My CCIE R&S Study Journal

TBickle · February 2015

Up until a few days ago, i've been very noncommittal with my CCIE studies. Anyhow, this past weekend I decided i would make a study schedule and stick with it. I plan on studying anywhere between 15-20 hours a week, with at least 2 hours each weekday and 3 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. I have a subscription to Safari Books and INE, as well as having CCIE v5.0 Volume 1&2 books, Routing TCP/IP 1&2 and Internet Routing Architectures.

I finished up my CCNP about a year back and considered beginning my IE studies, but then got sidetracked with my Masters capstone project. Well, I finished that project this past December and now all my study energy can be redirected towards my IE. My goal is to be ready to sit for the Written in 4.5 months, and the lab by next February. This is probably a pretty aggressive goal, but I am not married, I do not have any kids nor do I have a girlfriend holding me back. Hopefully those three factors work in my favor.

I do not have any type of writing plan for this journal, only that I update it regularly so that I may look back as the time goes by to see how far I have come and what I studied.

My current plan is to finish reading all of CCIE Routing and Switching Volume 1, then going back around to complete all of the quizzes at the beginning of each chapter. If I score low on a particular chapter, I will re-read it and quiz myself again until I fully understand the concepts. Weekends will be for short labs and review. Weekdays will be for reading. I plan on finishing Volume 1 by this Friday.

Before I log any of my study journal time, if anyone reading this study journal has any insight they would like to share or any study tactics they found very useful, by all means, please do share.

Today's Study Material taken from One Note Entry:

Tuesday, February15th, 2015:

Reading Time:
- 2 hrs
  - Read 2 hrs (before work and during work), Read chapter 6: IP Forwarding. Long read, and I will need to review the concepts and work through some practice questions to commit some of the topics to memory. Especially the section covering Forwarding Information Base, Adjacency Table, and CEF.
  - Will need to spend 30 minutes this evening entering "what I've learned" today in my Tech Exams Study Journal.
- 20 minutes
  - Read 20 minutes after lunch. Started on Chapter 7: RIPv2 and RIPng
- 1.5 hours
  - Finished reading Chapter 7 and finished a third of chapter 8 (EIGRP).
    - Although not the least bit complex, i will need to review some of the concepts and the configurations for RIPv2. I do not recall some of the concepts, but they're not overly complex.
  - I haven't reviewed EIGRP since my NP study days, but it is just as straightforward as I remember it. I do not believe I will need any heavy review once this chapter is finished.

EdTheLad · February 2015

TBickle wrote: »

Although not the least bit complex, i will need to review some of the concepts and the configurations for RIPv2. I do not recall some of the concepts, but they're not overly complex.

I haven't reviewed EIGRP since my NP study days, but it is just as straightforward as I remember it. I do not believe I will need any heavy review once this chapter is finished.

Hi TBickie, welcome to the ccie world. Don't under play the complexity of the distance vectors

, i'm reviewing RIP at the moment and then on to Eigrp. When you finish RIP i can ask you some questions on the more complicated aspects if you like, maybe you can ask me some too?

gorebrush · February 2015

Welcome aboard. Being committed is the number one factor in people achieving CCIE success. Little and often. Keep posting here.

There are now many of us lurking around the boards and quite a few posting in their own threads - only glad to see more and more taking on the challenge.

Keep logging those hours here - keep a study counter.

And, good luck!

Network_Engineer · February 2015

My CCIE bootcamp instructor said his study plan was 7 days a week for 8-10 months. He would split a 8 hour lab between Mon & Tues. Wed study up on protocols he was not clear on. 4 hour lab on Thurs. Study more protocols on Fri. 8 hour lab on Sat. Study more on any weak areas on Sun.

bermovick · February 2015

I'm almost to the point of doing something like that. I worry that with only a few "large" labs available through the vendor I chose, I may start remembering the specific topology rather than the general technology.

gorebrush · February 2015

Build your own!

