Stopping LIFE to pursue CCIE Lab

Forsaken_GA

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

I get your point. At the same time, I didnt want to tell myself Im going to passed and then I failed after the test. I expect less so I wouldnt be feeling too crush if ever i fail. lol

Well, the problem is that people who are expecting defeat, tend to originate a self fulfilling prophecy. Your expectations for yourself are falling short, and that's just undermining yourself. It's good you're willing to admit that you don't think you'll pass on your first attempt, but I'd recommend spending a few hours trying to identify why you feel that way. Once you can identify the root of the issue, then you can work to address it.

Turgon's right, get your failures out of the way with Mocks. If you're going to expect a failure anywhere, make it there. Those I *do* expect to fail my first few tries, but that's their purpose, to act as a meterstick for how ready you are for the real thing. Using the actual lab as your meterstick is an expensive proposition So readjust your expectations - expect to pass the lab, because you're going to expect to fail the mocks, have confidence that the mocks will expose whatever you're weak at, which will show you what you need to work on for the real deal.

Speaking for myself, I'm looking forward to doing poorly on the first 2 or 3 mocks I take, because I make it a habit to learn from my mistakes - anything I miss on the mocks is not something I will miss on the real lab. When I do something the first time perfectly, that's when I start worrying, because I think I've managed to invoke the Law of Unintended Consequences in some subtle and insidious way

Roguetadhg

I've grown smarter by reading your response, Forsaken_GA.

NOC-Ninja

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

Well, the problem is that people who are expecting defeat, tend to originate a self fulfilling prophecy. Your expectations for yourself are falling short, and that's just undermining yourself. It's good you're willing to admit that you don't think you'll pass on your first attempt, but I'd recommend spending a few hours trying to identify why you feel that way. Once you can identify the root of the issue, then you can work to address it.

Turgon's right, get your failures out of the way with Mocks. If you're going to expect a failure anywhere, make it there. Those I *do* expect to fail my first few tries, but that's their purpose, to act as a meterstick for how ready you are for the real thing. Using the actual lab as your meterstick is an expensive proposition So readjust your expectations - expect to pass the lab, because you're going to expect to fail the mocks, have confidence that the mocks will expose whatever you're weak at, which will show you what you need to work on for the real deal.

Speaking for myself, I'm looking forward to doing poorly on the first 2 or 3 mocks I take, because I make it a habit to learn from my mistakes - anything I miss on the mocks is not something I will miss on the real lab. When I do something the first time perfectly, that's when I start worrying, because I think I've managed to invoke the Law of Unintended Consequences in some subtle and insidious way

Yeah. I have 2 free mock lab at narbiks bootcamp this year. Ill see from there what my weakness are.

According to this, INE and cisco 360 mock lab are the same. INE Mock Labs vs Cisco 360 Mock Labs - IEOC - INE's Online Community
How similar are they? According to Reaper, the cisco 360 is as close as it can get from the ccie lab test. I wonder if INE is the same as that?
There's a big difference on the price!

Forsaken_GA

When it comes down to it, there's really not a whole lot they can throw at you during the Lab that's going to fool the collective experience of any of the INE instructors, the IPExpert instructors, Narbik, or any other of the big name trainers. They're all quality products at this point. So I will be using INE's mock labs

I'd honestly just recommend picking a vendor and seeing it through. For better or worse, I've hitched my star to the INE track. I may deviate from that an attend a Narbik bootcamp, simply because of his reputation for being a badass group instructor, but we'll see. I'd love to take his 12 day bootcamp, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to swing that by my target lab range. If not, then I'll happily go to an INE bootcamp.

Roguetadhg

12 day bootcamp? Hmm. I'm interested to go just for the knowledge.

http://www.micronicstraining.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=12

Negative on going just for knowledge. If I had the scratch to spare, It would be different.

Forsaken_GA

Roguetadhg wrote: »

12 day bootcamp? Hmm. I'm interested to go just for the knowledge.

Routing & Switching Written Boot Camp [Routing & Switching Written] - $1,800.00 : Micronics Networking & Training, delivering the best training and consulting to empower clients to attain their goal.

