Meh! Nothing to CCIE here...

down77

lsp2310 wrote: »

Did your friend pass his lab?

He did pass. I told him we'd celebrate together once I get my 5 digit number.

down77

Just got back from another week on the road. I'll be out of town next week and will try to get as much study time in as possible while flying/in hotel. This weekend I am planning 16 hours of rack time! A few weeks left until attempt #2

down77

More IOS Services/Security review today and will do some troubleshooting tonight as well. Trying to keep things fresh in my mind

Danielh22185

Your efforts are inspiring! Good luck to ya!

jamesp1983

How's it coming?

down77

Recovering from bronchitis unfortunately! I actually feel LESS prepared right now than this time last attempt. I havent had as much rack time as I thought I would get between attempts due to work and being sick.


I'm hoping to get some rack time in today/tomorrow to work on TS and review IOS services.

jamesp1983

That's awful. Get some rest and good luck!

down77

Can it get any worse? I just sat through another 8 hour painful experience only to realize that this thing is harder than I thought. I'm thinking of hanging up the attempts for a while and coming back to the books on another track.

FWIW, I did find out that 38616 is my magic number.

reaper81

You thought you failed but you passed? Congrats!

Essendon

When I read the first two lines, I went - Faaark... damn, he's failed again.

When I read the third line, I went - WTF! He's passed. Nicely done sir.

BIG CONGRATULATIONS!!

down77

Thanks guys. It was a rough experience and I actually felt more confident walking out of last months attempt... but this time I got a much better result.
I left for the airport right after the exam and I got the score report email from Cisco when I got to Charlotte. I literally went to the bar to get a drink to calm the nerves before firing up the laptop. I almost cried when I saw the result!

CCIE #38616!

I'll post a longer "exam day" experience and post mortem thoughts later. Right now I am going to do laundry, pack, and prepare to fly out to Knoxville later tonight. I may get a day or two off studying for exams but no rest from work.

SteveO86

Congrats dude!!! It's great to see all the hard work you've put into this, and into this thread!

So far we have 2 new CCIE's on TE this year! (I think or am I missing one)

Sounds time for a well deserved break right?

down77

SteveO86 wrote: »

Congrats dude!!! It's great to see all the hard work you've put into this, and into this thread!

So far we have 2 new CCIE's on TE this year! (I think or am I missing one)

Sounds time for a well deserved break right?

I'll take a month off and then start on the next track

I'll be in Tampa around the beginning of April. I smell a celebratory drink with a few of the TE'rs

Master Of Puppets

Big, big congrats!!

jamesp1983

Huge congrats! I look forward to the full story.

down77

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Huge congrats! I look forward to the full story.

Thank you and good luck to you on your upcoming lab!

down77

Master Of Puppets wrote: »

Big, big congrats!!

Thank you!

jamesp1983

down77 wrote: »

Thank you and good luck to you on your upcoming lab!

Thanks man! I can't believe my lab is next week.

You guys have set the bar high! Congrats again.

bryguy

Congratulations... I think those of us who followed this thread had a feeling you'd nail it the second time around. Well deserved... your efforts are shining example to the rest of us CCIE hopefuls.

down77

bryguy wrote: »

Congratulations... I think those of us who followed this thread had a feeling you'd nail it the second time around. Well deserved... your efforts are shining example to the rest of us CCIE hopefuls.

Thank you. Like I said, I planned to treat this like Ali treated Frasier after their first bout... TKO!

SteveO86

down77 wrote: »

I'll take a month off and then start on the next track

I'll be in Tampa around the beginning of April. I smell a celebratory drink with a few of the TE'rs

I'll toast to that man, shoot me a PM when you're in the area. First drink is on me!

down77

Round Two: TKO

After my last attempt I sat back and reflected on what I felt went wrong and how I could plan to knock it out of the park on the next attempt. I immediately scheduled my next attempt and booked my flight when I got back home and then I decided to get to work again! I went back into my notes from the INE boot camp and started to review some tips that we were given. I spent the next 6 weeks working on the hardest Vol II labs I could find and spent extra time in the Security, IP Services, and System Management chapters of Vol I. I also went back over certain multicast technologies to make sure I would be prepared for them if they came up during the next attempt. I think I averaged 8 hours a day working on configurations and labs during that period of time, and still found a way to get the majority of my work done. I was waking up around 6am and going to bed most nights around midnight to 1 am.

I did not have the luxury of a week off last week before my attempt, so I did my best to rearrange as many things as I could. I scheduled a mid sunday flight to RTP, went right to the hotel, had an Irish Beer in celebration of St Pattys day and did some last minute studying. I woke up monday morning and spent some time with some people I know who work for Cisco in RTP and then headed to the mall to get my kids a few gifts. I was doing as much as I could to give myself a day of relaxation before the exam attempt so that I did not try to cram and stress myself out last minute. Around 9pm I decided to start winding down and try to get some sleep. Just like the first time, I tossed and turned until around 11:30 and then the alarm went off before I knew it.... it was exam day!

On Tuesday I woke up, took a quick shower, packed my stuff and went downstairs to have a light bite. Its important to eat something healthy before the exam so that you not only have fuel, but also so that you don't pass out during your attempt. I stayed at an HGI right around the corner practically from the Cisco Campus which made it very easy to get there in the AM. I got to Bldg 3 at 6:45 am and took a picture of the Cisco logo as a souvenir of the experience. Looking back, I really like this picture (may post later).

