Ok this is a little long, but I figure by writing this now I can save the trouble of answering the dozens of "What books did you read" and "What software did you use" questions. If you've already passed the written, or if you don't care what I did to pass, then hit delete. Took the CCIE Written yesterday... not necessarily because I felt I was ready for it, but more because I was sick of studying for it. All in all it was a challenging exam... I needed a 70 to pass, and I got a 77. I was kinda hoping to score in the high 80's at least, but a pass is a pass right? As another netacad instructor once pointed out to me, "When you go to the doctor's office, you see his diploma on the wall... but you don't see his GPA anywhere do you?" As for my prep work... I used Sybex's CCIE book by Todd Lammle and John Swartz as a basis for my studying, and cross-referenced with Caslow, Giles, and the CCIE professional development books when necessary. The Sybex CCIE book has taken flack on these lists in the past, and I will agree with other posters: there are several errors in the book, especially in some of the sample questions. Historically, Sybex has been very good about posting errata in their books on their web page... I didn't check for this book though, partially because I knew any errors would come up in my cross-referencing, and partially out of laziness =) I consider the Lammle/Swartz book a worthy investment though; a month ago I had practically 0 experience or knowledge of reading and interpretting RIF's or working with multicast protocols. One of the down sides of some of the more detailed books out there is that they contain so much information that a subject you know nothing about can be intimidating. For example, I THOUGHT I knew ethernet until I read the ethernet chapter in Giles' book. Reading a book like his to learn about something you know little about is painful at best, and fruitless at worst. The Sybex book does an excellent job of explaining the underlying concepts in english, giving you a foundation to build on. I also bought one of the Boson CCIE tests yesterday and went through it for a few hours before I took the test. Let me say, that was the second best $40 dollars I've spent on this test. (The best $40 was the bar tab I racked up last night) The questions in the Boson test were very challenging, many of them more challenging than the Written. I'm pretty sure, I wouldn't have passed without it. I had one other resource backing me up, I teach the Cisco Networking Academy classes. Believe it or not, knowing the CCNA netacad curriculum forwards and backwards contributed greatly to my success on the exam. Anyways, enough babbling... after taking a short break I need to start getting ready for the lab. I don't post much on here (usually because the few questions I'm qualified to answer, get answered six times before I can hit the Reply button), but I want to thank everyone on the list; I've learned a lot from your questions and your answers. Cheers, Hal - CCAI, CCDP, CCNP+Voice
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