CCIE R/S Lab Test : Review
This is very long….if you want to skip the story, you can get to what I learned at the bottom.
Well, I have waited a long time to write a review about this test. I had just hoped that I would be part of the “estimated” 3% (this is what I hear…not sure if it is true or not…either way it is way low) that passed the exam on the first attempt. While I did not pass the exam, I did learn a lot that will help me on my next lab and may help others out there looking to take their lab in the future. So, here we go.
The first thing that I would like to say is, once you are there, this lab is not as scary as you would think it would be. You hear all of these stories about how evil everything about the lab can be. I had visions of configuring routers and switches in a dungeon full of spiders and snakes. Cisco executioners (proctors) beating you with sticks while laughing at you. I know this sounds crazy but you get the point, and without experiencing the lab, you start to believe all the rumors. It was far from all the horror stories I had heard in the past. More on this later.
While I have been working on this for a while (several years), I have not been focused. This has caused me to spend a lot of time and money and not really getting any closer to my goal. I use this equipment at work, but not to the extent you will be tested on the lab. I set up my on rack and practice labs on my own. I have read many books. But, in the end you don’t know what you don’t know. The best thing that I did during this entire process was buy a lab manual and proctor guide from a training company out there. This starts off with labs focused in individual areas and then works in to multiprotocol labs. This combined with a rack made for the labs really helped me to focus my studies. I just waited too long to get the manuals. These things work, you just have to give them time.
I had the lab manual, but did not get the proctor guide until a month before my lab. This was a very big mistake. I should have ordered them at the same time. I did some lab hours on weekends and weeknights, when I wasn’t working like crazy on other things. I took off the whole week leading up to the lab and scheduled a lot of rack time to prepare for the exam. This was another mistake that I will cover soon. Sunday through Sunday I had 12 hours of lab time scheduled a day. I then rested on Monday, flew out on Tuesday, took the lab on Wednesday, and returned on Thursday.
Early Tuesday morning, I checked my email to see if anything had changed and headed to the airport. Flew from Dallas to Denver, had a short layover, then flew onto San Jose. After picking up my luggage, getting my rental car, picking up something to eat, and checking into my room, I decided to check my email again. And what did I see? An email from Cisco saying that my credit card (my boss) had been declined for the lab! The email was sent while I was in the air heading to San Jose. Well, crap…this is more stress that I did not need. I am sitting in San Jose, less than 12 hours from the lab, and everyone has gone home. There was no one to talk to, to get everything squared away. I fired an email back explaining my frustrations and asked someone to give me a call back first thing in the morning. At this point I figured all I was going to get to do is tour San Francisco all day Wednesday. I mean how can I have a seat in the lab if it was not paid for. After getting no sleep Tuesday night thinking about all of this, I did not receive a phone call either. I decided to check my email about an hour and a half before the exam. And there it was…An email from the CCIE group saying go ahead and take the lab and settle things afterward. Hahaha…So now I have to go back into lab mode. The past few days the emotions have been up and down.
After a very quick breakfast at the IHOP, I drove to 150 West Tasman Drive, building C, also known as “The nightmare on Tasman Street”. I sat in the parking lot watching people walk into the building. You can tell the people that are going in for the lab. They are the ones with nervous and pale faces walking in like zombies. Through the glass I could see that they were all being seated to the right of the counter in a sitting area with 4 couches. Well, it is now 7:45 A.M. and it is time for me to make my walk. During my short walk from the rental car to the front door, I kept hearing in my head, from The Green Mile, “Dead Man Walking!” . haha. I checked in grabbed a bottle of water and had a seat. It was hard to keep from laughing, looking at everyone. You should see the faces. The proctors came and got all of us about 8:05 A.M. I believe we had 4 R/S, 1 Security, and 4 Voice candidates. And out of all these people, I believe I was the only one there for the first time.
As the proctors introduced themselves and started walking us back, I noticed they were very nice and professional. I am not sure what I expected, but this helped settle the nerves a little. As we walked back he was talking and explaining a few things. When we entered the room, I didn’t see snakes, spiders, or a dungeon! It was actually a medium size room with racks and cubicles all over the place and some large white boards at the back of the room. They spent the next few minutes going over the rules and other specifics and then it was time to get to work.
At first glance, the lab looked very doable. I was feeling pretty good at this point. Everything was going great and then….I hit my first snag. No problem I will get it straight. An hour later, it still was not working. It was time to move on. Before you know it, it was lunch time. They give everyone a 10.00 voucher and walk you over to the lunch room. I ended up having stir fry, chicken, broccoli, mushrooms, and jalapenos. We all sat as a group with proctor and ate. It was actually nice. We ate an BS’d for about 30 minutes and then it was back to work. The problems that I had before lunch lead to more problems after lunch and things started to compound. While I did not finish the entire lab, I did keep track of the points that I “thought” that I got. The score report was not as kind as my own score report.
. The problem is, in order to get all the points for a section, you must get each of the subsections. It is all or nothing. At the end of the lab, the proctors were very nice and professional again. They asked how I did…I just laughed and said that I would see them next time. Haha. They said it wasn’t over until it was graded. I said that is true but I know the points I got and they were not enough. One of them told me to have a good night and a safe trip home. I was really impressed with lab and the proctors.
Things I learned:
1. Get a lab manual from one of the big training companies out there. I chose IPExpert, but there are others that I hear are good also. These manuals present tasks different ways. This is very important. They help you think of new ways of accomplishing the same task. If you do not know multiple ways to get something done, you’re not ready. The labs in the manuals help you get into this way of thinking.
2. Give yourself plenty of time to go through the manual. I would go through each of the labs multiple times. On multiple attempts, work on your speed. I tried to cram a lot into the last month. This is not a test that you can cram on. The month before should be for polishing and speed, not cramming.
3. Know the documentation CD!!!!!!! Even if you are working on your CCNA / CCNP or any other Cisco cert, learn to use the doc CD. This is your only friend during the exam. Start now:
http://www.cisco.com/univercd
4. When you start the process, tell your friends and family goodbye for a while. You need to give this exam your full attention.
5. Sign up for the email list @ groupstudy.com . I waited until the last month to do this also. This was another big mistake. There is a lot of knowledge on that board. Use it to your advantage.
6. When scheduling rack time, do not do multiple days of 12 hour blocks. If you’re like me you will get distracted and end up wasting some of that time. When I start again, I will be doing 6 hour blocks with an occasional 12 hour block. Again, start early on, so you will not have to try and cram those 12 hour blocks in.
7. When doing practice labs, read the entire lab twice. Get in a habit of doing this. There may be a configuration at the end that will determine how or what you need to do at the beginning. A network redesign is not a good thing in the 6th hour.
8. When doing practice labs, re-draw the network. This helps you to really understand the topology. Add the IP Addressing to the map. Used colored pencils to mark the different protocols and areas. Keep it right in front of you to reference.
9. Build your speed and work on time management. If a task is only worth 3 points, is it worth spending an hour on? Will affect other points down the road?
10. Don’t stress about the lab. It is not as bad as what you hear. I know this is easy to say now, and I was stressed before, but this is the truth. Self induced stress can kill you in this lab.
Well, sorry this was so long, but I hope the last 10 things help someone get into that 3%.
I will post more later. I am sure I think of more after I post this.
Battle one done but the war is not over!
I will sip the "Blue Kool-Aid" and return after the New Year.
Kenny
