Re: CCIE#35347

Jay, your math is a bit off... 35355 - 35347 = 8 :-)

--
Marko Milivojevic - CCIE #18427 (SP R&S)
Senior CCIE Instructor - IPexpert
On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 3:21 PM, Jay McMickle <jay.mcmickle_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
> Great story! Awesome, in fact!
>
> Also, I passed the same day, but our numbers are 108 digits apart. Are there that many a day passing?
>
> Terry- 35347 May 1- RTP (R&S)
> Jay- B  B 35355 May 1- SJC (R&S)
>
> Regards,
> Jay McMickle- CCIE #35355 (R&S)
> Sent from iJay
>
> On May 8, 2012, at 10:12 AM, Joe Astorino <joeastorino1982_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Congratulations on your wonderful achievement, and good luck in your new role!
>>
>> On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 11:02 AM, Terry Vinson <wantmydigits_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>>> *Hello Everyone,*
>>>
>>> *I passed the CCIE R&S lab on May 1, 2012 at RTP, NC.*
>>>
>>> *I ve 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 B customers helping customers B 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 didn t 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
>>> didn t 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 wasn t ready for it. That was a
>>> tough pill to swallow, but he was right. I didn t even come close to
>>> passing, but like Narbik said, B you know what to expect now! *
>>>
>>> *So the next year was all about filling gaps in my knowledge, reading books
>>> and labs using Narbik s workbooks. In the next two years, I took Narbik s
>>> 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 didn t 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 hadn t 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. B I ll help
>>> you get your CCIE no matter what the circumstances are or who I m 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 B gun shy B of the exam. I was so afraid of failing again I wasn t
>>> 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 B mock
>>> lab practice. Anthony and I created a tool that made sense and held up to
>>> the troubleshooting labs I had from all vendors B  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 B correctly B 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 didn t 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. That s the
>>> long and short of it.*
>>>
>>> *In my opinion it all boils down to the fact that the CCIE exam has
>>> changed, it s no longer, B 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 doesn t 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 it s no longer 70 to 75 percent of
>>> passing. Cisco has upped the ante in terms of the significance of these
>>> miscellaneous B 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 Marko s wonderful
>>> audio bootcamp that was one of best knowledge sustainment tools I ve 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 I d had come to expect to see on the exam after my failed attempts.
>>> Their workbooks were concise, well planned and the closest I ve seen to the
>>> actual exam with regard to the wording and structure of the individual
>>> tasks. The integration between workbooks was seamless. It wasn t 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!*
>>>
>>>
>>> Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Regards,
>>
>> Joe Astorino
>> CCIE #24347
>> http://astorinonetworks.com
>>
>> "He not busy being born is busy dying" - Dylan
>>
>>
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>>
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>
>
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