Work full time, live with my awesome, extremely supportive girlfriend and we have no kids.
I've probably averaged about 40hrs per week of study for a little over a year now. Started to take the study seriously in Jan 2010. I'd normally get about 4hrs out of my rack session on a weeknight... in the beginning that was 2-3 nights a week but towards the end it was 5 nights a week, every week. Weekends I would try to use the whole 8hr rack session... in the beginning I'd do either Sat or Sun but at the end it was both days. Also near the end I'd book double rack sessions on the weekends. I'd never use the full 16 hours but I liked to have it available the whole day so I could lab things when I wanted to. I'm definitely not a night person and I can probably count the number of days I studied past midnight on 1 hand. I did all of the Vol1 labs at least 3 times... topics I sucked at I probably did them 4-5 times. Most of the Vol3 labs I did 2-3 times and the OWLE labs probably twice. I never opened a single Vol2 lab. In the beginning I used the VoD/AoD a lot. The AoD was used less and less as I progressed for a couple reasons... 1 being a short commute and the other being that commute was one of my few breaks where I could listen to music and zone out a bit. I used the VoD in the beginning but it didn't take long for that to be a slow way of learning. I'd go back to topics I was weak on from time to time but for most of the VoD material I probably only watched it once. One resource I picked up at the end of my studies and found very helpful was the routing-bits.com handbook. Awesome set of notes that really helped my final review. I read over that 350pg guide over the course of 2 weeks before my lab and it really made me remember some things I had forgotten about. On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 4:13 PM, Di Bias, Steve <[email protected]>wrote: > Hey Jay, > > Can you elaborate on what your studies consisted of? Do you work full time? > Married? Kids? How many hours per day, did you ever sleep? How about > comparisons between IPX Vol1 VS vol2, VS vol3? Did you use the BLS > VOD/AOD's? I'm just curious about the whole process you followed to see if > it's on par with what I'm doing. Thanks! > > Thank you. > > Steve Di Bias > Network Engineer - Information Systems > Valley Health System - Las Vegas > Office - 702- 369-7594 > Cell - 702-241-1801 > [email protected] > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Jay Taylor > Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 12:34 PM > To: Marko Milivojevic > Cc: CCIE OSL > Subject: Re: [OSL | CCIE_RS] Lab experience > > Luckily Proctorlabs has a remote controlled power supply but since the lab > does not I would recommend knowing how to both boot and reload from rommon. > > > On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 3:31 PM, Marko Milivojevic <[email protected] > >wrote: > > > > > That's what we do in ProctorLabs every day, I'm afraid :-) > > > > -- > > Marko Milivojevic - CCIE #18427 > > Senior Technical Instructor - IPexpert > > > > FREE CCIE training: http://bit.ly/vLecture > > > > Mailto: [email protected] > > Telephone: +1.810.326.1444 > > Web: http://www.ipexpert.com/ > > > > On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 12:30, Jay Taylor <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> Reboot it until it does. > >> > >> > >> On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 2:59 PM, marc abel <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > >>> So what do you do when the router can't see the flash? > >>> > >>> On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 12:51 PM, Marko Milivojevic > >>> <[email protected]> > >>> wrote: > >>> > It's a complaint about R2 in ProctorLabs, which has chronic > >>> > problem of sometimes not booting and requiring either to be > >>> > initialized or power > >>> cycled > >>> > to do so. > >>> > > >>> > -- > >>> > Marko Milivojevic - CCIE #18427 > >>> > Senior Technical Instructor - IPexpert > >>> > > >>> > FREE CCIE training: http://bit.ly/vLecture > >>> > > >>> > Mailto: [email protected] > >>> > Telephone: <%2B1.810.326.1444> <%2B1.810.326.1444>+1.810.326.1444 > >>> > Web: http://www.ipexpert.com/ > >>> > > >>> > On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 10:19, Liqua > >>> > <[email protected]> > >>> wrote: > >>> > > >>> >> Congrats - Nice write up, plus you deserve a beer or two after that. > >>> >> > >>> >> Perhaps being dumb (and hope it's not NDA) but what does "had a > >>> >> router > >>> pull > >>> >> an 'R2' on me" mean please ? What's an R2 ? > >>> >> > >>> >> Liqua. > >>> >> > >>> >> --- On Wed, 16/3/11, Jay Taylor <[email protected]> wrote: > >>> >> > >>> >> > >>> >> From: Jay Taylor <[email protected]> > >>> >> Subject: [OSL | CCIE_RS] Lab experience > >>> >> To: "CCIE OSL" <[email protected]>, > >>> >> [email protected] > >>> >> Date: Wednesday, 16 March, 2011, 15:41 > >>> >> > >>> >> > >>> >> Pi day (3/14) was good to me; I passed the routing and switching > >>> >> lab > >>> to get > >>> >> my digits! CCIE #28391 > >>> >> > >>> >> I stayed at Comfort Suites this time rather than the Wingate next > >>> >> door > >>> and > >>> >> was happy I switched. Much nicer hotel - cleaner/newer room, > >>> >> better breakfast and free beer from 5-7pm (Mon, Tue and Wed only > >>> >> I think.) > >>> They > >>> >> will shuttle you to other nearby places but I didn't ask about > >>> >> the > >>> lab. > >>> >> Regardless, I recommend renting a car so you don't have to rely > >>> >> on > >>> someone > >>> >> else on such an important day. > >>> >> > >>> >> Overall I felt my lab this time was more difficult than last time > >>> >> but > >>> I was > >>> >> more prepared. Strange how a day can feel like it is dragging on > >>> forever > >>> >> yet > >>> >> going by so quickly at the same time. I felt much more rushed on > >>> >> this attempt and was very aware of the clock throughout the whole > >>> >> day. For > >>> my > >>> >> last attempt I also said that I was having fun for about 75% of > >>> >> the > >>> day and > >>> >> that was not the case this time. I had a number of times during > >>> >> the > >>> day > >>> >> where I was rather stressed about either mistakes I'd made or not > >>> being > >>> >> able > >>> >> to think through the solution I wanted to use. > >>> >> > >>> >> I struggled more with the troubleshooting section this time than > >>> before and > >>> >> ended with only 2-3 minutes to spare (after 1 round of verifying > >>> >> all > >>> the > >>> >> tickets at the end.) One good thing about the TS section now is > >>> >> Cisco > >>> is > >>> >> VERY clear about what you need to accomplish in order to consider > >>> >> a > >>> ticket > >>> >> solved. Even so, there were a couple tickets that I felt I made > >>> >> too > >>> drastic > >>> >> of changes to fix the problem and wasn't sure if I'd get the > >>> >> points > >>> for > >>> >> them. Even though my solution matched the output they wanted I > >>> wouldn't be > >>> >> surprised at all if I missed points on those. > >>> >> > >>> >> Config section was more complicated than my first attempt but > >>> >> there > >>> was > >>> >> nothing in there that I had absolutely no idea how to accomplish. > >>> There > >>> >> were > >>> >> several topics I needed help from the DocCD and I asked the > >>> >> proctor > >>> quite a > >>> >> few questions again. I got off to a fairly slow start and by > >>> >> lunchtime wasn't even done with IGP config. After lunch it felt > >>> >> like things were > >>> just > >>> >> getting worse as I struggled with a couple sections and started > >>> >> making > >>> some > >>> >> really stupid typos. In the end I had to scrap all my BGP config > >>> >> and > >>> start > >>> >> over due to non-technical mistakes. By then I was freaking out > >>> >> pretty > >>> bad > >>> >> and before starting BGP over I took a bathroom break and tried to > >>> 'reset' > >>> >> myself. I pushed through the rest of the routing config and by > >>> >> the > >>> time I > >>> >> started on services and misc topics I didn't think I had enough > >>> >> time > >>> to > >>> >> finish. Somehow I was able to knock all those tasks out in a > >>> >> pretty > >>> short > >>> >> amount of time and still had an hour left to verify. Line by line > >>> >> I > >>> went > >>> >> through the entire lab and verified points for each section. In > >>> >> the > >>> end > >>> >> there were a couple tasks that I wasn't sure if I'd get points > >>> >> for but > >>> the > >>> >> rest I felt very good about. I did go back and change a few > >>> >> things in > >>> that > >>> >> last hour and had a freak out moment in the last 15 minutes when > >>> >> I > >>> couldn't > >>> >> get something working again that I tried to fix. That last change > >>> >> took > >>> me > >>> >> right up until the last 5 minutes. > >>> >> > >>> >> You hear it all the time from IPexpert instructors and I can't > >>> >> stress > >>> this > >>> >> enough - READ THE ENTIRE LAB BEFORE YOU START. Tasks at the end > >>> >> can > >>> have a > >>> >> big impact on how you do things early on. If you don't read the > >>> >> whole > >>> thing > >>> >> you will likely be rebuilding some of the basics to allow later > >>> >> tasks > >>> to > >>> >> work correctly. > >>> >> > >>> >> Two things that stood out to me about my lab day: > >>> >> > >>> >> 1. Had a router pull an 'R2' on me twice throughout the day when > I > >>> >> rebooted it. The proctor was clear that this was my problem to > >>> >> fix > >>> even > >>> >> when > >>> >> the router didn't recognize it's flash memory. > >>> >> 2. A task was worded using KB for a function that clearly > >>> >> required > >>> Kb. I > >>> >> asked the proctor a couple times and she insisted that I > >>> >> should configure it > >>> >> as if it requested Kb. I almost started the task by converting > >>> bytes to > >>> >> bits > >>> >> and that would have been completely wrong based on what I was > told. > >>> >> After > >>> >> the lab she agreed with me that the lab wording is misleading. > >>> >> _______________________________________________ > >>> >> 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 > >>> >> > >>> > _______________________________________________ > >>> > 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 > >>> > >> > >> > > > _______________________________________________ > For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please > visit www.ipexpert.com > > > UHS Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any > attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient (s) and may > contain confidential and privileged information. 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