TBickle · February 2015

I'm going to try and update this study journal at least twice a week. I'm a bit disappointment with my lack of progress this weekend. Looking through my notes and study journal, it would appear that I prefer to get most of my studying out of the way during the week, and instead use the weekend for other things. Either way, i'm going to have to tighten up my weekend schedule as well. I'm going to try and fit in some very early morning Saturday and Sunday 4 hours sessions. That should help. Unfortunately, I won't have the chance to try it this weekend as we have to maintenance windows that I will be working on.

Here's my journal taken from OneNote since my last update. Also, i'm experimenting with differnet study times here and was curious which hours of the day do you guys prefer to study. Would you rather wake up at 3:30am to get a few hours of study in before work, or would you rather stay up a few extra hours to study? Right now my mornings are reserved for my workouts, but i'm thinking of switching things around.

Thursday, February17th, 2015:

Reading Time:
- 1.5 hours, pgs 460 - 489, detailed reading with notes.
Videos
- INE OSPF Protocol and Operation Overview (43 mins)
- OSPF Single Area Configuration (61) mins
Total Time=3.21 hrs
Questions/Comments:

Friday, February18th, 2015:

Reading Time:
- None yet
Videos:
- INE OSPF Troubleshooting (48 mins)
Labs:
- CCNP LAb 21&22 from 101 CCNP Lab book (1.5 hours)
Total Time=2 hours & 30 mins
Question/Comments:

Saturday, February19th, 2015:

Videos:
- INE OSPF Areas and LSAs (1 hr & 17 mins)
- OSPF Media Dependencies and Network Types (26 mins)
- Configuring OSPF Network types (1 hr & 12 mins)
Reading Time:
- None Yet
Labs:
- None yet.
Total Time=2 hrs & 55 mins
Question/Comment

Monday, February23rd, 2015:

Reading:
- Finished reading OSPF Chapter pgs. 498-553Read OSPF chapter pgs. 498-530 (1 hour & 30 mins)
- Reviewed Chapter 4 (15 mins)
Videos:
- Finished Watching INE OSPF Media Dependencies and Network Types Video (45 mins)
- INE OSPF Virtual Links (1hr)
- INE Stub Areas (26 mins)
- INE Configuring OSPF Stub Areas (22 mins)
Labs:
- Basic OSPF Labs to review network types concepts
Total Time= 4 hours
Questions/Comments: need to focus a bit more on prefix suppression and LSA filtering, as well as OSPFv3.

TBickle · March 2015

Here's my progress for the week. I didn't get to do any studying this past weekend as I worked two overnight maintenance windows, but I plan on making up for it this week. So far, i'm on route to hitting 20 hours a week or studying. Also, I think i'm finally settling into my a nice study rhythm where i read and watch videos one day and lab the following day. However, weekends will strictly be used as labbing days. I'm looking forward to blocking off 8 hours a day to finish off labs. Hopefully i'm still on target to take Written by July, Bootcamp in November/December, and first lab attempt next January. Please advise if these goals seem a bit unrealistic.

Wednesday, February25th, 2015:

Review:
- Created OSPF Flash Cards (45 mins)
Labs:
- Rack Rental time of 2 hours
- Additional 15 minutes beforehand reading labs
Reading
- Reviewed OSPF LSA section
Total Time= 3 hours
Question/Comments: Need to review OSPF Path Selection with Cost Lab

Thursday, February26th, 2015:

Reading/Review:
- OSPF note card review/creation (30 mins)
- Reviewed OSPF Chapter and lab build for examples in book (1 hr)
Videos
- Default Routing with OSPF NSSA (46 mins)
- OSPF NSSA Translator Election & Forwarding Address (44 mins)
- OSPF Path Selection (23 mins)
Total Time=3 1/2 hours

Friday, February27th, 2015:

Reading/Review:

Monday, March 2nd,2015:

Reading/Review:
- reviewed OSPF chapter (30 minutes)
Videos:
- Watched Again:
  - OSPF Areas and LSAs (1 hr & 17 mins)
  - OSPF Media Dependencies & Network Types ( 26 mins)
  - OSPF Summarization Overview ( 15 mins)
Total Time= 2 hours and 30 minutes
Questions/Comments: I didn't get any studying done over the weekend as I worked two maintenance windows on Saturday and Sunday night. I will need to spend the rest of the week reviewing OSPF and drilling down on fuzzy concepts and the weekend covering OSPF labs for 6 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday.