At 7:05 the Proctor came to the door and let us in the building. It was not the guy I knew, but this guy was very polite and professional. I can't express enough how pleased I have been with the RTP exam experience! He escorted us to the exam room and immediately began joking with us to help calm our nerves. There were 4 victims for the day, 2 R&S and 2 Voice. At 7:30 the exam began!

I took my seat, which was the same one as last time ironically, and logged in to the computer. I made my "score sheet" and then hit the button to begin the TS section and off we go! While I can't say what I had during this section, I can say that I was able to solve all but a few tickets within 40 minutes and then took another 40 minutes to solve the last ones. I spent the next 10 minutes making sure that I had not violated any rules as well as to do final verification on each ticket. I closed this section early and took a brief sigh of relief. It was now 9am.

Many people have told me that you should stand up, stretch, and take a minute before moving on. I did this the last time and I decided to take a 5 minute mental break before starting on the configuration section. I grabbed the 'hall pass' and headed to the bathroom. I also stopped and grabbed a cup of coffee on the way back in to the room. Once I got back to my seat I started looking through the requirements for the configuration section and made another score sheet. I put stars next to the difficult tasks on my sheet to make sure I pay extra attention to them. I opened notepad and started to get to work.

I make it a habit to save my configs at the end of every major section and every hour on the hour if I am in between sections. By 11am I had completed L2 and was working on L3. I saved my configs and went to grab a mandatory quick bite to eat. Food this time was Chicken Marsala, salad, grilled veggies, dinner rolls, various types of cake (resist... sugar crash late in the day can be bad!), and fruit salad. Cisco also provided water, sodas, coffee, etc. for us to enjoy. Eat fast because you only have 20 minutes for lunch!

When I got back to my seat, I noticed some adjacencies were flapping. This was funny because they were up and stable before lunch! I checked all devices and found my trunk ports were err-disabled, very interesting! Now I am NOT saying that anyone modified my configuration... but I am saying that I found a few line items that were alien to the config I had laid down earlier in the day. I can't say more without violating the NDA. It was a VERY quick fix and back to the fun!

By 1pm I was 3/4 done with configuration and had a few things written on my score sheet to follow up on. I was able to fix a few of these items and then spent the next 90 minutes finishing all configuration. At 3pm I started doing final verification and felt confident on all but one or two tickets. I sat around until 3:45 when they called time. I had already saved all my configs so I logged out of the exam, logged off the machine, and turned in my scratch paper to the proctor.

There were 4 of us who started, but at the end only 3 of us who had stayed through completion. Not sure what happened to the one voice candidate, but he left around noon. The other 3 of us stood outside to BS for a few and then off to the airport to catch our respective flights home. Now begins the long wait to find out my fate! Thankfully I had a 6:45 flight to Charlotte and had shut my cell phone off before the flight. When I landed I turned the phone back on and saw I had an email to check the portal for my results. I immediately felt sick to my stomach! I called my wife to tell her I already had my results but I didn't want to check. She told me to get it over with or it would eat me alive... boy was she right! I headed to the bar, ordered a beer (or 3), and then turned on the laptop.... wait for it... wait for it... WAIT FOR IT! NO really, the internet connection was horrendously slow at the airport and it felt like all time had stopped. There it was as plain as can be... PASS! I clicked on those words and found my magical number. A huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I sent an email out to a few friends, told my family, and then got on my next flight home. I walked in my door @ 1:30am and practically passed out in bed!

I woke up this morning just to make sure that it was real and that I had truly passed. I was able to find my info on the CCIE verification tool and life is good. I'm planning to take a little time off studying and then believe it or not will be working on another track.

Right now I am REALLY looking forward to Cisco Live! and access to all of the CCIE invite only parties! But first I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!! No really I am, its a promise I made to my family

aaron0011

Congrats and thanks for sharing the detailed experience. It has to be a great feeling.

Which track is next?

Ahriakin

Well done!

down77

aaron0011 wrote: »

Congrats and thanks for sharing the detailed experience. It has to be a great feeling.

Which track is next?

Either SP or DC. I'm leaning towards SP since I'm fresh off the R&S track and there is a lot of overlap.

down77

Ahriakin wrote: »

Well done!

Thank you!

jamesp1983

down77 wrote: »

Either SP or DC. I'm leaning towards SP since I'm fresh off the R&S track and there is a lot of overlap.

I was planning on SP next as well. Good luck!

down77

jamesp1983 wrote: »

I was planning on SP next as well. Good luck!

Thanks! The more I think about it the more I wait for the first DC refresh before taking that exam. We've been working on 80% of the SP material through the R&S track so I may pay for the workbooks tomorrow and start on them in April. The wife won't be thrilled, but she already told me she knows I will be going for a second track.

spiderjericho

Congrats to my fellow Floridian, Down77. I'm so happy for you. Glad you were able to conquer the beast.

mhonsky

Congratulations!!

Quick question, which path have you done on your studies, linear fashion or doing Vol II and referencing to Vol I+ATC+CiscoDoCCD?
Appreciate your feedback

Many thanks!