Thanks for sharing and keep up the spirit!!!! Good luck next time!! Angel.
On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 4:39 PM, jmangawang <jmangaw...@gmail.com> wrote: > Well, I took the v4.0 lab last week and even though I walked out > knowing I failed, I was actually quite impressed with the test as a > whole. I took my test in San Jose, mostly so that I could take > advantage of gaining 2 extra hours (I live in Central time zone). > First time I took my test, I went to RTP and lost an hour which really > took a toll, since I had to wake up earlier also. Anyway, I did get > my full 8 hours of sleep the night before, ate a decent breakfast and > went on to Building C. > There were two other candidates, one taking R&S, the other taking SP. > I chatted it up with the other R&S candidate for about 20 minutes > talking mostly about what I had read about regarding the new test > format. If you haven't done so already, read these posts: > http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/46561 and > https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/thread/8262. One other thing, I > won't mention any specific topics that I got on my exam due to NDA, > but I'll describe as best as I can the overall look and feel, as well > as my impressions. > The proctor took us to the lab room around 8:20am, gave us our seating > assignments, then gave me and the other R&S candidate an extra 5 > minute set of instructions on how to log into the new web interface. > Then we sat down and started our test. > For those of you interested, you get 2 sheets of writing paper, and a > 3rd sheet that has login info for the troubleshooting/lab config > portion. You're in a half-height cubicle with one neighbor. You get > a hodge podge of colored pencils and a really nice widescreen monitor. > I use a 20" widescreen at work and these were way bigger, maybe 24"? > I don't know. But they were nice. > The core knowledge/OEQs (open-ended questions) are 4 questions of > which you must get 3 correct or you fail the whole exam. The proctor > told us to use short, concise answers. He said it's because they > don't like to read really long answers (that's not official, just > something he said). When I failed the v3.0 test back in August, it > was because of these OEQs. I made it a point to read any/everything > in the Cisco Documentation site that pertained to a v4.0 Blueprint > topic. I also made it a point to do as many show commands during my > lab work, just so I'd know what I was look at. That definitely paid > off because I got 1 question which I knew without thinking about, 2 > others where I was 90% certain, and 1 which I had never seen before. > Needless to say, I passed the section and I didn't even think twice > about those questions once I started the troubleshooting section. > Word of advice: Read the questions several times before answering. > On the 2 that I was 90% sure of, I actually had written a different > answer the first time, but based on specific words in the > question/diagram, I ended up changing them. I'm glad I did. > Next came the troubleshooting section. You have to bring us IE and > log into a webpage using the 3rd piece of paper on your desk. Once > in, you're given an opportunity to view screenshots of what the new > interface looks like. Basically, the main page of the new interface > is a full diagram of the network topology with menu buttons across the > top. For the troubleshooting section, one menu opens a popup window > showing one ticket at a time, another is a popup showing all tickets > listed on a page, another is a control panel to reboot/restore configs > on routers(troubleshooting only), another is some documentation about > what to do/not do, and then there is the end exam button. The first > menu also has diagrams showing things like BGP, routing, cabling, > MPLS, etc. There's also a countdown timer in the upper right corner > of the main page during the troubleshooting section, but not in the > lab configuration portion. To bring up the console of one of the > routers, just click on the picture within the diagram and SecureCRT > opens up. One annoying thing is that if you have several router > consoles up, then you click on the trouble ticket window, the main > page covers up your console windows. This is described in more detail > in one of the review links I posted up top. > The troubleshooting section itself is not too bad, but can be a bit > overwhelming at first. Keep in mind that you are learning a new > interface and trying to understand a new topology and you only have 2 > hours to do it in. You really need to keep calm, and focused, and not > spend too much time figuring out how the topology is set up. Rather, > go through the tickets, find the devices referenced in the tickets, > and work the specific issues. I found most of my fixes were > reasonably simple. As with any CCIE lab, time management is > important. I got caught up on the first 2 tickets and wasted 30 > minutes before giving up on