1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

Turgon

too much design work to study today

shodown

Turgon wrote: »

too much design work to study today

What do you actually do. I know you mentioned it before, but this thread is like a million pages

Turgon

shodown wrote: »

What do you actually do. I know you mentioned it before, but this thread is like a million pages

Lead Technical Architect for a Global SP

Turgon

Shopping and house stuff to do now. Perhaps some study later today for an hour or two if Im lucky. Depends on Mrs T and son.

reaper81

How old is your son? Hopefully this will be the year that you finish the IE but you have a great job and a nice family so no rush, one day your day will come.

Turgon

reaper81 wrote: »

How old is your son? Hopefully this will be the year that you finish the IE but you have a great job and a nice family so no rush, one day your day will come.

Thanks man. He's three years old. The second is due in a couple of weeks
CCIE late 2011 life permitting. No rush.

All QoS configs at work today. No study time available.

Turgon

More Mnemosyne database entry work ahead today. Security and IP Services from INE Vol I. Get this done and the Vol II solutions for the first 10 labs and the database is ready to be used for revision. A few weeks of that and then I can take the first mock exam in the new year. The first mock exam will be a dismal result but at least a start. It's then about revision inbetween further mock exam attempts. For troubleshooting I will invest in some INE or IPexpert materials that specialise in that area and start using them after Easter.

Turgon

Postscript. Never got near the studies today. Way too busy doing real work.

Turgon

Im a third the way through the solutions to INE Vol 1 IP Services today. If I can get the material into my INE Vol 1 spreadsheeet I can cut 'n' paste the content into my Mnemosyne study database.

Turgon

Sunday morning. I have managed to get the INE Vol 1 IP services topics and examples typed into my spreadsheet now. That just leaves Security to do. What a tedious time consuming activity that was. The spreadsheet content for IP services now needs to be cut and pasted into the Mnemosyne database I have been developing.

So I just have security left after that and everything is ready for revision using Mnemosyne. This will involve going over all topics contained in the database, specifically the questions for each subject recorded from INE Vol II. The questions are in there but the solutions will need recording. Including the INE Vol I content the database is a resource unique in the world with well over a thousand questions and solutions across all blueprint topics for the CCIE lab exam. It took hours and hours to produce.

For those INE bloggers chasing CCIE, it's Sunday so time to get off your ass and start studying.

Turgon

INE Vol 1 - IP Services - DONE

All Q + A for this topic now entered into Mnemosyne. My database across blueprint topics now has 1086 Q + A. The caveat is the Vol II content across labs 1 - 10 as I still need to go over those topic questions and get the solutions entered into the database. That will be an effective exercise in itself.

The last Vol 1 topic to be entered is security which will be quite a lot of work. About three hours to get it all typed into my Vol I topic spreadsheet and about half an hour to take it across into mnemosyne.

The mnemosyne database will be a powerful revision tool, portable and perfectly suited to my study constraints where often less than an hour is available to me on certain days.

But I also need a working document to record the major constructs of each topic. For this I have a document called 'CCIE Constructs'. It was conceived some months ago and has a decent breakdown of the fundamental sections within each topic. It just requires content now and I expect to be providing that once I have gone over the mnemosyne Q + A's. I will be looking out for the fundamental stuff to get something up and running, and from there the mechanism examples to influence best path, to filter, to summarise and to fine tune parameters such as timers. Against the method I will cut and paste the appropriate DocCD reference.

I think with mnemosyne providing daily flash cards to review across topics, and the CCIE Constructs document in development I have a strong basis for revision leading into my first mock in 2011 around February time.

This thread now has 127000 views. Lab attempt by 200000!

Turgon

This morning Im starting to get the INE Vol 1 - Security content prepared for Mnemosyne. The topics are now listed in the spreadsheet, just need to get the configurations typed in now before cut and paste into the database. There are 43 topics. Some of the configuration is really lengthy so I will have to make some compromises there if I dont want to spend all day doing this. A single router example will illustrate the point in many cases.

Turgon

INE Vol 1 - Security DONE

Well at least typed into my spreadsheet at last. What a bloody chore. Had a lot of sickness in the house these last few days which has really, really slowed things down..

