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

I've been labbing away via a combination of GNS3, csr1000v's, and 3560 v2's running v15 code. I never really stopped labbing/studying, but I am ramping up my efforts considerably. I'm trying to pull everything from memory and use notepad to stage configs to improve my recall. I have been reviewing my notes from my first attempt, as well as watching the INE videos and reading any and all cisco docs/blogs that I can get my hands on.

My job is design/configuration/repair of route/switch/UCS/security/etc so I get to apply a lot of the RS focus almost daily so that's helpful as well. My coworker passed the IE on his first attempt and quizzes me throughout the day so that is extremely beneficial.

jamesp1983

I attended Narbik's CCIE bootcamp this past week in VA. Intense is an understatement. As a class we spent 65 hours together from Monday to Friday, but then I continued to study in my hotel room for a few hours each night so it was an extremely beneficial week.

Narbik is one of the best instructors that I've ever had. He has complete mastery of the subject matter and can convey it in an understandable format to people of all skill levels and experience.

Money and time well spent. Be prepared for Thursday though. It is a bear. 9-6am for those that chose to stay.

I want to get to his 10 day, but work has been too busy to allow me to be gone for that long. I had to sneak this class in between a month and a half long project.

Short story, if you're on the fence about attending, do it. You won't regret it.

NOC-Ninja

Reminds of the days. haha So much pain but thats how it goes if we want to move to the next level.
I actually think that day was Narbik telling me "so you want to become a ccie, this is how I study. let me show you this level".
When is your lab test?

lrb

Glad to hear you enjoyed it - I recently sat his 10-day bootcamp and loved every minute of it. The second 5-days is mainly TS labs one after the other, which I believe are all covered in his newly released TS lab workbook.

jamesp1983

My lab is scheduled for December. I work for a partner so there's a big push for me to pass. I just keep my head in the books and study/lab as much as possible.

jamesp1983

lrb wrote: »

Glad to hear you enjoyed it - I recently sat his 10-day bootcamp and loved every minute of it. The second 5-days is mainly TS labs one after the other, which I believe are all covered in his newly released TS lab workbook.

How were the TS labs? I imagine they are extremely challenging.

NOC-Ninja

jamesp1983 wrote: »

My lab is scheduled for December. I work for a partner so there's a big push for me to pass. I just keep my head in the books and study/lab as much as possible.

Goodluck!

lrb

jamesp1983 wrote: »

How were the TS labs? I imagine they are extremely challenging.

They were really great and, as you can expect from Narbik, very challenging. I found them about on par difficulty wise with the new INE TSv5 labs.

All the best for your lab in December

jamesp1983

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

Goodluck!

Thank you! I have really been motivated by those videos that you used to post by Eric Thomas.

jamesp1983

lrb wrote: »

They were really great and, as you can expect from Narbik, very challenging. I found them about on par difficulty wise with the new INE TSv5 labs.

All the best for your lab in December

Oh, okay. I figured they would be difficult. The new INE TS labs are quite challenging.

Thanks! Good luck to you as well.

NOC-Ninja

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Thank you! I have really been motivated by those videos that you used to post by Eric Thomas.

The motivation is deep inside you. You have to magnify it everyday.
I see it as star wars. You mentally feed the good or the dark force (pain and anger to become successful). I understood that pain will push me further.

Zartanasaurus

Good luck James! Narbik's bootcamp is definitely worthwhile. I like his focus on fundamentals. I'm sure he did the graphic when he shows a bar graph to represent the knowledge people have and they think they need that top 20% which is the secret ninja stuff, when what they really are missing is the bottom 20% which is fundamentals.
Plus he's funny as hell.

jamesp1983

Thanks Zartan! It was a good time. I'm reviewing my notes from his bootcamp now. Good to see you posting in here! That bar graph was really eye opening.

jamesp1983

My boss pretty much gave me off every day that I'm not scheduled to be with a client until my lab date. Time to bring home my number.

lrb

Great news about work giving you some extra time off to study! Best of luck man

jamesp1983

Thanks. Congrats again.

jamesp1983

Lab is on Monday. Nerves are starting...

dsgm

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Lab is on Monday. Nerves are starting...

Good luck man, you got this

joelsfood

Good luck man. DOn't burn yourself out this weekend, find something you enjoy (preferably low stress, I wouldn't suggest base jumping) to distract yourself.

gorebrush

Wow next lab came around quick! Good luck!

jamesp1983

gorebrush wrote: »

Wow next lab came around quick! Good luck!

Thank you. Time definitely disappeared.

jamesp1983

joelsfood wrote: »

Good luck man. DOn't burn yourself out this weekend, find something you enjoy (preferably low stress, I wouldn't suggest base jumping) to distract yourself.

Thank you. I might try to just lay low with the kids. No base jumping

gorebrush

Yeah, 8 weeks today for mine.

lrb

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Lab is on Monday. Nerves are starting...

Good luck James!

bharvey92

Good luck mate, you've got this.

jamesp1983

gorebrush wrote: »

Yeah, 8 weeks today for mine.

You got this.

TLeTourneau

Good luck James!!!

jamesp1983

TLeTourneau wrote: »

Good luck James!!!

Thank you.

Zartanasaurus

Just another manic Monday.

gorebrush

So it must be about 0530 AM in Raleigh right now so the lab is starting in about 90 minutes time (0705am.. man that's early!)

Good luck James, you got this.