them and going after the remaining > tickets. I was able to knock out the other tickets (except for one > because I didn't understand the new topic well enough) and came back > to the first pair that I missed. Another word of advice: click on > everything. I was able to fix one of those first tickets only after I > clicked on a device I didn't know I could access. I think I clicked > on it more out of frustration, and when the console window popped up, > a quick "sh run" and about 20 seconds of reconfiging later, and I had > a working solution. Unfortunately, I ran out of time so I could > attempt the other ticket that I wasted time on. Btw, I've read in > various posts that you can have from as few as 6 devices to as many as > 30 devices. I've read that these devices are virtual and if you have > to reboot/restore config on one, it comes up in less than 30 seconds > (maybe faster). I restored config on one and I want to say that in > around 30 seconds, I had router adjacencies forming back up, so I > believe there's truth to this virtual thing. This is definitely a > good thing because you do only have 2 hours for the section. And > don't worry about your command set, because as far as I could tell, I > had access to all my show, debug, and exec commands. As far as I was > concerned, I was in a fully working router. Another piece of advice: > don't rely solely on show run. On some of the "easier" tickets, I > could do a show run, see the problem, and fix it right away. On > others, I had to do various show commands or debugs to see what was > happening or not happening. On these tickets, "sh run" looked > perfectly fine to me. > I ended up failing because you need to score 80% in the > troubleshooting section in order to pass the lab. You can get > anywhere from 8-12 tickets (I think this was mentioned in one of > Maurilio Gorito's webcasts, I don't remember). So you'd need to > answer 8 of 10, 9 of 11, 10 of 12, etc. in order to pass. I was > pretty confident in all except one where I questioned the wording of > the ticket. I asked the proctor, but somehow didn't get a good > feeling based on his reply. But, I "fixed" the ticket based on what > he told me. At the end of the day, it was a new topic that got me, > and if I knew more about that topic, I wouldn't have had to worry > about the questionable wording. I'll definitely remedy that when I > re-take in 30 days. > Once the troubleshooting section is done, you're presented a button on > the page to start the lab configuration portion. This uses the same > web interface as troubleshooting, except you don't have a menu option > to reboot/restore original configs on a router. There were only 5 > routers and 4 switches and the config tasks are just like any others > that you've seen. I felt that Cisco did a good job of incorporating > the new topics into both troubleshooting and the lab config, so make > sure you know them. But, since you only have at least 5.5 hours, > you'll have to make sure you manage your time wisely. I, personally, > like drawing maps, but I didn't for this lab. I felt that the > provided diagrams were well done and I could follow them just as > easily as if I had drawn it myself. The only drawback is that whole > web browser window covering your terminal windows (mentioned > previously). > Based on my score results, I think I ended up failing the lab config > section mostly because I got burned on a post-L3 configuration task > that ended up breaking most of the work I did in the L3 config > section. I lost most of those points because of it. And, I didn't > even know it had broken until the proctor told us we had 5 minutes > left. Even when I discovered it, I scrambled to un-do what broke > everything and restore the original working config, but I was missing > something and it just didn't come back up right. Even if I was > somehow able to restore it back to a working state, there were a few > tasks that I left untouched just because I didn't know how to do them. > Some were new topics, some were not. But keep in mind that you now > need to score at least 80% in the lab configuration section in order > to pass the lab. > After the exam, the other R&S candidate walked out of the building and > we talked a little about how we felt about the web interface. I told > him that I actually liked it, except for the one drawback. He said it > reminded him of the Cisco Assessor practice lab, except bigger. We > both generally agreed that it wasn't as painful as we thought it was > going to be. This new lab is definitely passable, and I've already > got my next scheduled for late November. I do plan on spending a lot > of time learning the new topics, i.e. MPLS, OER/PFR, IOS zone > firewalls, etc. I also need to work on time management better. Hope > you find this helpful. > _______________________________________________ > For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please > visit www.ipexpert.com >
_______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com
