journey on Service Provider.

-Brad
CC1E::7B56/128

Now that I've done w/ R/S I am renting out my rack at low weekly rates.
Unicast me for more info.

Material I Used That I Can Recommend To Others:
************************************************
Books:
Cisco Press TCP/IP Vol 1 & 2 by Jeff Doyle
INE Vol 1
Narbik Kocharians Soup to Nuts (Free) --
http://www.micronicstraining.com/freedownloads/soup-to-nuts-free-labs.pdf

Other:
Scott Morris Audio Bootcamps  Great for the car ride into work. But I
bet Scott must hate sitting in traffic by now!
CCIE R/S Quick Review Kit (Free) --
http://inetcon.org/study/CCIE_RS_Quick_Review_Kit.pdf

Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
Received on Sat Nov 12 2011 - 17:20:19 ART