Passed SP lab, 21yr old double CCIE!

After about 2 months preparation for the Written and 4 months of
preparation for the Lab I passed the CCIE Service Provider lab
yesterday!!
I took my lab in Brussels on the 19th. I was really scared and
stressed the 2 days before. Slept very badly.

During the exam I had a few things that didn't work right away, which
caused my adrenaline level to get to a pretty high level :-P. I
finished all tasks by lunch with just one skipped. After lunch I got
that one fixed in 15 mins, which shows that taking a break really works.

The exam was very tough but fair. Much of the topics in the blueprint
was in there and I really saw a difference with R&S. On my R&S lab
most questions were really straightforward, looking for a specific
feature. On my SP lab I got lot's of freedom in choosing things or the
way I wanted it to work. I also had a few questions which requested
thinking out-of-the-box. Something that is so obvious to configure,
wasn't allowed or even possible in the IOS version, so I had to get
around it.

Wow it's amazing to be a double CCIE now at age 21 :-)

Funny fact was that I had access to both the new documentation and the
good-old UniverCD. Had a little advantage of that as well :-P

Brussels was a fine location, much better than San Jose. Great 20" LCD
widescreens, nice temperature, racks behind a glass wall.

My preparation consisted of a couple of resources. I used all
materials from both Internetwork Expert and IPexpert. They both have a
few pros and cons.

The INE Class-on-demand is not even a pearl, but a diamond! This was
my greatest eye-opener in the working of a lot of the SP topics. It's
also really focused on SP, so knowledge of IGP and BGP is required. I
really had a good understanding of how and why the stuff works.

INE workbook 1 is great for SP topics. IPexpert workbook 1 is good for
all topics, but focus is a little less on SP topics and since I
already have R&S I only needed the SP topics.

IPexpert workbook 3 is something you don't want if you are a little
further. The labs are good for an introduction, but they are really
short and the video breakdowns give little extra information, besides
entering the solutions guide answers. But I contacted IPexpert about
that and their customer service is the best!! They took my arguments,
acknowledged them and promised to improve the labs soon. A thank you
to Mike for that!

INE workbook 2 is reaaally good for both complex and less-complex
labs. They are great for preparation and I really learned from them.
The solutions guide is without any explanations, just the answers, but
besides that it's great! The level of the labs is a little light. I
would say a level 8 to 9 is the real lab.

IPexpert workbook 2 is such a fantastic workbook as well. If I can
advice you to buy 1 workbook from them, it's this one! Those 5 full
labs are so intense. Cover so much stuff in each lab. First time I got
totally overwhelmed by it, some are definitely harder than the real
lab. Don't do these labs if have some weak areas, since they'll beat
the crap out of you :-P They are fantastic for lab preparation in the
last month.

End of April I was able to join the INE SP online bootcamp. This was
great. I guess they should rename it to a mock-lab week. It was
exactly what I needed to built confidence. I scored well on all 3
graded mocklabs and they cover great topics and really can be compared
to the real lab. Brian McGahan has such a great way of explaining
everything and his labs were fantastic. Again it proved the importance
of doing a bootcamp, without it I wouldn't have been that confident
about my level, but after those 5 days I really was ready to go for it!

Wow I wanted to do a shorter story, but turned out not to be possible
with so much to tell :-P

Again I'm soo happy passing in first attempt for my SP lab and I think
I'm the youngest double CCIE now on the planet.

Next up are first some Cisco DataCenter exams, then JNCIS-ER/M and in
a few months I'll start my CCIE Security track!

Thanks to everyone here and special thanks to Mike from IPexert, Kady
from INE and a huge thanks to Brian McGahan for his great CoD and
bootcamp. Also Scott Morris for his great Wb2 labs from his previous
employer ;-)

Rick Mur
CCIE2 #21946 (R&S / SP)
JNCIA-ER, MCSE
rick_at_rickmur.com

Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
Received on Thu May 21 2009 - 11:57:55 ART