Negative on going just for knowledge. If I had the scratch to spare, It would be different.

End-to-End No Excuses [End-to-End] - $4,500.00 : Micronics Networking & Training, delivering the best training and consulting to empower clients to attain their goal.

Some of those hours are brutal, but I'll bet it's alot of fun.

NOC-Ninja

Yeah, the 12 days are very brutal. The 5 days is already brutal as it is. I saw yostc posts at his blog. There was one time that they were studying the whole day till 10pm and then from there, they went for a mock lab. I think he went to bed at 3am or 4am because of the mock lab and then went to the bootcamp early on the next day. Pretty crazy right? But that's good!! LOL I'm thinking of buying the bootcamp for 12 days.

I paid $2,995 for the 5 days bootcamp. I'll probably add $1,500 more and I can get the 12 days bootcamp. Come to think of it, she said that the closest hotel to the bootcamp is $118+ tax x 11 days = $1298 + tax + food. If I do the 5 days bootcamp then I will spend $590 + tax + food. Ill stick with the 5days. CCIE is expensive!

jamesp1983

Turgon wrote: »

I agree with this. Train like you fight. If you are sufficiently prepared you have a shot at a first time pass. If you fail, you have seen the opponent and will be well set to bone up and take it out in a rematch. Prepare intelligently, study regularly. If you want a test without the expensive lunch try a mock exam. Much more cost effective and if you get splattered it saves you a pointless and expensive trip to San Jose..

This is a great comparison. INE has pretty reasonable mocks.

NOC-Ninja

yeah the difference is $200. Thats a LOT!
Anyway, 5 hrs of labbing tonight. So tired...... I feel like a zombie. Goodnight! work tomorrow

Roguetadhg

Good Work sir!

jamesp1983

Very impressive! You are determined!

Shanman

Wow... you have been making good progress. Do you have a date you are going for?

NOC-Ninja

Got home, change clothes, told my girl to buy me panda express for dinner, turned on my home lab, drink monster, and start labbing.

Im tired, my eyes hurt from work, im sleepy and im just telling myself "suck it up". You have a chance to make it happen. just do it! Nike commercial! lol

unto labbing! warrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr CCIE!

impz

keep up the good work noc ninja !!! You are quite an inspiration

NOC-Ninja

Thank you!
4hrs today. Time to sleep!

Chipsch

I must say I am quite impressed with the determination and drive you have going. Keep it up! Best of luck to you!

Turgon

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

Got home, change clothes, told my girl to buy me panda express for dinner, turned on my home lab, drink monster, and start labbing.

Im tired, my eyes hurt from work, im sleepy and im just telling myself "suck it up". You have a chance to make it happen. just do it! Nike commercial! lol

unto labbing! warrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr CCIE!

400 lab hours then a mock exam I think. Your work ethic is good and what it takes to pass. A few lucky ones do it on works time..a quiet evening NOC shift or job 9 - 5 with plenty of downtime. That doesn't apply to you. My advice is to hit a mock exam soon and see where you are, then study accordingly to do better. Out of hours study people are vulnerable to burn out, so its best to find out where you are and adjust the tactics accordingly. You may need to be studying aggressively for 6 - 12 months more but it's important to be focussed on what you really need to learn with your lab sessions. Mock results will tell you that.

Turgon

Chipsch wrote: »

I must say I am quite impressed with the determination and drive you have going. Keep it up! Best of luck to you!

How are your written studies going? Put a thread up on the boards if you have not already done so, we have a few studying for the written.

NOC-Ninja

Turgon wrote: »

400 lab hours then a mock exam I think. Your work ethic is good and what it takes to pass. A few lucky ones do it on works time..a quiet evening NOC shift or job 9 - 5 with plenty of downtime. That doesn't apply to you. My advice is to hit a mock exam soon and see where you are, then study accordingly to do better. Out of hours study people are vulnerable to burn out, so its best to find out where you are and adjust the tactics accordingly. You may need to be studying aggressively for 6 - 12 months more but it's important to be focussed on what you really need to learn with your lab sessions. Mock results will tell you that.

