From: Tony Huang (thuang@tdwaterhouse.com.au)
Date: Tue Sep 10 2002 - 19:54:38 GMT-3
Jim
Congratulations!
This is the best comments I have ever read. The opinions are solid and
genuine. You might have just taken a long way to Rome, but you have made it
happen anyway. That is not a good Game if everybody can win for the first
attempt. The persistence and determination you showed on your preparation
will certainly help you go even further. You have set an good example for
many. I think we are not trying to get the number but to challenge us to do
better. The best of luck!
Tony
-----Original Message-----
From: Mingzhou Nie [mailto:mnie@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 10 September 2002 10:35 AM
To: Jim Brown; 'ccielab@groupstudy.com'
Subject: Re: CCIE 10139 (Longish)
Please accept most heartful congrats from me, Jim. Your story is so
genuine and touching that after day and day praticing, we need it to
boost our morales. Your last attemp is very much like mine. Though I
wasn't as sure as you were that only 8 points could be lost, but I know
I did fairly well. And I'm going nail this sucker down next time. And
always, I will keep your story in my deep heart. It is really somthing!
Just curious, you tried 5 times in 13 months, and you last attemp was
only a month away. Looks you had good strategy to get lab seat :)
Ming
--- Jim Brown <Jim.Brown@caselogic.com> wrote:
> I thought this day would never come. It is finally my turn to compose
> this
> explain what
> a relief it is to pass.
>
> I slightly embarrassed at my number, five digits, and the number of
> attempts
> it took me to pass. This was my fifth attempt in 13 months. The
> "number of
> the day" was 8101 on my first attempt last August and I thought it
> wouldn't
> be any big deal to pass before 10,000. I was wrong.
>
> This exam was probably the single most humbling experience I've had
> to date.
>
> I wrote a Background, Advice, and Comments section if you don't want
> to read
> the whole message.
>
>
> BACKGROUND
>
> I was in the hunt on every attempt, I just befell some bad luck on
> the first
> couple and missed by only a handful of points on the last two.
>
> I walked out of the lab in San Jose last month expecting to receive
> my
> number. I was SURE I had passed. I thought I possibly dropped 8
> points at
> the most and this left me with a cushion of 12 points. There wasn't
> any way
> I could fail. I was waaaaaay wrong.
>
> During my daily jog I ran over the experience in my head time after
> time and
> couldn't figure out what I had done wrong. I verified the logic in my
> solutions to the lab problems and knew it wasn't bad logic. This left
> only
> one thing, careless errors. I finished with only 45 minutes and had
> checked
> my work only to find a few things wrong. Last minute fixes and no
> time to
> regression test them killed me.
>
> Attempt number 5 was to be my last. The night before the exam, I
> decided if
> I didn't pass on this attempt I would quit. I'm not a quitter, but I
> thought
> I had given it all I could and there is a time to concede. I didn't
> want to
> wind up one of those freak stories you hear about like...."20
> attempts and
> they still haven't passed." I knew I was a good engineer, but I just
> might
> not be able to pass the exam.
>
> Before attempt number 4 and 5 I hadn't really studied any since
> January I
> have a new infant daughter. I would look at the material and there
> wasn't
> anything for me to learn. I just wasn't motivated and you can only
> read the
> same things over and over so many times. I only did one lab before
> each
> attempt to get my speed up and some light reading on certain topics I
> felt
> might pop up.
>
> I probably only invested 30 study hours for the past two attempts.
>
> On this attempt I basically finished at lunch. I had one core
> technology to
> implement and I knew how to do it except for a couple of minor
> "knobs". The
> knobs were worth a bunch of points. I had everything up and running
> on the
> first pass by 1:15. Now began the task I had skimmed over in the
> past.
> Checking every single command I had implemented!
>
> I found so many freaking errors it was unbelievable. If you had asked
> me to
> bet my life if I had implemented command X on router Y, the bet would
> have
> been on. Some things just weren't there. I had skipped them, miskeyed
> them,
> or whatever? This is why I had failed in the past.
>
> I spent the remaining time scouring my configs and this is why I
> passed!
> Plain and simple.
>
> Mike Reed told me there are some people who just keep making the same
> little
> mistakes that prevent them from passing the exam. He let me know they
> might
> be good engineers, but the minutia kills them on the exam and I
> thought I
> was destined for this category.
>
> If I had known what it would take when I started this journey, I can
> honestly say I might not have embarked. It was consuming and humbling
> but is
> over. For me it would have been over on Saturday one way or another.
>
> ADVICE
>
> I used all the same materials, blah, blah, blah. This is not worth
> mentioning. Some standouts are the McGraw Hill book for DLSW+ by Tam
> Nam Kee
> and both Cisco Press Parkhust Configuration Guides for BGP and OSPF.
>
> Know the core technologies cold! AND I MEAN COLD! You should know
> BGP, OSPF,
> DLSW+, ISDN, EIGRP, and redistribution like no ones business!
>
> Know how almost every other technology works in theory and you should
> have
> messed around with it in a lab environment at least. A proctor once
> told me,
> "We don't expect you to know everything, just eighty points worth."
>
> You should be comfortable finding anything on the documentation CD
> without
> using the search engine. Try to use it exclusively as your lab date
> approaches, remember this is all you will have on game day.
>
> And the most important advice I can give anyone is.... check, check,
> and
> check your work again. This is what kept me from passing for 13
> months. Even
> if you know you implemented it correctly you should still check it
> again. I
> found a minor error with 10 minutes to go that would have cost me 5
> points.
>
> Stay calm it is only a stupid exam. If you fail, you can just come
> back and
> take it again.
>
> I wish I had tested at RTP from the beginning. It is more relaxed and
> cheaper in my opinion. I paid for my hotel, air, and car for what I
> paid for
> my hotel in San Jose!
>
> The proctors are there to help you understand the requirements. They
> want to
> see you pass, they enjoy success as much as you. They aren't trying
> to fail
> anyone. Be thankful there isn't any subjectivity to the grading. We
> are all
> on a level playing field and it make it that much sweeter when you
> achieve
> it.
>
>
> COMMENTS
>
> If you are fortunate enough to receive exam requirements before your
> attempt, I see them pop up on lists all the time, at least have the
> ability
> to solve the problem on your own with research and DON'T post them to
> the
> list. If you can't solve them without using a public forum you
> probably
> should be sitting the exam and what kind of engineer would you make
> if you
> pass.
>
> The number doesn't mean someone should know everything about Cisco
> networking. It means I could pass a practical exam designed by Cisco
> to test
> my understanding of their idea of networking on the specific topics
> presented that day. It also means I can do research to develop a
> solution.
> If I don't know it I can most likely learn it. I know there are
> individuals
> out there without numbers who know a hell of a lot more than I do
> about
> networking and vice versa.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Mon Oct 07 2002 - 07:43:48 GMT-3