Anyway the security topics are now ready to be cut and pasted into the Mnemosyne database. I decided not to document the ZBF and Control Plane Protection topics as the configs are really top heavy and honestly I need to take some time out to read about all that properly next year. Everything else is accounted for.

I will take a short break now before the final Mnemosyne entry work leaving the flash cards all ready for revision in 2011. I will be closing down for this year very soon as my focus is really needed at home but before I do so I may post back with some reflections on 2010 and my plans for the year ahead. First off lets make some tea..

Ahriakin

Its Xmas...STOP ....even when I was just weeks away from the lab I took a few days off over the holidays (well...2...). You need to give your brain a break, god knows you've earned it.

Turgon

hehe..yup already downed tools here. Merry xmas everyone!

Turgon

Second son born safe and sound on the 28th. Mum and baby doing well. My mother is over helping out. Things seem to go smoother with the second one. 3 year old son is happy with the new arrival!

mikej412

Turgon wrote: »

Second son born safe and sound on the 28th.

Congratulations!!!

alan2308

Congrats!

reaper81

Turgon wrote: »

Second son born safe and sound on the 28th. Mum and baby doing well. My mother is over helping out. Things seem to go smoother with the second one. 3 year old son is happy with the new arrival!

Big congrats Turgon! Having a child is so fantastic. Enjoy this time for a while before hitting the books

Turgon

Many thanks all! When quiet I have managed to add security topics to mnemosyne and added the Vol II answers to the first 10 labs for the MPLS topics in there as well. The twelve month program begins..

Ahriakin

Great news

jason_lunde

Turgon wrote: »

Second son born safe and sound on the 28th. Mum and baby doing well. My mother is over helping out. Things seem to go smoother with the second one. 3 year old son is happy with the new arrival!

Congrats Turgon! Makes the holidays a bit brighter for you I'm sure.

killuah72

Congrats! No wonder you got no time to study.. you're "Busy " all the time!

Turgon

Yeah, two kids the last three years and three job changes. No rest for the wicked. Today Im doing short stints on the MPLS Command Memorizer inbetween duties at home. A good product. Off to the store now for things for the baby.

Turgon

1 MPLS - Command Memorizer

This morning working with David Mumbai's MPLS command memoriser. Finding a few bugs. It's a fine product once you have put some time in with the theory behind the topic.

Turgon

2 MPLS - Mnemosyne
1 Multicasting - Mnemosyne

Done with MPLS for the moment. Good work. Now starting on Multicast by going over my mnemosyne database questions on the topic. Multicast was last studied 6th July 2010 so it's been a long time. Getting around the topics more regularly will certainly help this year and the approach I have undertaken will get results. I can vouch for taking the time out to generate your own flashcards covering the blueprint topics.

reaper81

You've certainly spent a lot of time building your database and that will start to pay off now. Can you give an example on what type of questions you put into it? Did you create all the questions yourself?

Turgon

reaper81 wrote: »

You've certainly spent a lot of time building your database and that will start to pay off now. Can you give an example on what type of questions you put into it? Did you create all the questions yourself?

Take the Vol I workbook and spend about 48 hours typing all the questions and answers for each topic into a spreadsheet. Then cut and paste into Mnemosyne. Do the same for the Vol II topic questions you want to revise. Well over 1000 questions and examples right there.

Turgon

2 Multicasting - Mnemosyne

My second pass of the mnemosyne database questions on Multicasting. That's it for today. Tomorrow I will do the command memoriser exercises for multicasting before moving on to another topic.

The Vol II answers for the first 10 labs for Multicasting will be added to Mnemosyne when I next visit this topic.

Turgon

3 Multicasting - CCIE Command Memorizer

A good session. I clearly need more practice on this topic as I have forgotten commands and syntax for many multicasting mechanisms. Still the solutions are familiar. The minutia of multicast addressing and query timers has been mostly forgotten, the same for the mroute table constructs and the flags. But it will all return with practice. Time to depart from Multicasting until next time. Next subject up is switching which I will start today inbetween duties at home.