Tuesday, March 3rd,2015:

Reading/Review:
- Reviewed OSPF Flashcards & INE Labs (30 mins)
Videos:
Labs:
- OSPF Virtual Link lab (15 mins)
- LSA Type 1,2,& 3 lab (30 mins)
- Scheduled 2 hour lab session on INE Rack Rental and completed labs:
  - OSPF Path Selection with Virutal-Links
  - OSPF Demand Circuit
  - OSPF Flooding Reduction
  - OSPF Clear Text Authentication
  - OSPF MD5 Authentication
  - OSPF MD5 Authentication with Multiple Keys
  - OSPF SHA Authentication
Total Time= 3 hours and 15 mins
Questions/Comments:

gorebrush · March 2015

Nothing is impossible if you are only commited enough.

bharvey92 · March 2015

gorebrush wrote: »

Nothing is impossible if you are only commited enough.

Excellent quote right there and that gorebrush is why you have your CCIE number.

TBickle · March 2015

Here's my progress for the past week or so. I didn't get much studying done on Friday as we had a cutover go horribly wrong. However, despite not getting any actual studying in, I did do some pretty advanced OSPF troubleshooting and OSPF route selection troubleshooting to remedy the issue. Also, I didn't do any studying this past Sunday. It was just one of those days where I was completely worn out. I have about 10 labs left from the INE OSPF workbook section, so i plan on doing those over the next 2 days. Thereafter, I'll spend Thursday reviewing pretty heavily, and then I plan on knocking out chapters 4 & 5 before next Monday. Next Monday, I plan on beginning BGP section. That section is going to take a few weeks just as OSPF did.

Also, just a note to myself, I need to step the studying up. Sure, my studying is consistent, but I need to stretch it out longer. Today was a longish session, and if i can do 3-4 hours everyday, I think i'll hit my deadline.

Wednesday, March4th, 2015:

Reading/Review:
- INE Slide review at work (15 mins)
Videos:
- OSPF Traffic Engineering with Stub Areas (1 hr)
  - created similar lab and followed along with Lecture, thus the set time of 27 minutes took me an hour as I kept pausing to confirm routes, and database.
Labs:
- CCNP Lab Guide
  - OSPF Virtual Links and Area Summarization (30 mins).
    - completed this quick lab as INE had a similar lab covering virtual links and area summarization
Total Time=1 hr and 45 mins

Thursday, March 5th,2015:

Videos:
- OSPF Configuring Not So Stubby Areas
  - completed lab as I watched lecture so video took longer than advertised lenght. Also took hand written notes. ( 1 hr & 15 mins)
Total Time= 1 hr & 15 mins

Friday, March 6th,2015:

Videos:
- Controlling NSSA Redistribution
  - took notes while watching video and created mini lab of 6 routers to follow along with the concepts ( 1 hour & 15 mins)
Labs:
- Rented 3 hour session from INE with goal of completing 17 OSPF Labs
  - Actual Labs completed in 3 hours=
Comments/Notes:
- it would be wise to re-watch this video several more times as Brian mentions possible lab scenarios around the 21 minute mark. Moreover, will need to heavily familiarize myself with the "no redistribution" "no summary" "nssa-only" "default information originate" commands and how to use them to direct traffic to particular ABRs.
- remember OSPF path selection is based on the shortest path to the nodes; it is not based on the routes. Changing link costs means a change to all routes that the node in the database is advertising as links.
- we can withdraw the P-Bit for a particluar prefix
- Unfortunately, I didn't get to study anywhere nearly the amount of time I had planned on. I had the day off but was called into the office to troubleshoot a major network outage we had. I only managed to get about an hour and half of studying in.
Total Time=1 hr and 30 mins

