My CCIE Journey Has Officially Begun.

jamesp1983

I have decided that it is time to pursue the first goal I had when I entered IT, the CCIE. I know its going to be an EXTREME challenge, but I'm just pushing forward and trying to stay confident. I'm going to use this thread for tracking my progress throughout my CCIE journey. I purchased the INE Ultimate bundle last week and have been studying and labbing ever since. I'm still trying to figure out what the right balance of lab vs study is at this point, but I'm just reviewing all of the ATVOD material now (over 80 hours), to refresh myself. I'm open for any suggestions on how I should balance lab vs study time. I've been running Dynamips and working with my home switches while watching the videos as a way to get more hands on. I passed BCMSN, BSCI, and ISCW back in 2008, and wrapped up ONT in August of 2010. I have been working with the equipment at my job so that has kept me fresh on a lot of the info, but I'm still studying like I'm just starting out. I research topics in the videos that I don't really remember and that seems to be really helping. I will keep this updated as a motivator and also as a way to keep track of all that I have studied when it comes time for my final review. It feels great to finally get started on this path. My wife and I worked out a schedule and I'm going to try to hit 30-36 hours a week.

My resources:
-INE Virtual Lab
-The INE workbooks
-INE Written VOD
-Routing TCP/IP, vol I.
-Home lab (a few routers and some 3550s.)
-Cisco LAN Switching by Ken Clark
-Routing and Switching, Time of Convergence?
-My CCNP Library.
-Dynamips
-Cisco.com
-INE ATVOD 4.5

Should I buy Odom's exam guide? I think the Boson Exsim for CCIE will be the next addition.

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Comments

jamesp1983

Thanks all! I found the building and now I'm just relaxing before going to bed.

down77

Good Luck! Get some rest and I look forward to seeing your thoughts from after the exam.

MrBrian

Good luck man tear it up!!

jamesp1983

Game time

mhonsky

Goodluck!!!

jamesp1983

Well, ill be sitting that again. I need to get faster at troubleshooting. I felt really good in my config section. It was nice to finally sit this exam, but I will have a better result next time.

reaper81

Don't give up yet unless you received results already? Anyway 1st time is for the most of us needed to get a feel for the lab

TS is tricky indeed especially in the 1st attempt. Good job and now you have seen the beast and you know you are going to pass this test man

down77

Sounds like your first time was similar to mine. Second attempt is better because you know what to expect and can focus your energies on taking it down.

On the bright side, you have now faced probably the most grueling exam in all of IT. You know we will all be here to help you achieve your 5 digit number!

jamesp1983

reaper81 wrote: »

Don't give up yet unless you received results already? Anyway 1st time is for the most of us needed to get a feel for the lab TS is tricky indeed especially in the 1st attempt. Good job and now you have seen the beast and you know you are going to pass this test man

The score report just arrived and confirmed what I suspected. Fail... I think I'm going to go back over WBI and IV for 2 months. I did a little better on TS than I thought I did, but worse on config.

jamesp1983

down77 wrote: »

Sounds like your first time was similar to mine. Second attempt is better because you know what to expect and can focus your energies on taking it down.

On the bright side, you have now faced probably the most grueling exam in all of IT. You know we will all be here to help you achieve your 5 digit number!

Thanks so much for all of your help! I just need to buckle down and keep at it. A lot of the config tasks would have 1 bullet point that would trip me up. What did you do after your first attempt?

Essendon

I know it sucks, probably sucks big time, and my words may offer little solace but mate you keep your chin up and keep truckin' forward. Keep moving forward. Blow it to smithereens when you face it in the next round.

Get that damn number man!

reaper81

That's what they'll do to you. Put a task that seems pretty straight forward and then usually there is some twist or one bulle point is kind of tricky. Of course you need to satisfy them all to get the points.

I think you'll be fine next time. If you need any advice on TS ping me.

down77

I know all too well what you are going through and I promise that believe it or not, its actually a major step forward. Take the weekend to relax and spend time with family. I'll reach out to you early next week and help you formulate a game plan for round two.

jamesp1983

down77 wrote: »

I know all too well what you are going through and I promise that believe it or not, its actually a major step forward. Take the weekend to relax and spend time with family. I'll reach out to you early next week and help you formulate a game plan for round two.

