1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

ncsugrad2002

I'm sure it's been posted before

but what lab books are you using?

Turgon

ncsugrad2002 wrote: »

I'm sure it's been posted before

but what lab books are you using?

I have already been through IPExpert Version 9.0. I did all 40 labs in that, some of them twice. I have been through all 10 labs in IWEB Vol III. At the moment Im working through my second pass of the 20 IWEB Vol II labs.

Today, notes for BGP are going into mnemosyne.

miller811

Turgon wrote: »

Today, notes for BGP are going into mnemosyne.

what is this you speak of?

Turgon

miller811 wrote: »

what is this you speak of?

A free flash card tool you can download. Nothing fancy but it works.

Welcome to the Mnemosyne Project | The Mnemosyne Project

I have seen instructors deride memorisation. I think that's bullshit myself. Unless you are a genius or rainman you will spend your whole life doing practice labs unless you encorporate some memorisation techniques into your schedule. It takes hours to cover practice labs and by the time you have completed a few it may be weeks since you looked at a topic in any depth. Add to which there are always some subjects that dont stick or sit so well for some reason. The trick is not to start memorising things too early in your preparation. At that stage concentrate on doing lots of things and reading as you go. In the later stages you will know which areas you need to repeat over and over to get them down. There are many fine training materials out there from vendors, but they can't give you time, they cant take the lab for you, and you have to find a method that works best for you or you will be spending time and money on those products forever to pass this test.

My notes look pretty sharp now. It's Multicast, IPv6, QoS, Security, System Management and IP Services next up. Once these are in the mnemosyne can I will be going over them repeatedly while I cross reference things on the Doc CD. It is very time consuming though, filleting the details from the workbooks, making copious notes and then typing them all in. I think it's going to help. Already just keying the stuff in is helping.

For lab practice the post BGP tasks of lab 7 are looming so I *might* make a start on these this evening. A week hence with more mnemosyne revision and some more labs done I should be good for a mock exam. It will then be a sequence of about a fortnight of revision inbetween subsequent mocks. So long as my mock exam results are not still truly awful by Christmas I will be pleased. Revising all the filtering things will help there.

veritas_libertas

Turgon wrote: »

A free flash card tool you can download. Nothing fancy but it works.

Welcome to the Mnemosyne Project | The Mnemosyne Project

My sincere thanks Turgon! I have been looking for a program like this for the last 5 months. This will be great for my studies

Turgon

No worries. Well we got BGP written up across labs 1 - 10. Rack session tonight once the youngster is in bed. Lab no 7 the post BGP topics.

miller811

Turgon wrote: »

A free flash card tool you can download. Nothing fancy but it works.

Welcome to the Mnemosyne Project | The Mnemosyne Project

I have seen instructors deride memorisation. I think that's bullshit myself. Unless you are a genius or rainman you will spend your whole life doing practice labs unless you encorporate some memorisation techniques into your schedule. It takes hours to cover practice labs and by the time you have completed a few it may be weeks since you looked at a topic in any depth. Add to which there are always some subjects that dont stick or sit so well for some reason. The trick is not to start memorising things too early in your preparation. At that stage concentrate on doing lots of things and reading as you go. In the later stages you will know which areas you need to repeat over and over to get them down. There are many fine training materials out there from vendors, but they can't give you time, they cant take the lab for you, and you have to find a method that works best for you or you will be spending time and money on those products forever to pass this test.

My notes look pretty sharp now. It's Multicast, IPv6, QoS, Security, System Management and IP Services next up. Once these are in the mnemosyne can I will be going over them repeatedly while I cross reference things on the Doc CD. It is very time consuming though, filleting the details from the workbooks, making copious notes and then typing them all in. I think it's going to help. Already just keying the stuff in is helping.

For lab practice the post BGP tasks of lab 7 are looming so I *might* make a start on these this evening. A week hence with more mnemosyne revision and some more labs done I should be good for a mock exam. It will then be a sequence of about a fortnight of revision inbetween subsequent mocks. So long as my mock exam results are not still truly awful by Christmas I will be pleased. Revising all the filtering things will help there.

Thanks, this looks like something I could use.....I experience the same thing when I study something heavily for a few weeks and then head onto something else, I have troulbe quickly grasping previous material.

Funny, though I felt stupid asking the question:....even after a google, dictionary, wikipedia search.....

ccie15672

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I have seen instructors deride memorisation. I think that's bullshit myself.
###########

I agree 100%. For me, memorization is like... puzzle pieces. I have some sort of disconnected facts floating around in my mind, and then I watch a CoD or do a lab and read the explanation or try to figure out why a solution was done a certain way by reading the docs for those commands.. and then those puzzle pieces start coming together to form a picture.