Saturday, March 7th,2015:

Videos:
- OSPF Path Selection (24 mins)
  - this took me about 20 mins extra because I created a 6 router lab to manipulate costs as the lecture went on.
- OSPF Summarization Overview (15 mins)
- Configuring OSPF Summarization (41 mins)
Labs:
- Rented 1 hour rack time from INE, completed the following labs:
  - OSPF Internal Summarization
  - OSPF Path Selection with Summarization
  - OSPF External Summarization
Notes:
- learned routing logic between two ABRs choosing longest match over summary despite ABR with longest match having a higher cost.
Total Time=2 hrs & 45 mins

Monday, March 9th,2015:

Videos:
Labs:
- Rented 2 and half hours of rack time from INE and completed the following labs:
  - OSPF Stub Areas
  - OSPF Totally Stubby Areas
  - OSPF Not-So-Stubby Areas
  - OSPF Not-So-Stubby Areas and Default Routing
  - OSPF Not-So-Totally-Stubby Areas
  - OSPF Stub Areas with Multiple Exit Points
  - OSPF NSSA Type-7 to Type-5 Translator Election
Reading/Review:
- Completed the "Do I Know This Already" section for OSPF chapter and didn't score to good. After finishing the test, I went ahead and reviewed the topics on the questions I missed (45 mins)
Notes:
- I need to continue to review and focus on topics like OSPV v3, and OSPF Authentication
Total Time=3 hours and 15 mins

TBickle · March 2015

Studying is going pretty good so far. I just started studying for the CCIE a month ago, and there's so much I've already learned and began using on a day-to-day basis. Moreover, I'm constantly refining my study time/techniques, and I think i'm beginning to know what works best for me. To save me from using up all my rack rental tokens, i'm running small labs on GNS3 based on CCIEv5 workbook, and not only is this helping me save tokens, it's causing me to think a bit more about how to mimic the INE labs without strictly following their topology and their addressing schemes. I would like to spend a bit more time labbing, so starting this upcoming Saturday, I'm going to head to the office for a full day of labbing. Nobody should be there, so it's going to be nice and quiet. Furthermore, I think getting out of the house to study is important. I don't have kids running around to bother me or a wife nagging, but I do have dogs that do bother. If i can knock out 8 hours on Saturday and at least 4hours on Sunday, I'll be extremely proud of my progress.

So far, this has been a pretty exciting journey. No stopping until i get the digits.

Tuesday, March 10th, 2015:

Labs:
- Rented 2 hour time slot from INE and completed the following labs:
  - OSPF NSSA Redistribution Filtering
  - OSPF LSA Type-3 Filtering
  - OSPF Forwarding Address Suppression
  - OSPF Default Routing

Reading/Review:
Notes/Comments: I wasn't as focused or into my studying today as I usually am. I am glad I was able to get in 2 hours of labbing. I'm hoping to finish off the INE OSPF labs by Thursday at the latest. I'll then spend the rest of the week reviewing OSPF facts, and reading over chapters 4 & 5 from CCIE v5 volume 1 book.
Total Time: 2 hours

Wednesday, March 11th, 2015:

NO STUDYING

Thursday, March 12th, 2015:

Labs: Ran these 3 labs on GNS3 (30 mins)
- OSPF Conditional Default Routing
- OSPF Reliable Conditional Default Routing
- OSPF Filtering with Distribute-Lists
  - Rented 1.5 hours from INE Rack Rental and Completed the Following Labs
- OSPF Filtering with Distribute-Lists
- OSPF Summarization and Discard Routes
- OSPF Filtering with Administrative Distances
- OSPF Filtering with Route-Maps
- OSPF NSSA ABR External Prefix Filtering
- OSPF Database Filtering
- OSPF Stub Router Advertisement
- OSPF Interface Timers
- OSPF Global Timers
- OSPF Resource Limiting
- Miscellaneous OSPF Features
Reading/Review:
Reviewed notecards, made a few additional notecards, and reviewed OSPF chapter sections on Area Types, LSA Propagation, LSA Filtering (2 hrs)
Notes/Comments: Found it interesting INE has a lab on "ip ospf mtu-ignore" yet Brian strongly discourages its use. Need to look into setting up "ip ospf name-lookup" as well. Both labs were under the "Miscellaneous OSPF features" labs.
Total Time: 4 hours

February 15th - March 12th= 26 days
Total Time So Far= ~51 hours
COMMENTS: Most of this has been on OSPF .

