Dear Aaron,
Good job !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope I will join you in the next semester !
Regards
Elias Aggelidis
CCNP+Voice
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Hays" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Aaron K. Dixon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "GroupStudy LAB" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "GroupStudy"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2000 6:33 PM
Subject: Re: CCIE #6460
> Very informative and articulate post, Aaron.
>
> Thank you.
>
> -Jonathan
>
> "Aaron K. Dixon" wrote:
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> > This is a brief synopsis of my ccie lab and the tools I used to study. If
> > you're not interested you may want to just hit the delete key now.
> >
> > I just thought that I would take a few moments to share my study methodology
> > for the CCIE lab. I've been meaning to do this since I passed the lab on
> > November 15th in San Jose, but I always seem to get sidetracked with all of
> > my newfound free time. This was my first attempt at the lab and I found it
> > to be fairly straight forward. It wasn't as convoluted as I expected and I
> > had seen pretty much everything before.
> >
> > Day 1
> >
> > The first thing that I did was read through the entire lab TWICE. I
> > realized that I knew how to do everything and went to work on my diagram. I
> > found day one to be very easy and was done by 2 o'clock. I checked and
> > re-checked all of my work and felt very confident in everything that I had
> > done. After that I spent time making sure that ALL of my information was
> > recorded correctly and neatly on my diagram. I felt very confident when I
> > left, but I have to admit as I tried to get some sleep the what if's were
> > creeping in my mind.
> >
> > Day 2
> >
> > I arrived for Day 2 happy to see the Day 2 binder on my desk and went
> > through the same process of reading the entire lab twice. I realized that I
> > knew exactly what to do on 90% of the lab and may have to browse the cd for
> > the other 10%. Again, I found that there was plenty of time and I had
> > completed everything that I knew how to do by 10:30. I spent the next 30
> > minutes reviewing the cd and configuring the remaining 10%. I then re-read
> > everything and checked over all of my work and made sure that my diagram was
> > complete. Documentation is very important in the lab not only for
> > troubleshooting, but to ensure that the proctor can see what you were doing.
> > The proctor spends all day at the lab and then has to check your work in the
> > evening or at lunch for day 2. The last thing he wants to do is spend 30
> > minutes trying to read your diagram. Of course, this is just my opinion.
> >
> > After day 2, I felt real good about my work, but nervous none the less.
> > This made for what seemed like a never ending lunch. Once we arrived back
> > at the facility I was called first and on the way back to the lab I was told
> > that I had made it to troubleshooting and that I had three hours. When I
> > returned to my desk I found the paperwork for troubleshooting and for the
> > first time found out how many points I had. I had gained 70 of the 75
> > points and only needed 10 of the 25 from troubleshooting. At that point, I
> > knew that I had passed and just needed to knock out the troubleshooting. As
> > I looked around I realized that no one else had progressed from Day 2. I
> > spent about an hour and a half on troubleshooting and felt like I fixed
> > everything so I turned in my sheet. About 5 minutes later, the proctor
> > returned with a yellow sticky note with my number on it. He then asked me
> > if I would erase all of my configs and then I left with a huge grin on my
> > face. I just couldn't believe that all of my studying paid off.
> >
> > I met Chuck Larrieu a few hours later for a victory dinner. I knew that it
> > would be nice to have some company one way or the other and I was glad that
> > it turned out to be for good reasons.
> >
> > Passing the test was very rewarding, but the journey was just as rewarding.
> > It's amazing the amount of material that you learn along the way and the
> > many friends that you make. I have become friends with many people that I
> > may of never met if I wasn't studying for the CCIE.
> >
> > Study Materials
> >
> > I studied the normal books Caslow, Halabi, and Doyle and found them all to
> > be very helpful. I also used three other books extensively that I don't see
> > mentioned very often. I used the configuring cisco routers for bridging,
> > dlsw+, & desktop protocols and the Cisco Press Lan Switching Book. I found
> > them both to be very helpful as I work extensively with cisco routers and
> > rarely use cisco switches. I also used the CCIEBootcamp labs which I found
> > to be an excellent resource for practice. There are a lot of other labs,
> > but most of them don't throw everything together like the bootcamp labs. I
> > have to admit that I only completed about half of them and never did the
> > dreaded lab 8, but I studied all 17 of them and read up on anything that I
> > didn't know how to do. It often takes a large amount of time to do a full
> > lab, but reading through it and "spotting the issues" can be very helpful.
> > About 2 months ago I attended the ECP1 course which was taught by Bruce
> > Caslow. I found Bruce's methodology to be excellent and really got a lot
> > out of the course. About a month after that I attended Cisco's ASET
> > (www.cisco.com/go/aset) program. This turned out to be an excellent program
> > as well and I just wished that I would of known about it sooner. This is a
> > 3-day lab taught by Jay and Jose in San Jose. The lab is a simulated CCIE
> > environment where each student gets a pod with 8 routers, a cat 3920, cat
> > 5000, and a ls 1010. Jay and Jose really helped me on good diagramming
> > skills and allowed me to sit down for a timed lab. I did very well on the
> > lab and this really boosted my confidence for the actual lab. Another
> > benefit to the ASET program is that after completing the 3-day mock lab you
> > are able to get access to the rack via internet access. I was able to
> > reserve 5 days of rack time just prior to taking my lab.
> >
> > One of the keys is practice, practice, and more practice. It is very
> > important that you understand how the protocols behave. If you're just used
> > to configuring them based on a manual or cookie-cutter config you will have
> > difficulty due to the way the lab has you configure things. If you
> > understand the behavior of the protocols then the lab will seem very easy
> > because you will immediately see what they are looking for. It is also
> > crucial that you have the core topics down pat. There are things on the lab
> > that you haven't seen before, but they won't comprise near the points that
> > the core topics cover.
> >
> > Finally, I would like to thank all of the helpful members of groupstudy. I
> > have been on the list for quite awhile and the group has brought about many
> > thought provoking questions and helped me to see things in a different light
> > than just based on what I read or how I interpreted it. I am very thankful
> > to Paul for taking the time and money to run this list. I had the
> > opportunity to meet Paul and have dinner with him this year at Networkers
> > and you can tell that he enjoys running this group and works very hard and
> > adding to the group.
> >
> > I've probably bored you all to death by now so I'll end it here.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Aaron K. Dixon
> >
> > _________________________________
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