CCIE#35347

*Hello Everyone,*

*I passed the CCIE R&S lab on May 1, 2012 at RTP, NC.*

*Ive tried to write my success story about a hundred times since I got my
pass notification for the Routing and Switching track. Each attempt,
however, has sounded more angry than happy, which is odd because I am
ecstatic to have passed. Not having to study anymore and having decided to
take a week off from everything but family has given me a lot of time to
reflect on why I get so upset when I think about the last five years. I
made the realization last night that my anger stems from feeling like I
wasted a lot of time, and went up a lot of blind alleys during my
preparation. I need to put things in perspective before I explain that any
further. I am 45 years old. I have four sons ranging in ages from 5 to 22,
I am a self-employed consultant, and in the current economy we have been
struggling just to get by. So in a nutshell my preparation came out of my
own pocket and I spent way more than I should have to get where I am. I
bought materials, in the last three years, from virtually every major
vendor I can think of, to include Cisco 360.*

*I found out about Narbik Kocharians on GroupStudy.com and contacted him
and let him know that I was very dissatisfied with the first CCIE vendor I
chose to use due a customers helping customers approach for guidance and
support with the package. Narbik was very understanding and explained to me
that he thought I had large gaps in my foundational theory. He told me that
we could fix that together. I bought his workbook and set out to fix the
problem. I was livid at how much I didnt know after a year and a half of
using the first vendor. I flooded Narbik with my frustration and again he
just let me vent and then said we can fix that too. He told me that he was
going to have a bootcamp in Columbia, Maryland starting on Monday; this was
Sunday and he said I could come if I wanted to. I did want to, but we
didnt have the money to pay for a hotel. So I slept in my truck for a week
in an arctic sleeping bag because it was winter. That sucked, but honestly
I had slept in way worse conditions when I was a soldier. It was worth
every second of it. I learned more in 5 days than I had in the previous
year. The sad part was that my lab was scheduled for 15 days after the
bootcamp and Narbik told me straight up I wasnt ready for it. That was a
tough pill to swallow, but he was right. I didnt even come close to
passing, but like Narbik said, you know what to expect now!*

*So the next year was all about filling gaps in my knowledge, reading books
and labs using Narbiks workbooks. In the next two years, I took Narbiks
bootcamp again twice (at no cost and received updates for all the workbooks
 again at no cost). At the end of the last bootcamp, Narbik told me that
he thought I was borderline ready, but I needed more lab work (I was too
slow). I didnt know how to answer that because I had done every lab he had
to offer half a dozen times. So ignoring his advice I again scheduled a
lab. I failed again but I was so much closer. But I found another weakness
that I hadnt really considered. My test taking strategy was virtually
nonexistent; I was working and thinking too linear. That was when I met
Anthony Sequiera.*

*Anthony was not what I was expecting from a CCIE instructor, he was
frequently talking about other things than just technology. He was bringing
up things that affected my performance on the lab that I had honestly never
even considered. We exchanged emails and he made me a promise. Ill help
you get your CCIE no matter what the circumstances are or who Im working
for. Anthony was able to open a lot of opportunities for me to learn and
practice and was constantly offering support and advice. But at this point
I was gun shy of the exam. I was so afraid of failing again I wasnt
willing to test. It took a long time for Anthony to help me break down
those barriers. But eventually we did and I scheduled the exam, this time
it was the Version 4 exam. Anthony and I where both focused on the TS
section, because frankly it seemed to be what most people were failing, and
the fact that there were no real tools available to students to help them
deal with this new lab requirement was adding to my apprehension. So rather
than just take a wild swing we got together with the great minds over at
IPexpert, who I should point out Narbik had recommended I use for my mock
lab practice. Anthony and I created a tool that made sense and held up to
the troubleshooting labs I had from all vendors  the Quick Fire
Troubleshooting Strategy. We spent countless hours discussing it, tearing
it apart, and testing it against whatever mock troubleshooting materials we
could find.*

*Quick Fire centers around a common issues methodology combined with
intense time management. In our opinion, the biggest problem in the
training space at that time was that everyone talked about troubleshooting
and even discussed how to approach troubleshooting, but nothing dealt with
the biggest issue, which is the two-hour time limit. After getting
comfortable using the Quick Fire Troubleshooting Strategy, we decided that
I should schedule a lab. The good news was that the troubleshooting plan
worked AWESOME! I knew I had 8 out of 10 tickets and was unsure about one,
the other I did not have a clue if I solved it correctly or not. The
outcome was not what I was hoping for, because I did not pass the
configuration section, but Quick Fire held up perfectly. What would have
been another blow to my ego, was actually an opportunity to retest the
troubleshooting strategy Anthony and I developed. So I scheduled another
lab; what would be my second attempt at the Version 4 with troubleshooting.*

*During the next 30 days I didnt even really focus on the lab, but every
so often I would do an IPexpert Volume 3 lab just to keep my speed from
deteriorating. Come test time I was way more relaxed, had more even more
faith in Quick Fire. I even adapted some of the methodology from the
troubleshooting process to the configuration section of the test. In the
end it all culminated in passing the lab and getting my digits. Thats the
long and short of it.*

*In my opinion it all boils down to the fact that the CCIE exam has
changed, its no longer, answer all the core questions and pick up a few
of the services and management tasks and you are golden. In my opinion,
that test doesnt exist anymore. The new test is a broad range of topics
that all have relatively the same weight, the concept of the core and
fundamental reachability is there but its no longer 70 to 75 percent of
passing. Cisco has upped the ante in terms of the significance of these
miscellaneous topics, and to tell students that they are not going to
expect you to be an expert on them is an out-and-out travesty.*

*It was a long expensive journey to get to the point where I had all the
tools I needed to pass and honestly, we had to invent a few along the way
as a result of the exam changing and maturing. Technological proficiency
was pivotal, but having a well-considered and practiced strategy was just
as important. That concept of strategy extends not just to the actual lab
but also to the act of preparing for the lab. I came late in my preparation
to IPexpert on the advice of both Narbik and Anthony, and I found just what
I needed there. They had an honest, structured approach that addressed all
phases of the CCIE learning process to include tools like Markos wonderful
audio bootcamp that was one of best knowledge sustainment tools Ive had
the pleasure to use. But for me, the workbooks were the most impressive
offering because by the time I found IPexpert, that was what I was looking
for. I wanted, no I needed, multiprotocol labs that where reflective of
what Id had come to expect to see on the exam after my failed attempts.
Their workbooks were concise, well planned and the closest Ive seen to the
actual exam with regard to the wording and structure of the individual
tasks. The integration between workbooks was seamless. It wasnt a series
of workbooks created, in a handful of weeks, by different developers with
no clear transition. As I worked through these books I could feel my
confidence and general understanding growing, and that process continued
until the CCIE was just a fundamental part of that transition.*

*It is important to understand that everyone learns differently and at
different rates. But the one constant is that learning needs to be
deliberate, and that is so much easier when the actual course instruction
is deliberate by design. Furthermore, you need to find vendors like
IPexpert and Micronics Training that are willing to devote themselves to
your success.*

*I am very proud to say that I am now employed writing elegant, yet
practical and accessible texts and classes for IPexpert in the area of CCIE
R&S. I hope I have the opportunity to provide assistance to some of you
reading this, just as I received the assistance that I so desperately
needed.*

*For those thinking about giving up. Don't do it! The elation of success
will completely erase the grief you felt when you didn't pass. It felt bad
to fail but absolutely incredible to pass!*

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Received on Tue May 08 2012 - 11:02:56 ART