Friday, March 13th, 2015:

Labs:
Reading/Review:
- Read chapter 4 in CCIE volume 1 book and made notecards. Began reading chapter 6 and began making notecards as well. Also reviewed OSPF notecards
INE Videos:
Notes/Comments:
Total Time: 2 hours

Saturday, March 14th, 2015:

Labs:
Reading/Review:
- Finished reading chapter 6 in CCIE volume 1 book and made notecards.
INE Videos:
Watched INE Video IPv4 Routing and took notes by hand.
Notes/Comments:
Total Time: 3 hours

Monday, March 16th, 2015:

Labs:
- Labbed INE Workbook lab on ARP and Proxy ARP in GNS3 and took notes (30mins)
Reading/Review:
Reviewed OSPF Notecards and chapter 4 and chapter 6 notecards (30 mins)
Watched and took notes by hand for video IP Policy Routing (45 mins)
Watched and took notes by hand for video IP SLA & Enhanced Object Tracking (45 mins)
INE Videos:
Notes/Comments:
Total Time: 2 hours & 30 mins

Tuesday, March 17th, 2015:

Labs:
- Read over INE Labs on "Routing to NBMA Interfaces" "Routing to Multipoint Broadcast Interfaces" and "Longest Match Routing" and created mini GNS3 labs to test the concepts (1 hr)
Reading/Review:
INE Videos:
Notes/Comments: Also practiced subnetting and route summarization from chapter 4 for roughly 30 mins.
Total Time: 1.5 hours

Wednesday, March 18th, 2015:

Labs:
- Completed:
  - Longest Match Routing Lab using GNS3 (15 mins)
Reading/Review:
Reviewed concepts from Chapter 4 on route summarization (30 mins)
Re-read section on Policy Based routing and took book notes as well as notes from the lab on Policy routing (30 mins)
Watched Video "GRE and IP in IP Tunneling" (33 mins)
INE Videos:
Total Time: ~2 hours

TBickle · March 2015

Since the last time I posted, I spent a bit more time labbing route-maps, ACLs, and Policy Routing as these are tools we rarely implement at work. After a few more days of the aforementioned, I then moved on to BGP and managed to finish reading Chapter 1 of CCIE volume 2 book,and I watched a few INE videos on BGP. I'm taking notes by hand for everything I do, so this process is going incredibly slow. However, it's really helping the material sink in.

I've also been really busy with site cut overs and maintenance work, so last week I only managed to get 10 or so hours of study in. For me, this is unacceptable. This week, I plan on hitting no less than 20.

I think i need to focus a bit more on theory than on labbing...at least until i get my written out of the way. Therefore, I have begun to include spaced repetitions into my study schedule, and plan on quizzing myself regularly over labbing these next few months. I want the theory to really sink in before I start investing a lot of time labbing. INE had a sale last weekend, so I managed to snatch up 1500 lab tokens for a really good price. These will come in handy.

Some other thoughts that have crossed my mind this past week is the value of the CCIE vs multiple CCNPS? I'd like to hear what the community feels about this. I'm not looking for other jobs now, but I may be in 2 or so years. That being said, would a CCIE in R&S be more valuable than a CCNP in R&S and a CCNP in Data Center? Every job listing I've seen thus far expects potential candidates to have experience in both R&S and Data Center, as well as F5 load balancers amongst several other topics. I know i could use some F5 experience, as well as a bit more Data Center experience, but studying for the CCIE ties me up for at least 12-15 months. However, studying for the CCIE would make me really proficient with OSPF, BGP, MPLS, etc..which is also seen in other tracks like Service Provider. For now, I'll continue chipping away at CCIE Written, protocol by protocol. This week, it's BGP, and by next week, I'll circle back around to Layer 2 before I make my way over to multicast and MPLS. I still hope to have the written out of the way by July, so i'm going to have to pick up the reading pace.

