Hello Bob, Thanks for the helpful information provided to us from your attempt and wish you all the luck. I have a question : How can you rate the IPX VOL III compared to the real exam?
Regards, Elie ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] on behalf of Bob McCouch [[email protected]] Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 6:16 AM To: CCIE OSL Subject: [OSL | CCIE_RS] My visit to RTP on Friday Hi All, I sat my first attempt for the R&S lab in RTP on Friday and wanted to relay some of the details about the experience itself since I know there are always (and I have had) a number of questions and apprehension about the environment, proctors, etc. Of course I will not disclose anything about exam content. Travel: I drove down to RTP, as it's about 450 miles from where I live. I may strongly consider flying next time even though I don't like flying very much, as it was a longer drive than I anticipated. Hotel: I stayed at Hotel Indigo, which is listed with a Cisco corporate discount on Cisco's lab info page for the RTP site. The hotel was very nice, and it was only about 3 miles from the Cisco office with no highway travel required to get there. I took a quick drive over to the Cisco office the day before the exam about 7:30 AM and there was very little traffic. It was less than 10 minutes to get there from the hotel. I ordered room service for dinner the night I arrived and it was tasty and reasonably priced. There is a restaurant/bar in the hotel which is open from 5-10 PM. Also, with the Cisco corporate discount I got a voucher for some free breakfast items for each morning of my stay. I will likely stay here again. Office: Finding the Cisco office is quite easy. As mentioned above I took a dry run over there just so I wasn't trying to find it the first time on the big day. I recommend doing the same if you're driving to the site just so it all looks familiar. I arrived for the lab about 6:50 AM (7:05 is when you're supposed to be there). Parking was ample at that hour, very close to the door of building 3. Upon arriving, the door was locked but several candidates were already inside and one of them got the door for me. One of the candidates taking the exam that day was a Cisco employee at RTP so I assume he's who got everyone inside. There were a couple couches and chairs in the waiting area. There was a little nervous chatter between candidates but mostly awkward silence as we waited. The proctor, David Blair, came out about 7:10 or so. He checked everyone's photo ID and gave us a name badge to wear. He gave us a few basic instructions and led us back. The lab is on the ground floor, very close to that front lobby. David pointed out the restrooms, a break room, and the small conference room where we'd have lunch. There is an "outer" room where some equipment was housed along with lockers. Off of this room is David's office area and also the actual test room. He explained that anything we had that was electronic in nature including car key fobs, phones, or anything else much be turned off if possible and then all of our stuff must be put in a locker which was assigned based on our pod number. We were told that we could not touch anything in our lockers from that point on without clearing it with David first, else we would be done and asked to leave. Test Room: There were three rows of work spaces, probably 6 per row. Candidates were spaced out so no one was on either side of where you were (at least for R&S candidates; I think the voice guys were all crammed on the first row). The cubicle walls are medium height so there was not really anything distracting to see out of your peripheral vision. The room was a pleasant temperature, as there wasn't really any equipment running in there. David let us know that we were welcome to the drinks in the small fridge under the table (this is the only location you can still get your free $1500 Coke). There was a dispenser with foam ear plugs, which is nice to know; I'd taken my own but good to know they have spares. Everyone used them. Each workspace had ample working room, with a 22"-or-so LCD on an articulating arm, and a reasonable keyboard and mouse. We had a pile of colored pencils and 2 sheets of note paper with our ID on them, in addition to the login info sheet. I used the login info page for notes too. The chair was comfortable. David permitted us to keep a drink or some snacks at our workspace. Testing Experience: David gave us a quick briefing on the flow of the day and the way lunch would work, etc. He said we would start at 7:25 and go until 3:45 PM, with lunch from 11:00-11:20 AM. So the R&S exam has the 2-hour TS portion (which is firmly timed through the TS lab UI) and the 6 hour config section, but you only have from 7:25-3:45 to do that. We were permitted to use the restroom at any time, but there was a "hall pass" and only one person could be out of the room at a time. Lunch: Lunch began and ended promptly. Apparently Friday is always Seafood Day at RTP. The catered lunch was good, but it was pretty much all fried food. Fried fish, and some local specialties which I don't recall the names of. There was salad too. Conversation was rather light. David explained the grading process and we talked a bit about the various CCIE tracks. At 11:20 we were back at our workstations. End of the Day: About 10-12 minutes before the end of the day, David gave us an update on the time. At 3:45 on the mark he asked us to quickly save any final configs and log out. There was not a "hard" stop enforced by the UI or anything, but I think everyone in the room complied with David's instruction within a minute or two. We were asked to turn in our note pages and David bid us good luck. Final Notes: David actually gave myself and another candidate our script-driven TS scores on our way out. The other candidate requested it, and after David looked his up, I asked him if he could look mine up as well. This was not a final score, only what the script indicated. But it was a nice early result to get. Over lunch, David explained that the scoring works like this: You start with zero points. On both the TS and Config sections (for R&S, this is), the scripts run and you accumulate points based on what the script finds. Anything that the script has marked right has no further human review. Once the script is finished, if the candidate has not yet passed, a human proctor (typically in the next timezone) reviews any items that were marked wrong by the scripts. David said that for R&S, though, the scripts are quite good and if you have failed a section by more than just a few points chances are good you will not pass from just the added human review. Also, here's an important note on a Friday exam at RTP: Because of the grading process, there is a good chance those taking the exam on a Friday in RTP will not get scores before Sunday night or even Monday morning, as no other test center is fully open after RTP closes on a Friday. Indeed, it's now 11 PM Sunday night here and I still don't have my scores. That said, I know I passed TS (as my scripted score indicated such) but I'm also quite sure I failed Config as I know I had enough tasks incomplete at the end of the test that I could not have passed. If the wait is going to kill you, you might want to schedule a different test day! Overall, it was a very good experience. Nothing in the environment, facilities, or equipment detracted from my test-taking ability in any way. It was just me and my lab. The lab won the day, but I am not deterred. Next time. If anyone has any additional questions about the testing experience at RTP I'd be happy to try to answer them. Good studying, all. Bob _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com Are you a CCNP or CCIE and looking for a job? Check out www.PlatinumPlacement.com http://onlinestudylist.com/mailman/listinfo/ccie_rs _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com Are you a CCNP or CCIE and looking for a job? Check out www.PlatinumPlacement.com http://onlinestudylist.com/mailman/listinfo/ccie_rs
