Lab time management

To those who went through the lab, pass or fail, don't matter - Did you use online documentation available to you for a lookup? Did you make yourself remember all the commands with arguments? I had a guy tell me if I use ? during anytime, I am not ready. Is it true?

Find more posts tagged with

SAVE $250 on Your CISCO Boot Camp — Use Code "EXAM26"

Exclusively for TechExams members for Infosec Boot Camps starting before April 30, 2026

View CISCO Boot Camps

Comments

Bardlebee

Kreken wrote: »

To those who went through the lab, pass or fail, don't matter - Did you use online documentation available to you for a lookup? Did you make yourself remember all the commands with arguments? I had a guy tell me if I use ? during anytime, I am not ready. Is it true?

I would say your friend is mostly accurate. I have NOT taken the lab. But by the time you are going to take the lab, you should know exactly how to configure something off of a notepad. Now, your friend is wrong in that, sometimes you forget things. Its a huge scope and there are some oddball configs out there, such as RSPAN or PPPoE. I scheduled my lab right now, because at this point I can configure about 85 percent of the topic scope in a notepad and then copy and paste.

I've seen INE recommend using the DocCD when you're stuck, however I've seen IPExpert recommend to NOT rely on the DocCD AT ALL. Their argument is that the DocCD may not even work, and its not the proctors job to make it work. If it is, its time out of your lab anyway.

Not everyone can memorize every line, but if you know 99 percent of the lines of code and you need to ? sometimes because you do eigrp router 100 instead of router eigrp 100 (the correct order) its not going to kill you. Obviously this is a very straight forward command, but you get the idea. Corner case commands you could do ? and not feel bad about in my opinion.

Again, haven't taken the lab, but its due for me in September so I've looked into this a bit. I will be doing more so going forward to build up speed and accuracy as well.

joelsfood

You'll want to avoid the DocCD for most things, but there are some corner cases and lesser used technologies(particularly some of the more kludgy configurations) that most people won't bother memorizing. Personally, I believe I did everything except one particular setup in storage without using the doccd. That being said, after I got initial configuration in there were some things that I double checked with config guides.

I'm definitely a fan of notepad practice (or winword, in my case, as I like to have autosave so I can make sure if power goes out, etc, on my desktop, I have the autosave), and then after you finish the mock lab check your notepad against the mock lab solution. It not only helps you avoid the doccd, but helps your speed in general. With some of the longer commands/configs, time wasted trying to figure out all of the arguments (rather than just knowing what you need), can really add up.

NOC-Ninja

Kreken wrote: »

To those who went through the lab, pass or fail, don't matter - Did you use online documentation available to you for a lookup? Did you make yourself remember all the commands with arguments? I had a guy tell me if I use ? during anytime, I am not ready. Is it true?

its true.

I never look at the commands. I didnt think i have time for that. The test is either you know it or you dont.

gorebrush

I used the documentation once in configuration, and the topic I wanted - it was a broken mess.

I *had* to use ? to get me out of that little spot but it worked. I don't believe reliance on ? is bad... though it would entirely depend upon just how much you are relying on it.

I mean, if you are doing it for basic configurations then yeah, you're not ready.

Time management is such a critical part of the lab and no textbook can ever teach you good time management. This is especially true during the troubleshooting portion of the lab. You MUST be able to move on within set times if you are struggling - otherwise that is good time you could be spending on the easy tickets.

I managed to get through 7 tickets fairly quickly then got a bit stuck on number 8. I gave myself 5 minutes then left it, did 9, then 10 - but was able to allow myself a bit more time because I knew I was good on the rest - I then proceeded to burn another 40 minutes on the one ticket that stumped me - I knew what was wrong, just wasn't sure if I could fix it the way I wanted. I don't know if what I did was right or not because ultimately I passed the lab.

Time managemnent in configuration is all about reading the tasks and grouping sets of configuration together to reduce the time you are spending coming in and out of command lines.

Kreken

Thank you for your response.