Study suggestions? Thoughts? Advice? All are always appreciated.

AwesomeGarrett · March 2015

Your starting to see that it's a lot of work. You're just beginning and wondering, is it going to pay off? Your going to ask yourself the same thing after you put another 400 hours in and either have nothing to show for it or just have the written complete. By then it will be too late, you've already put too much time into to it and you'll have no choice but to keep moving forward to the next 500-1500 hours.

LOL. In all seriousness, I've never heard anyone say "Man! I wish I had never went after the CCIE". Except when it comes time to recertify.

deth1k · March 2015

TBickle wrote: »

Since the last time I posted, I spent a bit more time labbing route-maps, ACLs, and Policy Routing as these are tools we rarely implement at work. After a few more days of the aforementioned, I then moved on to BGP and managed to finish reading Chapter 1 of CCIE volume 2 book,and I watched a few INE videos on BGP. I'm taking notes by hand for everything I do, so this process is going incredibly slow. However, it's really helping the material sink in.

I've also been really busy with site cut overs and maintenance work, so last week I only managed to get 10 or so hours of study in. For me, this is unacceptable. This week, I plan on hitting no less than 20.

I think i need to focus a bit more on theory than on labbing...at least until i get my written out of the way. Therefore, I have begun to include spaced repetitions into my study schedule, and plan on quizzing myself regularly over labbing these next few months. I want the theory to really sink in before I start investing a lot of time labbing. INE had a sale last weekend, so I managed to snatch up 1500 lab tokens for a really good price. These will come in handy.

Some other thoughts that have crossed my mind this past week is the value of the CCIE vs multiple CCNPS? I'd like to hear what the community feels about this. I'm not looking for other jobs now, but I may be in 2 or so years. That being said, would a CCIE in R&S be more valuable than a CCNP in R&S and a CCNP in Data Center? Every job listing I've seen thus far expects potential candidates to have experience in both R&S and Data Center, as well as F5 load balancers amongst several other topics. I know i could use some F5 experience, as well as a bit more Data Center experience, but studying for the CCIE ties me up for at least 12-15 months. However, studying for the CCIE would make me really proficient with OSPF, BGP, MPLS, etc..which is also seen in other tracks like Service Provider. For now, I'll continue chipping away at CCIE Written, protocol by protocol. This week, it's BGP, and by next week, I'll circle back around to Layer 2 before I make my way over to multicast and MPLS. I still hope to have the written out of the way by July, so i'm going to have to pick up the reading pace.

Study suggestions? Thoughts? Advice? All are always appreciated.

Let me put this into another perspective, how easy is it to **** any NP level exam? There are too many people out there with just about every NP possible, how can you come out on top of this? The answer is simple, have an IE number. Stop worrying about which track to follow, concentrate on what you know best (fresh in your mind) at this moment in time. Pass the lab and get your life back

then you can study for whatever else vendors decide to throw into networking world. Technology is evolving too quick and you can't keep up and run in all directions, so don't loose your head. I've passed my RnS and was hired to do DC, never in my life have I done any Nexus stuff before. A lot of managers realise the fact that someone who dedicated few years of their life to study and pass the lab is able to pickup anything quick enough to do the job and do it well

gorebrush · March 2015

1 x CCIE pretty much is better than any number of CCNP's in my opinion!

The amount of people who just say "Wow, you did the CCIE!" is amazing.

I did a training course the week immediately after I did my lab, and there were three Nigerian guys there (nice guys) and they all wanted to shake my hand and ask questions - they wouldn't do that for an NP I bet.

