Re: CCIE in first attempt ...

Sitting here today, in May of '09, if it were important to me to pass
the first attempt, I'd have to look long and hard at where I stand in
terms of readiness going in (I assume from the tone of your message
that you're just starting down this path). Obviously some people have
wonderful jobs that map to the blueprint nicely. They need less prep
than some others. If you're in that situation, go for it. If not,
and you need extensive or even "average" preparation, you may wish to
move your target to 18 Oct or after. Why? Because passing the first
attempt is wonderful and certainly doable, but you might just have a
really bad day on the other hand. You might not sleep for four days
straight leading up to the lab. You might fall ill the night prior.
You might get a lab that absolutely hammers away on your weaknesses.
You might get a very grumpy proctor whose wife is divorcing him and
taking everything in life he's ever accumulated. ;~) So let's say
you go at it full-court press and make an attempt on 1 Oct. For one
of the above or some other reason, you fail with a 79. Now you face a
waiting period to return to the lab and guess what? It's a totally
different blueprint and a totally different format. It won't
necessarily be like starting over, but it will likely _feel_ like it.
I would think that could be very demoralizing, personally.

I think some (not necessarily all) of the components of a first
attempt pass are:

1. Knowing the tested technologies at a very, very fundamental
level. You've spent a couple of months or more (depending on how many
hours in an average month you have available for lab prep) dissecting
each of them with extensive debug and packet capture before you've
ever even thought of moving on to a multi-protocol or "mock" lab.

2. You know the current format of the documentation as well as
anything else on earth. BUT! Returning to Item 1, you rarely need to
reference any of it during your actual lab attempt. It's as much a
security blanket as anything.

3. After nailing down the above, you develop speed and accuracy via
multi-protocol labs.

4. You develop a consistent, workable lab day strategy that works for
you personally. This is where you decide if drawing out your own
topologies at L2 and L3 makes sense or not. Etc.

5. You do several Assessor and full mock labs to refine your approach
and grow comfortable with the 8-hour format. You expose and correct
deficiencies in your approach in this step vs. doing so @ $1400/attempt.

6. You get lucky and the lab put in front of you is "doable" and not
some nightmare that exposes all of your weakness. The only control
you have over this last item is to not have any weaknesses
whatsoever. Not entirely realistic, so no matter how prepared you
are, things might not go as hoped for.

I haven't mentioned workbooks, boot camps, VoDs, etc. Obviously those
are critical elements for most candidates and you'll have to sort that
out before even getting to Step 1. I have attempted to capture some
of the things that you *do* vs. what you *purchase.* (disclaimer:
I'm not a trainer by any stretch of the imagination so take the above
with a grain of salt, but the above more or less outlines the approach
that I personally followed for R&S and am more or less following for SP)

Regards,

Scott

On May 7, 2009, at 12:30 , Taufik Kurniawan wrote:

> Thanks for All the inputs and suggestions.
>
> Target has been set. and I will focus all efforts, time and energy to
> achieve this target.
>
> 1. Why my target is 1st attempt .............. ? [ if my target is
> first
> attempt ... then to get ccie in 2nd, 3rd attempt would be
> easier :) ... as i
> wrote that I don't mind if eventually i get this in my second
> attempt ]
> 2. Why my focus on passing and not on learning as to some of
> colleagues has
> suggested ? ... By passing the exam, logically i have to comprehend
> all the
> materials .... and to learn and study will be on the course to
> passing the
> exam.
>
> So both are ... merely a very strong motivation that i need to
> implant to my
> subsconcious minds.
> Now .. how to achieve this target ? ....
> again ....
>
> I would be interested to hear your inputs, stories, motivationals
> site,
> suggested Boot camp, training centre etc. etc.
>
> :)
>
> regards,
> taufik kurniawan
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 07/05/2009, Taufik Kurniawan <ktaufik_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> CCIE in first attempt ...
>>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> The target is to become ccie in the first attempt,before 2010, full
>> stop.
>> I would be interested to hear your inputs, stories, motivationals
>> site,
>> suggested Boot camp, training centre etc. etc.
>> Please share anything you have for my target. AND ... as the 17
>> October
>> they will change the exam ... then the first target is before
>> octobet 17..
>> It the objective SMART ? Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic,
>> Time-bound ?
>>
>> ( *when it end up with passing on the second or third exam ... i
>> would
>> mind either ... he he he* )
>>
>>
>> Thanks for the Inputs
>>
>> cheers,
>> taufik kurniawan
>
>
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Received on Thu May 07 2009 - 12:11:17 ART