CCIE Lab dates

gorebrush

Would it be interesting if we kept up to speed with everyones lab date? I'll edit this post and update it - please PM me your info as below...

username - track - date

Luke Bibby (lrb) - R&S - 20 November, 2014 - Sydney, Australia. CCIE Attained.
Diego M. - R&S - 8 December, 2014 - Toronto, Canada.
jamesp1983 - R&S - 15 December, 2014 - RTP, USA.
gorebrush - R&S - 6 Feburary, 2015 - London, UK.
silver145 - R&S - 23 Feburary, 2015 - Brussels, Belgium.
Network_Engineer - R&S - March 30, 2015 - RTP, NC, USA.
joelsfood - DC - April 17, 2015 - San Jose, USA.

lrb

Oh great, I'm up first!

silver145

23rd of Feb - (may be moved back 30 days depending on the outcome of this week's cisco360 training program)

Network_Engineer

We could add our lab locations. I will be at RTP, NC.

gorebrush

Good idea - please shout them out and i'll update.

I remember Silver was going to Belgium and I'll be at the mobile lab in London

joelsfood

Oops, mine's in San Jose. SOonest US date I could get when I registered. Now I'm occasionally wondering whether or not I"ll be ready in time.

jamesp1983

I'll be in RTP.

lrb

Sydney Australia for me.

Dieg0M

Toronto, Canada

gorebrush

So I've now added links to all the blog threads and updated lrb's status to say he passed

joelsfood

Great update.

lrb

Thanks mate!

gorebrush

Best of luck to Dieg0M.. he's up next!

gorebrush

I cannot edit the original post anymore. Mods?

silver145

Not long togo!

gorebrush

Yes, 23 days and I'll be in London relaxing, hopefully.

25 days to lab day. Butt is clenching, slightly, at this point, but I think I might be OK

And you're not far behind me, Silver!

silver145

haha keep it up - i have 4 weeks off of work till the exam to knuckle down 24/7.

has your strategy changed or just hitting different things each day?

gorebrush

My strategy now involves working out what the weak areas are and hitting those, and then doing general practice exercises every other day to keep everything else fresh.

Have got a fairly good strategy for the lab - hopefully I won't get thrown a bad ticket that screws my whole day before lunch has even happened.

How about you?

silver145

currently trying to hit "not-spots" and then ramping up with full labs during the last few weeks

gorebrush

Similar to me then. Good luck, mate!

gorebrush

Well, there are a few of us due to be sitting the labs soon.. how are we getting on?

I'm three weeks out before setting off for London. Been practicing a lot this last week and I've got a nice 12 hour day every day going at the moment. I'm usually up around 630am and finish around 7pm. Ideal as this was what I had been planning on with my final month. Hopefully I can mop up the remaining topics that I am unfamiliar with and get on with it. TS strategies are going well I think - I have a very good structure towards any ticket and the TS labs that I've tried I've been pretty successful with. We'll see.

joelsfood

I'm getting there, but also getting nervous. Still trying to hammer down more speed, more speed, more speed. I know the technologies, I've set them all up multiple times, but I still dread the idea I might ahve to go to doccd. Or even just freeze up and be too slow

gorebrush

Yeah, I hear that. I've been mainly doing practice of the core routing and switching topics. Going over in my mind what shortcuts I can take or maybe
come up with interesting ways to cut down on time spent in one area if I can configure multiple things at once.

I am getting a dab hand at configuring stuff in notepad first, and remembering all the shortcut commands. I've got the right keyboard. Damn, that backslash is totally in the wrong place for me and I'm glad I'm suffering the pain of that now before I get to the date.

I think I've exhausted all the labs I have to hand, so I'm just going to practice and practice and practice building some more stuff and generally reading for the next few weeks.

bermovick

I was hoping for a lab date in the May-July range, but with the stanly vmware class starting up, I don't know how I'll be able to juggle both.

Unless I only study enough to pass the class and worry about the actual VCP exam later... but even then I'm not sure how much leeway I have.

I have until September before my 18 months is up, but I think I'm really going to have to step up my game in any event.

gorebrush

Looks like i'm up next then, 9 days to go!

NOC-Ninja

goodluck gonebrush!

Network_Engineer

I changed my lab date to August 17th 2015. I will attend INE's R&S 10 day bootcamp the last 2 weeks of Feb at RTP, NC. I need more time to lab and study, so I bumped my lab date out about 6 months.

gorebrush

One thing I will say though - don't be tempted to push it back and push it back.

I regret doing it because it meant I was slightly more lazy than I should have been and now I am at the end of my 18 month window. Though, I think I am ready.

Network_Engineer

I agree with you. My 18 months will expire around December. I will at least 2 attempts available before expiration with the new retake policy. There are so many distractions to remain dedicated and get serious. My bootcamp is in 2 weeks. Hopefully, my status quo will change and will set a closer lab date. The first fail starts the wait clock. One has to ask, how many retakes will I do before I give up? There has to be a limit.

Certification Exam Policies - IT Certification and Career Paths - Cisco Systems

bermovick

I thought a failed lab extended your 18 months by up to an additional 12. Now I'll have to find if I just dreamed it or something.

gorebrush

No that is correct - failed attempt = another 12 months.

However, there is now the new resit policy on top of that that says you have to wait 30 days after 1st failure, I think it's 60 days after second... and number increases a fair bit.

I think there's a 180 day window at most! But you'll need to be failing 4-5-6 times to get into that bracket. Not something I wish to do.

Should the worst happen to me on Friday, then I'm booking as soon as I can in Belgium 30 days after.

The temptation will be to just think "Oh I need a break now" - next thing I know I'll be panicking my 12 month window is nearly gone and I won't be ready a second time...