Congratulations George!! Thanks for sharing with us the path you took to get CCIE. Many of us would benefit from your experience.
I wasn't sure which CCIE training should I go for. Based on your input, I am going to ask my Company to get me to the NMC class. Did you take both the NMC 1 & 2 or just the NMC1. On Solie's book, errors aside, was it helpful from the LAB perspective. I read Doyle 1, Caslow and reading Halabi now. Would you recommend reading Doyle 2 on top of these books or is some of the stuff repetitive. Cheers, Sundar >From: "George Zhang" >Reply-To: "George Zhang" >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: CCIE#8903 >Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2002 17:57:14 -0500 > >All, > >The title says it all. I took my first attempt at the CCIE lab test >yesterday (March 5) in Halifax and received the "Congratulations on Passing >the CCIE Lab!" this morning. > >I was the only person taking the lab test in Halifax yesterday. I was told >that there was another person scheduled yesterday but did not show up. My >test started about 8:15 AM in the morning. We broke for lunch at about >12:20PM. By then, I only finished all the IGP stuff and felt some pressure >on time. But I have already reviewed rest of the test and knew that I >could >go through the rest quickly. After the 15 min lunch break, I worked >through >rest of the test very quickly. By about 3:00 PM, I finished every thing >except one small requirement that I had no clue how to do it. I decided to >skip that item. Then, I started reviewing and checking my config. Along >the way of reviewing/checking, I spotted and fixed a few issues. Just >about >the time I finished reviewing every thing, the proctor walked in and told >me >that it' time. I looked at the watch. It was 4:30 PM. My proctor was >Steve. Steve is a great proctor. He answered quite a few of my questions >and cleared my mis-understanding and confusion about the requirements of >the >test. > >I would like to take this opportunity to thank all people who helped me to >achieve my goal. First, I would like to thank my wife for her support and >understanding. Without her support, there is no way I could achieve my >goal. Next, I will give my thanks to Bruce, Val, and Fred of >NetMasterClass. As I said earlier, the NMC1 class is the most important >part of my final preparation. Thanks to Katie Wong of Cisco who scheduled >me to access the ASET racks. Thats my primary resource for hands-on >practices for the past couple of months. Thanks to Eric Fairfield for >lending me a few routers when I was in Wisconsin. Also thanks to those >that >I've either studied with or have helped me one way or another. Thanks also >to Paul for putting this great list together. > >As far as my story, I started my quest of the Cisco certifications a little >over two and half years ago. I got my CCNA and CCNP in the first year. >Three months later, I passed the CCIE written test. I wanted to take the >lab a year ago. However, due to work and personal reasons, I did not get >time to do it until now. Last year, I was too busy to do much study. At >work, as a consultant, I was billing at least 40 hours/week for the whole >year. At home, my second child was born in February, my wife finished >school in July, and we moved to New Jersey from Wisconsin in September. In >October of last year, I foresaw a window of opportunity for me to take the >lab test early this year. Then, I lobbed my manager to let me go to the >ECP1 class. By the time my manager approved my training request, I found >that Mentor Technologies went belly up. However, I learned that Bruce and >Val founded a new company called NetMasterClass, LLC >(www.netmasterclass.net) and offering the NMC1 and NMC2 classes. I >registered and took the NMC1 class by the end January. By the end of last >year, the project I worked on finished. So since the beginning of this >year >I got a lot of time to study. For the past couple of months, I have >studied >8-10 hours every day. > >As far as how I prepared, I have read most of the books (Doyle I & II, >Caslow, Halabi, Tam-Nam-Kee, Solie, Satterlee, etc.) recommended by people >on this list. Among this long list of books, the only one I dont like is >Solies book because there are too many errors in the book. There are a >few >topics I was more confused after reading the book. I dont have a home >lab. > So my primary resource for hands-on practice is remote labs such as >Mentor >Technologies vlabs (not available any more), Cisco ASET lab. Because I >dont have a home lab, my preparation included more reading than hands-on >practice. That actually worked out very well for me. Above all, the most >important part of my preparation is the NMC1 class taught by Bruce, Val and >Fred. IF I HAD NOT TAKEN THE NMC1 CLASS, IT PROBABLY WOULD HAVE TAKEN ME >ONE OR TWO MORE ATTEMPTS BEFORE I COULD GET MY NUMBER. There are a lot of >things that just cannot be learned from reading books or practicing. So >the >NMC1 class helped me to fill in that gap very well. It also helped me to >access my strength and weakness. So I know what to study on the last few >weeks. I strongly recommend taking the NMC1 class a few weeks before your >lab date. > >Thanks again. > >George Zhang >CCIE#8903, CCNA, CCNP >Sr. Network Architect >Compuware Corpration >1 Meadowlands Plaza, Suite 1050 >East Rutherford, NJ 07073 >732-494-0288 > > >_________________________________________________________________ >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. >_________________________________________________________________ >Commercial lab list: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/commercial.html >Please discuss commercial lab solutions on this list. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=37505&t=37505 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