Im going to wait for Narbik's Bootcamp so I can use my free Mock lab. I think I need to hit atleast 1000hrs before taking the test. We'll see... I know my weakness. I have an excel sheet to check where I am very slow. There's still so much to learn and I still need to work on my speed. Its still a very long road but its going.

NOC-Ninja

O yeah its Friday!!! Guess what im doing? Labbing!!!!!!!!!! with my miller beer.lol

NOC-Ninja

no labbing today. I worked (scheduled maintenance) on my car the whole day.

NOC-Ninja

Labbing Multicasting for 6hrs tonight. Feeling great after the weekend.

Chipsch

Turgon wrote: »

How are your written studies going? Put a thread up on the boards if you have not already done so, we have a few studying for the written.

I am actually sitting down with my boss today to discuss blocking out 2 hours a day at work to study with everything I have going on at home. From what I have been told it will probably be approved so we will see. That is projects and other consulting gigs dependent. I am estimating I should be able to get in 6 hours a week at work and will shoot for 6 hours a week at home. Nice and steady especially with the little one coming in 2 1/2 months.

NOC-Ninja

I didnt get to lab that much since I didnt have time. I sacrificed 3 days of hitting the gym. I was too tired to lab when I got home. I was burned out! Although, I watched some INE videos and read through Narbik's WB on those days.

Today, Im labbing the whole day.

• Woke up: 730am - ate and took some vitamins
• Fired up lab: 8:20am
• Start time: 8:35am
• End time: ill probably stop at 9pm or whenever.

Im aiming for the following today.
BGP
QoS
Security
IPV6 RIPing
IPv6 OSPFv3

back to labbing! WARRRRRRRR CCIE!

Turgon

Chipsch wrote: »

I am actually sitting down with my boss today to discuss blocking out 2 hours a day at work to study with everything I have going on at home. From what I have been told it will probably be approved so we will see. That is projects and other consulting gigs dependent. I am estimating I should be able to get in 6 hours a week at work and will shoot for 6 hours a week at home. Nice and steady especially with the little one coming in 2 1/2 months.

Sounds like a nice steady routine to me. 12 hours a week will stand you in good stead.

Essendon

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

I didnt get to lab that much since I didnt have time. I sacrificed 3 days of hitting the gym. I was too tired to lab when I got home. I was burned out! Although, I watched some INE videos and read through Narbik's WB on those days.

Today, Im labbing the whole day.

• Woke up: 730am - ate and took some vitamins
• Fired up lab: 8:20am
• Start time: 8:35am
• End time: ill probably stop at 9pm or whenever.

Im aiming for the following today.
BGP
QoS
Security
IPV6 RIPing
IPv6 OSPFv3

back to labbing! WARRRRRRRR CCIE!

I know you want this real bad Kim, but it still confounds me how you find so much time to study. Juggling family, work and study is big in its own right. I'm lucky if I'm able to put in 6-8 hours Friday through to Sunday. I you.

NOC-Ninja

Essendon wrote: »

I know you want this real bad Kim, but it still confounds me how you find so much time to study. Juggling family, work and study is big in its own right. I'm lucky if I'm able to put in 6-8 hours Friday through to Sunday. I you.

There's no secret on the labbing time. I don't have a family so I have time. Also, I killed my social life to make sure I use all of my time on the weekends for labbing. Its been more than 6 months that I have seen my entourage. While they go out, I lab so I can be successful next year or so. It sucks but this is the price of CCIE for me. You want to become a CCIE? Forget about balancing life and career. Career / Labbing comes first.

NOC-Ninja

I did a full 8hrs of lab time then I went to bed for 2hrs. I just woke up. Back to labbing again!

Essendon

I wish the best in your endeavour and hope you dont burn out in the process. Watch your wrists too!

BroadcastStorm

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

I did a full 8hrs of lab time then I went to bed for 2hrs. I just woke up. Back to labbing again!

Let's go drinking sometime, we're not here for a long time we're here for a good time hehe, good job by the way!