AwesomeGarrett · March 2015

What do you do for technical interviews? Show them one router trick and everyone falls to the ground in amazement

TBickle · March 2015

deth1k wrote: »

Let me put this into another perspective, how easy is it to **** any NP level exam? There are too many people out there with just about every NP possible, how can you come out on top of this? The answer is simple, have an IE number. Stop worrying about which track to follow, concentrate on what you know best (fresh in your mind) at this moment in time. Pass the lab and get your life back then you can study for whatever else vendors decide to throw into networking world. Technology is evolving too quick and you can't keep up and run in all directions, so don't loose your head. I've passed my RnS and was hired to do DC, never in my life have I done any Nexus stuff before. A lot of managers realise the fact that someone who dedicated few years of their life to study and pass the lab is able to pickup anything quick enough to do the job and do it well

Great Point!!! I'll keep plugging along until i'm on my way. Let me ask, what approach did you take for your IE? Written before lab, or lab while preparing for Written?

TBickle · March 2015

gorebrush wrote: »

1 x CCIE pretty much is better than any number of CCNP's in my opinion!

The amount of people who just say "Wow, you did the CCIE!" is amazing.

I did a training course the week immediately after I did my lab, and there were three Nigerian guys there (nice guys) and they all wanted to shake my hand and ask questions - they wouldn't do that for an NP I bet.

Very true! The IE is a much more respectable certification than the NP. Not to diminish the quality of the NP either.

lrb · March 2015

Like deth1k, I was hired for a DC role even though I had minimal Nexus experience and had never touched UCS in my life. I probably could not have even told you the difference between a WWNN and a WWPN a month ago. The point is we are both CCIEs but we are certainly not experts in everything (well, maybe deth1k is I don't know!)

However, having a CCIE shows that you are committed to learning. We like learning the technologies in detail and are prepared to put in the extra hours to upskill.

Keep up the good work

deth1k · March 2015

I've done my written way before the lab

so if I've failed my lab first time round i'd have to do the written again

Irb, by no means am I an expert in everything :P

mgfelipe · April 2015

Hi,

Please do not stop posting. Actually I am following a very similar study plan but focusing most of time on written exam so I can get it out of the way. By now I am doing CCIE R&S cisco press I and II and I'm about to finish Volume II. Also, I am doing IP experts workbook 1 Labs on my own labs and some videos.

TBickle · April 2015

It's been a month or so since my last post, and unfortunately I haven't gotten enough steady study time to warrant a post. Does it mean I've given up on my CCIE? Not at all! I'm just been working on some projects that have taken up a lot of my free time. I was able to get in some study time, just not as much as I would have liked. The last month or so was spent reviewing OSPF, Redistribution and general Layer 2 topics like Spanning-Tree. I'm in the process either joining or starting up a CCIE study group, so hopefully that keeps me accountable. It seems the people who study for CCIE and successfully pass it are the individuals actively engaged in groups. So that's my plan. To contribute and learn.

Right now, I'm currently reviewing BGP as it's something I'm working on for a project at work, and i'm also reviewing OSPF separate process redistribution with tagging and filtering as those concepts are part of another project I'm on. I've never considered myself particularly strong on BGP but i feel like it's finally starting to click. The INE CCIE videos on BGP weren't that great, and B talks a bit too fast, so i went to the CCNP videos on BGP and picked up a lot of information. The instructor, i forget his name at the moment, does an excellent job of teaching. I wish they'd let him do the CCIE videos. Aside from that, the BGP chapters in Routing TCP/IP vol 2 are excellent. Much better than the chapters in the recent Cisco Press book.

Anyhow, that's my update. I'll try to update this thread a bit more regularly. Oh, lastly, apparently Boson put out a CCIE v.5 practice test which I think i'll be buying here pretty soon. I plan on sitting for my first written attempt in July if not August. Definitely no later than August, so i'm hoping at the practice exams help.

TBickle · April 2015

Hey Felipe, are you part of any study groups? I'm looking to join a U.S. based on if you'd be interested.

gorebrush · May 2015

Life does get in the way sometimes, the key is to keep doing something, no matter how small, as frequently as possible! Good luck in your continuing studies. The study group sounds good!

My CCIE R&S Study Journal

Comments