Re: Week before the lab

Stephen,
I would recommend that you continue preparing. Ideally you could take a
few mock labs leading up to your real lab date. Then when you get into
the real lab just think of it as another mock lab. I did exactly this
for my voice lab. I flew to San Jose a few days early and every morning
I would wake up, get dressed, eat and start labbing. I would take a 30
minute lunch and lab until 4pm. After 4pm I would take a break and then
go back and review any issues that I had earlier in the day. Finally
when my real lab day came, it was just another day labbing. Nothing
special.

I can offer you a few beta troubleshooting mock labs and full scale beta
mock labs free of charge this week if you're interested. Here is a
review from someone who took one of our new auto-graded troubleshooting
labs at Cisco Live.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YJMWWPVgM4

In regards to the troubleshooting portion of the lab I can't emphasize
this next point enough. You need to be able to build the same type of
topology you are going to get in the real troubleshooting portion within
a reasonable amount of time (3 to 4 hours max). If you can't build a
network with roughly 30 devices in a reasonable amount of time then you
can't troubleshoot one in two hours. Building a topology like this from
the ground up based solely on the diagram (http://goo.gl/GI9uM) is some
of the best "last mile" preparation out there. Believe me when I say
that most people will be doing this type of preparation going forward.

In regards to your issue with staying focused you need to make sure that
you have a plan and you stick to that plan. Make a plan on how you are
going to use the time between now and the real lab to prepare. Everyone
has their own amount of time they need to put in before they pass the
lab. Hopefully you'll put that time in before your first attempt. So
don't waste any time between now and your lab date because if you do
it'll mean you'll have to make up that time before your second attempt.

Additionally make a plan on what you're going to do when you get into
the real lab and stick to it. Don't be one of the people who get into
the real lab without a plan and then when something goes wrong starts
they freak out. I've seen people fail because they aren't organized and
don't have a plan and then let everything fall apart in the first hour
or two of the real lab.

-- 
Brian Dennis, CCIEx5 #2210 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/SP/Voice)
bdennis_at_ine.com
Internetwork Expert, Inc.
http://www.INE.com
On 06/17/2012 09:47 AM, Stephen Lynch wrote:
> I have my lab on the 27th, I've been studying for over a year now and I'm going for my first attempt. After CiscoLive I had planned to study all this week with TS/Config mock labs but for whatever reason I can't stay focused. I want to run through a few labs just to build up my confidence but I don't want to force study.
>
> What did everyone else do the week before the lab? Relax? Study?
>
> Thanks,
>
> -SL
>
>
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