Can't resist the comments inserted below:
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of
Cthulu
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2001 7:08 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Study Techniques [7:1033]
Hey, all,
I was wrong in my previous posting... I actually have 4 months, not 3.
CL: either way, it's about 60 days too few..;->
his is a longish post, so delete if not to your liking.
CL: cthulu long winded? Nah......
I'd be interested in hearing how others are preparing.
Anyways, a friend (whom I call the Professor) and I are both preparing for
the lab in lock-step (as opposed to lock and key), and thought I would share
the techniques we are using to prepare for our upcoming lab date...August
17, 2001! Whoo hee!
It is an understatement to say that I am studying better and learning better
with another person than by myself. Having a study partner can really
motivate you to do more and do more better!
Our personalities and study habits are radically different. The professor
tends to be full of facts and is able to recall an amazing amount of
information about things Cisco, both hardware and software. My approach is
more Rainman: I can do it, but I would be at a loss to explain how or why I
did it. So, the partnership works real well...
Routers, routers, and more routers! You can not have too many. My rack
has 8, the Professor has 7; together, we can make 15, which is actually one
shy of being unreachable if you are a certain DV routing protocol. We
study our individual topics apart, and then link up the racks to do a big
exercises containing everything that we just studied separately.
CL: may I suggest configuring your edge devices with IGRP, and then
redistributing in to rip with a metric of 5 - then watch the fun begin too
bad you can't do something similar with (E)IGRP. I've always been curious
about the 255 hop limit. I know why it is, I'd just like to see it in action
some time.
Read, read, and read some more! Stephen King and Faulkner have fallen by
the way side, replaced by Caslow, Doyle, Oppenheimer, et al. While reading,
I highlight the critical points, and then summarize them into a 2-3 page
crib sheet.
CL: this leads to an interesting debate, to whit - the ratio of reading to
hands on practice. What to read. E.g. RFC's? Which books and why? The debate
can go on a long time. My own personal opinion is the reading should be the
command references and config guides, and things like Doyle and Caslow and
Slattery and Hutnik. For CCIE lab prep my own opinion is that Perlman and
Berkowitz and Greenberg are not the best way to spend one's time.
The Professor and I have also started a once a week lunch and learn session
where we lecture about a chosen topic. The twist? Given a list of topics,
pick the topic that you know the least about and the other person knows more
about than you: you'll learn more, and the other person can tell you if you
got it or not. Great technique, highly recommend it!
Also, Cisco may also help and I don't guarantee this. If your company is a
big customer of Cisco AND you have passed your written AND have a lab date
scheduled, you may be able to use the local Cisco lab facilities in the city
nearest you to practice topics that you may not otherwise be able to...I
refer to ATM, VOxx, token ring switches, ISDN, etc. Check with your local
Cisco rep about this. These resources are limited so I would not waste
them on a topic such as RIP; instead, budget lab time for the big ticket
items as mentioned.
As much as I hate to part with the money, I am going to purhcase an ISDN
simulator, probably from http://www.bigdcom.com/teleline.html (last price
quote was $1688 for a 2-line BRI model). ISDN can be a very troublesome
topic even though it is relatively simple: when you start doing DDR that,
CHAP this, snapshot over here, and so on and so on over ISDN, you need to
know ISDN better than Howard can quote RFCs verbatim.
CL: hhmmmm..... let's just say that to judge from a number of my practice
sources, you are correct.
If you have to sell blood or your mother-in-law,
CL: heh heh heh
get the ccbootcamp labs! I
have them, the Professor has them, and together, we have praised and cursed
the name of Marc Russell. Those labs are TOUGH, and have made us think in
new ways, and look at technologies from a different angle... sort of like
Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society (Dead Routes Society, perhaps?) Once
again, Marc doesn't pay for the commercial.
CL: definitely one good source of practice materials
Finally, the Professor and I will be attending the ECP class in July to
learn our weaknesses and hopefully, overcome them. We will also probably
schedule several days at Wichita before and after the ECP class to indulge
our need for lab simulation torture.
CL: agreed - if you can afford it or the boss will pay for it, take it. But
be advised - this class is not someplace to learn what you need to pass. You
benefit the most if you are already most of the way there.
If, after all this preparation, one of us passes and the other doesn't: the
passer will run while the non-passer playfully chases behind with a knife,
perhaps Ginsu, shouting mock expletives. If neither passes, then we will
have to do the unthinkable and renew our MCSE certifications and go back to
providing Microsoft support. There's an incentive...
CL: something tells me that with this Win2K migration, this may not be a bad
skill set either ;->
HTH,
Charles
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