Re: What a long strange trips its been

Congrats Marc..
Sent from my BlackBerry. wireless device

-----Original Message-----
From: marc abel <marcabel_at_gmail.com>
Sender: nobody_at_groupstudy.com
Date: Sat, 19 May 2012 12:17:48
To: Cisco certification<ccielab_at_groupstudy.com>
Reply-To: marc abel <marcabel_at_gmail.com>
Subject: What a long strange trips its been

As you know I passed my lab in RTP yesterday. Thank you all for the
congratulations and well wishes. There are a few people I wish to thank
personally for their support in this process.

After I obtained my CCNP in 2009 I decided I wanted to pursue my CCIE. I
figured it would take me about a year and a half. 6 months for the written
and year to prep for the lab. I managed to hit pretty close on the written
I read the following books pretty much cover to cover in about 6 months:

BCMSN study guide
Routing TCP/IP VOL 1 + 2
Fundamentals of MPLS

So in January 2010 I started preparing for lab. I purchased the IPExperts
blended learning solution which at the time featured the videos of a
scruffy Scott Morris. I worked my way through all the Vol 1 and somewhere
about then IPX came out with new videos featuring Joe Astorino. I watched
all these videos numerous times as well. I finally felt prepared to go sit
a boot camp and went to the 5 day R+S taught by Joe. I learned a ton during
these 5 days but could still see I had a ways to go. I kept labbing from
the IPX vol 2 + 3 books.

Next I attended the OWLE or one week lab experience, this time taught by
Marko Millojovec. I found the class very hard, I jokingly started calling
it the One Week Layer Two Experience because it would seemingly take me all
day to get out of the layer 2 section of each lab. This showed me that I
still had a ways to go and I became discouraged for a while.

Finally I snapped to and decided I had come too far to give up. I had about
6 months to go before my written was to expire so I decided I would hit it
hard and make an attempt before that date. It was about this time I met
Steve Di Bias through this list and we began exchanging emails on topics we
were unsure. 3 weeks before my lab I took advantage of IPX's generous
retake policy and sat both the R+S and OWLE experience. Going in I was
beginning to feel confident, but a couple weeks with Marko let me know that
I still had big gaps. Marko is an awesome instructor, and I was amazed at
how much his english and accent had improved in such a short time. I highly
recommend anyone take a course with him if you can. You won't get a slide
show, you will get good explanations reinforced with the proof from the
command line. During this class I also made friends with Thomas Raabo and
Christophe Lemaire who I have continued to correspond and appreciate their
support.

So I went into my first attempt knowing it was likely going to be
for practice, but determined to give it my best shot. I sat in San Jose in
July 2011. I was only able to solve 6 of the troubleshooting tickets in 2
hours so I knew by 10:00am that this was not my time. I still gave the
config section my all but only managed about 50%. I had now seen the beast
and extended the clock on my written exam. I finally knew at just a high
level you really have to be operating to pass this test. Before this I
think I underestimated what I was up against.

The common thought I read on here is that you must have a one track mind,
you must say good bye to your friends and family, eat drink and breathe
CCIE. I really bought into this and spent the next few months with a one
track mind. It was during this time that we started the study groups with
Steve Di Bias, Jay McMickle, and Chris Moore. These group sessions were
pretty cool, we would take turns driving the keyboard while the others gave
input on strategies to try. It was really helpful to have insight into how
others approached the tasks and requirments.

I would like to say a word of warning here though. This one track mind
everyone recommends is a dangerous thing. Even when I wasn't labbing I
couldn't unplug. I was becoming more distant from my wife, and even when we
had a few times out with friends I had a hard time. I felt like I had
nothing to talk about, none of them wanted to know about MPLS :). I felt
like the CCIE was eating my personality. Finally my wife had enough, and
nearly left me. I had to beg her to stay. I had to relearn balance in my
life. I had a second lab date fast approaching but my family had to come
first. So be careful out there, without your family the certification is
pointless.

So in December 2011 the four of us; Steve, Jay, Chris, and myself headed to
San Jose. I could tell Steve was really dialed in and I had high hopes for
him. Well I went 6 for 10 on the troubleshooting again, and once again knew
by 10:00am that I was have a $1500 lunch. Again I decided to do my best on
the config section. This time at least I was able to make it through the
whole thing. There were a couple really big things I wasn't able to solve
though. I think I ended up about 67 percent on the config this time. My man
Steve knocked it out of the park that day though and became the first of
our group to slay the dragon. On his first time!

At this time something awesome happened, and for this I can't thank him
enough. Jay McMickle offered to let me use a rack of equipment that Steve
had been using. This was a game changer for me. Previous to this I was
using IPX rack rentals, which are awesome but have one gigantic flaw. As
with any rack rental you have to know when you can study, and you need a
large block of time to do it. For a guy who is trying to find balance and
juggle a full time job, a family, consulting work, and the CCIE this can be
pretty tough. Now because of Jay's generosity I was able to lab any time I
had a spare hour. During lunch breaks, while my son was napping, and into
the wee hours. This allowed me to finally have family time, but to still
get in all the hours you need to prepare. To be prepared it is not enough
to know the commands, you need to have muscle memory of the commands. Your
fingers need to know the solutions even before your brain.

So Jay recently passed and I was so happy for him. I could tell by
our preparation that I was going to be close behind. Labs that previously
took me 10 hours I was now doing in 3. One thing I did different this time
was not scheduling far in advance. If you look you see that you only need
to book a week or two in advance these days. So instead of picking a date
and trying to be ready, I waited until I was ready and then picked a date.

So again, thank you to everyone that supported me along the way, and I hope
I don't forget anyone but a heartfelt thank you to: God, my wife, Jay
McMickle, Steve Di Bias, Chris Moore, Marko Millojovec, Joe Astorino,
Thomas Raabo, Christophe Lemaire, IP Experts and my employer.

-- 
Marc Abel
CCIE #35470
(Routing and Switching)
Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net