Sounds good. Hope you had a good Easter.

jamesp1983

Here are my take aways from the CCIE lab (I know several of these points have been beaten to death, but I believe they are worth mentioning again):

1. Time management is key. Stick to 5 minutes per ticket on the TS section. You will run out of time for the more complex tickets if you let yourself spend too much time on a single question. I did prioritize my tickets and saved the hardest for last, but spent too much time on a task before moving on so I had about 15 minutes to solve both of the harder tickets as well as 2 easier tickets that I skipped. The time flies so be aware of it and plan accordingly.
2. You should go into the lab with a solid TS methodology for each topic. This will help with efficiency as well as accuracy. Never forget to KISS either.
3. Do a good review of all topics on the blueprint before getting to your lab. There is a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in so you can't spend a lot of time on basic config.
4. Don't ignore any topic on the blueprint. Make sure you can config everything on the blueprint no matter what you've heard about the likelihood of it being on the lab. You don't want to be surprised. I had a topic like this that cost me a lot of points.
5. Read over all of the config tasks prior to starting so that you won't have to make sweeping changes towards the end of your lab.
6. Make sure you verify your lab at the end. I found that I made several silly mistakes due to the pressure. I was able to correct them, and hopefulily salvage some points.
7. Do whatever you need to do within reason to stay calm. I lost about 15 minutes transitioning from TS to config because I literally panicked and went completely blank. I think I will get up and walk around after TS on my next attempt to prevent this from happening.
8. Make sure you do some TS labs with INE/360 before going to your real lab. This will help calm your nerves about the large topology. I'm planning on doing a lot more of these soon.

I finished config (what I could finish) with about 1 hour left, but ran out of time on the TS section. I was thankful for the 1 hour at the end of config so that I could go back and verify some issues. I am going to try some 360 labs, as well as read over Ruhann's notes. I'm planning my next attempt for June/July.

Overall, I thought the test was fair and was an excellent test for Expert level skills.

bryguy

Just another bump on the road to success... You've got it next go around for sure.

jamesp1983

Good resources for brushing up on discontiguous subnet masks:

Using Discontiguous Wildcard Masks in ACLs | Router Jockey
How do I compute complex wildcard masks for access-lists?
Computing Access-List and Wildcard Pairs | INE

jamesp1983

bryguy wrote: »

Just another bump on the road to success... You've got it next go around for sure.

Thank you. I'm going to give it everything I've got.

4o7Certified

Sorry that you didn't get the number on your first attempt but it's encouraging to see that you're still motivated and determined to pass the next go. I would like to know how well did you think the INE R&S bundle assisted you with being prepared for the lab? I'm looking into purchasing it but wanted the opinion of someone who used the product and recently sat for the lab.

jamesp1983

Has anyone tried Narbik's Troubleshooting Mock Labs? Can anyone provide more detail?

Micronics Networking & Training Inc. :: Troubleshooting Mocklabs 4.0

Zartanasaurus

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Has anyone tried Narbik's Troubleshooting Mock Labs? Can anyone provide more detail?

Micronics Networking & Training Inc. :: Troubleshooting Mocklabs 4.0

Yeah, I posted about it in my thread. Basically equivalent to VOL 2 labs, except it's 15 tickets.

jamesp1983

Thanks. I am definitely going to purchase the product after reading your posts about it.

jamesp1983

4o7Certified wrote: »

Sorry that you didn't get the number on your first attempt but it's encouraging to see that you're still motivated and determined to pass the next go. I would like to know how well did you think the INE R&S bundle assisted you with being prepared for the lab? I'm looking into purchasing it but wanted the opinion of someone who used the product and recently sat for the lab.

You can't give up! You have to be persistent. The INE bundle helped me a great deal with the written and the lab. I just need to go over a few topics again and work on my time management. I recommend INE for anyone who wants to pass the CCIE or to just get significantly better at network engineering.

down77

I personally thought the first attempt was worse than the second, mostly due to the stress and not being familiar with the exam scenario. I would concentrate on the areas you know you did weak in and hit as many ts sessions as you can between now and attempt #2.

When are you planning attempt #2?

jamesp1983

down77 wrote: »

I personally thought the first attempt was worse than the second, mostly due to the stress and not being familiar with the exam scenario. I would concentrate on the areas you know you did weak in and hit as many ts sessions as you can between now and attempt #2.

When are you planning attempt #2?

Thanks for the advice. I am planning on attempt #2 in June. What TS sessions did you use?

jamesp1983

I've gone through 35 sections of WBI, the Bridging and Switching chapter. I want to have all of my core completely mastered before my next attempt.

I'm hoping this review of multiple core topics will also make my TS faster. I'm trying to really zero in on the weak areas as well.

jamesp1983

I've been speaking with NMC about their TS labs. The price is pretty steep relative to INE, but I think I will still do it. I like Narbik's offering as well so I might go with both.

I'm shooting for the first week of July for round 2. I'm hoping the extra attention to TS pays off.

jamesp1983

I just purchased Narbik's TS workbook. I figured this is money well spent considering some of the reviews that I've read.

jamesp1983

There is a pretty good section on OER in WBI, Section 3. Make sure you load the OER config prior to starting. Here are some more resources:

Cisco Performance Routing (PfR) / Optimized Edge Routing (OER) - Part 1
PfR:Home - DocWiki

Danielh22185

Sorry to hear you didn't get it in the first attempt, but if it wasn't hard we might have people running around with 6 digit or even 7 digit CCIE numbers instead of 5

It's been very informative tracking your progress. I hope to be in the same boat in a year or 2! Best of luck with the 2nd attempt!