From: oluwaseyi ojo (sameoj@gmail.com)
Date: Tue Mar 04 2008 - 05:16:22 ARST
Congrats buddies,your story really encourages me to keep holding
on,surely my number will soon come too
On 3/3/08, Andy Alves <mota_anderson@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Ed,
>
> I'm happy for you, what a history! After your dedication, you deserved a
> PASS
> on your grad, Congrats...
>
>
> Anderson Alves
> CCIE3# 16778 (R/S, SP and Security)> Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 12:56:00 -0500>
> To:
> ccielab@groupstudy.com> From: ebalow@hotmail.com> Subject: Passed!! R&S
> #20152> > Finally, I get to send out this email! I passed the R&S Lab in RTP
> on Sunday,> March 3rd. I'm going to do a pretty lengthy email> simply
> because
> I liked to read them as encouragement while I was studying, so> I'm going to
> try to return the favor. > > I've been working on the CCIE off and on for
> the
> past 10 years. I completed> the CCNA back in 1999 but was working primarily
> with servers> at the time. It wasn't until 2004 when I finished the CCNP. I
> began picking> up home rack equipment at the time and knocked out the CCIE
> Written. I also> picked up the IPExpert workbooks. I was just never able to
> put together a> regular study regiment and therefore never progressed. > >
> Last year I became a father and my priorities changed a bit. Realizing>
> studying would likely get harder and harder, I knew I needed to get on> the
> ball. While my wife was expecting, I picked up the IE CoD and watched> every
> last minute of it. I also listened to the> Audio CDs during my commute. The
> material was excellent and really helped get> me to the CCIE level of
> understanding required for the lab. In September I> then took the IPExpert
> bootcamp with Marvin Greenlee. Monday through Wednesday> went well. On the
> Thursday lab I told Marvin, "On the bad side, > I'm painting myself into
> every
> corner the lab leads me into, but on the good> side I'm able to work my way
> out of it." Then after the Friday lab, I realized> I was nowhere near the
> level I needed to be. I even told Marvin I feel worse> now than I did before
> the class.> > For those of you that think this is odd, let me assure you
> this
> was a blessing.> It is IMPOSSIBLE to get someone to the CCIE level in a
> week.
> The bootcamp did> three very important things. It was the first time I
> dedicated 8 continuous> hours to a lab on a daily basis. It gave me
> immediate
> feedback whenever I had> a question on a task, instead of searching online
> to
> find the answer when the> DocCD just wasn't enough. Finally, it made me wake
> up and understand I had a> lot more to do before even considering attempting
> the lab.> > After the bootcamp, I did a full, relatively uninterrupted 8
> hour
> IPexpert lab> every weekend. Once January arrived I did an IE graded lab on>
> Saturday and a IPexpert lab on Sunday. I really cannot say enough about the
> IE> graded labs. I had no idea how many little mistakes I was > making that
> I
> wasn't catching before that. > > Within a month, my IE graded lab scores
> raised up to 65%. I took the first lab> attempt on January 25th. I walked
> out
> feeling I could have> passed. Unfortunately I wasn't even close. By looking
> back at my IE graded> labs, I realized how accurate they really were at
> gauging performance.> > Naturally I was a bit bummed out I didn't make it
> the
> first time. Marvin> offered some words of encouragement and explained how
> close I really> was. He recommended I take the test the next month. > > I
> continued doing IE graded labs on Saturday and IPexpert or IE workbook labs>
> on Sunday. On my last IE mock lab I scored over 90%. Of course> all my score
> report says is PASS, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was close> to what
> the actual score ended up being.> > So what did I do differently between the
> 1st and 2nd attempt? The bottom line> is on the 2nd try I spent much more
> time
> on verification. No matter> how insignificant, I did another "show run" to
> ensure the config looked right,> and then the appropriate show commands to
> verify it "took". > Another major change is I used a single terminal window
> from the terminal> server on the first attempt. I went with 10 windows on
> the
> 2nd> try. I highly recommend 10 windows so you can see your debug and
> logging>
> messages on multiple devices on the same time. I was originally> worried of
> using more than 1 because I was afraid I'd get the windows mixed up.>
> Getting
> practice with multiple windows helped stop this from> happening. Another
> thing
> is I made a detailed Layer 2 diagram where I drew out> every single switch
> port. I also made a high level BGP diagram to> draw every adjacency. Last, I
> added multicast information to the Routing> diagram to help with
> visualization. > > The bottom line is even though I knew the material well
> enough technically the> first time, I needed to do better planning and
> verification. I also kept a> picture of my son on the desk while I worked.
> Whenever I began to feel drained> he would inspire me to keep going. > >
> Also
> on the first attempt I only asked a few questions. This time I must have>
> asked 20-30. I wasn't going to assume ANYTHING. The proctor, Tom,> is back
> from a one year hiatus of working at the lab. He's now proctoring on>
> weekends. He was always very patient and did a great job of > clarifying
> several questions for me. It only took him less than 2 hours to> grade the
> lab. So if any of you are worried about a grading delay on the > weekend,
> there isn't one. > > A few of the materials used:> Routing TCP/IP (Doyle),
> especially Volume I was my favorite book for actually> learning the
> technologies in preparation for the written. > OSPF Network Design Solutions
> (Thomas), was an excellent OSPF resource both for> learning and reference>
> InternetworkExpert Class on Demand, priceless for bridging the gap between>
> being "booksmart" on the materials and actually being able to configure
> them.>
> InternetworkExpert Labs, have the best explanations and verification>
> demonstrations> IPExpert Labs, vague wording really helped in preparations>
> IPExpert 1 week bootcamp, very motivating and filled in a lot of gaps> CCIE
> Assessor, great for understanding the question formats and how the labs> are
> graded. > Groupstudy, I've been a passive reader for nearly a decade. Thanks
> for all the> tips and inspiration over the years.> > And of course I have to
> thank my wife. I would never have been able to stay> focused, especially
> with
> a newborn at home, without her help and sacrifices.> > Ed Balow> CCIE
> #20152>
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