Re: CCIE#35347

Yeah, but then carry the 2, subtract 7....yeah, don't know where that came from!

Regards,
Jay McMickle- CCIE #35355
Sent from iJay

On May 8, 2012, at 6:05 PM, Marko Milivojevic <markom_at_ipexpert.com> wrote:

> 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- 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 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 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, 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. 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 gun shy 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 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 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, 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 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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>>>> http://www.groupstudy.com/list/CCIELab.html
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Joe Astorino
>>> CCIE #24347
>>> http://astorinonetworks.com
>>>
>>> "He not busy being born is busy dying" - Dylan
>>>
>>>
>>> Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________________________________
>>> Subscription information may be found at:
>>> http://www.groupstudy.com/list/CCIELab.html
>>
>>
>> Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
>>
>> _______________________________________________________________________
>> Subscription information may be found at:
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Received on Tue May 08 2012 - 19:37:27 ART