Its a healthy mix for me. Memorization and just reading and practicing.

Ultimately, you have to find what works for you, but I would wager that you should being doing a combination of these things. If you think about, its a tried and true method. its basic studying.

Turgon

ccie15672 wrote: »

###########
I have seen instructors deride memorisation. I think that's bullshit myself.
###########

I agree 100%. For me, memorization is like... puzzle pieces. I have some sort of disconnected facts floating around in my mind, and then I watch a CoD or do a lab and read the explanation or try to figure out why a solution was done a certain way by reading the docs for those commands.. and then those puzzle pieces start coming together to form a picture.

Its a healthy mix for me. Memorization and just reading and practicing.

Ultimately, you have to find what works for you, but I would wager that you should being doing a combination of these things. If you think about, its a tried and true method. its basic studying.

Absolutely Derek. Certainly room for some memorization methinks.

Turgon

IWEB Vol II Lab no 7

Concentrated on the BGP section tonight which went really well I thought. I will try and finish everything else tomorrow if I can. BGP peering, IPv6 addressing and Multicast interface types are all big time consumers. If I can get zippier at these tasks its going to free up a lot of time for the other things that require a bit more thought and game time. Important to get them right though or awful problems ensue.

Turgon

Applied for a Network Specialist contract abroad today. Not being a native Dutch speaker I will be on the secondary list for that one.

Remote rack time again now. Lab no 7 - Multicast and beyond.

Turgon

Well the slow process of recruitment has taken time but finally things are happening. Today I was sent forward for a Network Specialist contract overseas, also got an interview for a Firewall specialist contract and was just called by a headhunter about a permanent Network Architect role. So not a bad day all in.

IWEB Lab no 7 - DONE

Post BGP tasks complete. QoS was the worst part by miles. Far too much going on but it illustrates various ways to get things done and thats important.

ncsugrad2002

Awesome.. we've been getting super busy here at work lately and talking about maybe hiring some people. Hopefully that's a sign the job market isn't getting any worse, at least.

Turgon

ncsugrad2002 wrote: »

Awesome.. we've been getting super busy here at work lately and talking about maybe hiring some people. Hopefully that's a sign the job market isn't getting any worse, at least.

Got busy again today with more people asking about my availability for two senior contract roles. Will just have to see how it all turns out.

papai

Turgon wrote: »

Going over my lab notes today and battering them into mnemosyne. A singularly boring activity.

Hi Turgon,

I installed mnemosyne a few weeks ago but did not find it useful. Maybe I do not know how to create interesting cards. Could you please post a couple of examples of your cards?

Thanks,

Turgon

papai wrote: »

Hi Turgon,

I installed mnemosyne a few weeks ago but did not find it useful. Maybe I do not know how to create interesting cards. Could you please post a couple of examples of your cards?

Thanks,

Its most useful towards the end of your studies. If you do it too early you are just compiling way too much infomation. For me I do cards for each major subject and bang in configurations of things I need to refresh on.

veritas_libertas

papai wrote: »

Hi Turgon,

I installed mnemosyne a few weeks ago but did not find it useful. Maybe I do not know how to create interesting cards. Could you please post a couple of examples of your cards?

Thanks,

There is a help guide within the program.

@Turgon: I am loving that memorization program! I am using it right now to finish off my Security+ studies. Can't wait to finish off this CompTIA exam and move on to Cisco

Turgon

veritas_libertas wrote: »

There is a help guide within the program.

@Turgon: I am loving that memorization program! I am using it right now to finish off my Security+ studies. Can't wait to finish off this CompTIA exam and move on to Cisco

Its a useful thing, although with note taking I find the use is inversely proportional to the amount of content in there. If you overdo it you are left with far too much stuff to enter and keep repeating so try and be selective. Then jettison stuff you have down as you go along. With something as deep and labour intensive as the CCIE a lot of note taking goes by the wayside and you need to keep on doing it if it is to be truely useful. I know a lot of people try wikis and mindmaps and what have you but I find that if you are not careful you are investing too much time generating content for these things and as I say unless you use them almost daily they dont do a great deal other than suck your time.

Regular practice is the key to CCIE and some reading. Its rather like becoming an accomplished pianist. In the beginning you are plonking on the keyboard making a racket. Later you master those pieces and then try something more complicated..again a racket..then you master that and put lots of complicated movements together..more racket..then it all starts to sound better. Your notes should evolve along with your playing so to speak. Theres a whole bunch of stuff I took notes on a year ago that just isn't note worthy now. On that note (paper or musical analogy) I will get at lab no 8 either this evening or Saturday. Gotta stay on track and drive my wife crazy.

Turgon

Just got off the phone from a dude who decided on the spot ask me stuff about IGMPv2 and IGMPv3 and RSTP which I answered pretty well. Its a rush job involving a lot of multicasting configuration and debugging and what have you for some new applications in a test bed. I think I could do a job for him but it really depends how specialised the role is. I can work with multicast and a month or two of immersion would be fun but they most probably want someone who has done a lot of that sort of app testing thing for a while. We will see. Meanwhile more fun with Checkpoint as I have an interview next week. The agent dealing with the Holland gig said it had gone to another agency. Someone called me about a Swiss gig this morning. Im still in for 8 jobs so far.

Turgon

I think the uber multicast gig may have gone by the by we will have to wait and see. It may well require lots of deep packet inspection and god knows what else. Even so, I'm still in for 7 other gigs two of them overseas. Some will evaporate but there is another telephone interview Monday for a gig and a face to face on Tuesday for something else. Others Im awaiting a response from the application. Generally though, this week has been busy with numerous calls coming in about my availability. Headhunted for one contract and one perm postion (I didn't apply for those through jobboards, the HR people found me). I suspect it's the big push before the Christmas quiet period.

Today lots of time expended on the building of the Checkpoint lab at home and that will run through Saturday so I expect I shall not get at Lab no 8 until Sunday. Regardless I will do some more Cisco this weekend.

Turgon

Ok well the Checkpoint R65 media pack arrived today. Woot. Will install later with the eval licence once everything is set up here. Will then get back on the Cisco horse.

Turgon

This morning located a spreadsheet I put together over many weeks last winter. It was a living document covering configurations across the IWEB Vol II labs which I organised by protocol. This will be a very useful revision aid. Some of the sections still need completing. Will do so and then enter into mnemosyne. This morning a Checkpoint R65 install to do on the home lab. Once complete I shall attend to matters CCIE again.

CISCOKID786

Where are planning to take a CCIE exam. I am thinking of going to Brussels as I heard got reviews about it. Just working on OSPF. My target date is in Sept - Oct 2010. In Summer, I am litte slow in prep.

It will be my first time sitting for a lab

Turgon

CISCOKID786 wrote: »

Where are planning to take a CCIE exam. I am thinking of going to Brussels as I heard got reviews about it. Just working on OSPF. My target date is in Sept - Oct 2010. In Summer, I am litte slow in prep.

It will be my first time sitting for a lab

Brussels for my lab in April. At the moment CCIE candidates are being mown down in the new version of the lab.

Turgon

Ok the weekend was spent getting checkpoint operational in my home lab so no time for practice labs. Today back on with the CCIE prep so Im continuing to work my notes over labs 5 - 10 across topics.

GT-Rob

Turgon wrote: »

Brussels for my in April. At the moment CCIE candidates are being mown down in the new version of the lab.

Once the **** catch up I am sure it will change....

Either way, I think its a good thing. Even though I failed my first attempt, overall it was easier than most people make it out to be (for what is/was seen as the hardest IT exam).



I would consider Brussels if it wasn't an 8hr time difference for me. I really like Belgium and the cost to fly to the EU is almost the same as SJ from Toronto.

Turgon

GT-Rob wrote: »

Once the **** catch up I am sure it will change....

Either way, I think its a good thing. Even though I failed my first attempt, overall it was easier than most people make it out to be (for what is/was seen as the hardest IT exam).



I would consider Brussels if it wasn't an 8hr time difference for me. I really like Belgium and the cost to fly to the EU is almost the same as SJ from Toronto.

**** have been a problem on previous versions of the lab thats for sure. Brussels is cool. Great waffles!

Turgon

Finally mnemosyne is ready. The first 10 labs in IWEB Vol II have been filleted, the notes made for the major topics and all the questions and solutions now typed into mnemosyne. This has been a lot of work, but what I have at my disposal now is an excellent revision aid though I say it myself. With the diversion of the checkpoint lab built over the weekend, the note taking and the job search I haven't worked a practice lab since 4th November. That's too long, so I will grab a rack session for lab 8 to use this evening after I have had a face to face downtown about a possible contract.

Postscript - Decided to take the rack session this afternoon instead.

Turgon

Ok thats BGP done on lab 8. Good session. Will most probably get the rest done in the evening if I can grab a slot.

Turgon

Lab 8 completion and post BGP topics in lab 9 pushed back to Thursday after the shopping. Probably best to get some rest before hand. Turning over the Systems Management and Ip Services notes I need to get into Mnemosyne. Looking at a mock exam probably a week Saturday giving me time to revise beforehand.