Re: I passed

Congrats man

Regards

Peter

On 6/21/09, Alexei Monastyrnyi <alexeim73_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> Congrats!!!
> A.
>
> Richard Dodson wrote:
>> It's been several days but I don't think it's quite set in. I had
>> determined back in September that I wanted to be a CCIE by the summer
>> time. I had just finished a bicycle ride from Canada to Mexico along
>> the pacific coast, and needed to decide on my next challenge. I had
>> my CCNP, but I felt that seemed to be more about trivia than actual
>> networking skills. Not trying to knock that test or anything, it was
>> still a challenge. I just wanted more. I mainly wanted the lab
>> experience. So I started studying by reading the usual books that
>> people recommend. I took the written test in January and passed at
>> the bare minimum points required. Wasn't really sure that I was going
>> to be ready for the lab exam. Still, I had my goal so I pushed on. I
>> scheduled the lab exam for June 16th and stuck with that date.
>>
>> I studied as much as I could, but I was having a hard time coming up
>> with scenarios to play with. I had printed out an extended blue print
>> I found, and was methodically learning each technology one by one.
>> Sometimes it went well, sometimes I was clueless. My 90 day limit
>> came up and I went ahead and paid for the lab exam, despite feeling
>> like I was extremely unprepared. I am an instructor, but classes
>> aren't necessarily full time so I would have time in between classes
>> to spend a lot of time studying. I had full use of the classroom and
>> equipment, as well. I am extremely grateful for that. I had more
>> than enough routers, switches, serial cables, etc to set up pretty
>> much any situation.
>>
>> I bought IEN's lab workbook Volume I, and started going through those
>> labs. I went through the whole workbook, but I didn't like it. I
>> thought I had wasted my money but then I checked out the Version 5
>> PDFs and I went through all of those, and thought those were
>> wonderful. There were still some mistakes here and there, but for the
>> most part some extremely thorough explanations. On the merit of the
>> V5, I bought the 2nd workbook. By this time I had just over a month
>> left until my lab date. Still felt horribly unprepared. The month
>> before, I spent 8-10 hours a day, 6 days a week in front of the
>> equipment. I set a goal of one mock lab a day. I'd do the lab, the
>> next day I would grade myself, and then run over whatever subject I
>> messed up until I got it. Then I'd repeat. It was fun going through
>> the labs. I thought they were mostly well put together. Every so
>> often I'd get really annoyed trying to figure out a solution that
>> conformed to the rules given, or did not break other tasks, just to
>> find that on their solution it either broke a rule or broke another
>> task. Luckily that didn't seem to be too frequent.
>>
>> A week before my lab and after finishing all of workbook vol II, I
>> felt that I was close but that I was missing some huge gaps with
>> multicast & qos. I lost use of the classroom because they needed it
>> to teach a class. I came home and set up dynamips. I had just
>> discovered the "ghostios" and "sparsemem" options and found that made
>> a huge difference in performance, which was good because I really
>> needed it. I ran through as much multicast, QoS, BGP, IP Services &
>> System management as I could in those last few days. Made sure I
>> could set up a bgp inject-map anywhich way... things of that nature.
>>
>> I flew up to San Jose two days before my test. I was unfamiliar with
>> the area and wanted to check it out, make sure I could get there okay,
>> etc. I drove to Building C monday around 10 in the morning to make
>> sure I had it. It was a very anti-climactic experience. I asked the
>> lady at the desk if I was at the right place. Her answer was pretty
>> much "yeah, right place". At least I knew it was incredibly easy to
>> find, and that parking wouldn't be a hassle (for some reason I always
>> stress about parking). I had brought Routing TCP/IP Volume II and was
>> planning on reading bits about complex multicast scenarios, but
>> everytime I tried to read my eyes would just roll off the page.
>>
>> I ended up only getting 2 hours or so of sleep monday night. Stupid
>> insomnia but I kinda expected it. I woke up feeling extremely tired
>> and determined to pass this test. I slammed a redbull in the parking
>> lot and walked in the lobby 45 minutes early. I was the first to
>> arrive. 8 other candidates eventually showed up. There was some
>> idle small talk about which test each of us were taking, but for the
>> most part everyone kinda stuck to themselves. I felt a little out of
>> place, I hadn't shaved in months and I'm wearing my ratty (but
>> horribly comfortable) baggy jeans & sweatshirt. Everyone else seemed
>> kinda well dressed & clean cut. Oh well, the only person I was there
>> to impress was whoever would be grading my lab, and as far as I know
>> my looks were not factored in.
>>
>>
>> The proctor came out and took us back. He was talking about how it
>> was "Bloomsday", but none of us knew what that meant. I just wanted
>> to start the test. We were separated into two groups and another
>> proctor told us rules, or whatever. Then said to sit down at a desk
>> and start going. I didn't know if we were assigned a rack or just
>> found one. Then I saw my name on a piece of scratch paper and figured
>> that was my assigned rack. I thought it was weird they didn't mention
>> that. Or maybe I was too nervous to understand what he was saying. I
>> manage to be completely clueless sometimes when I'm nervous.
>>
>> I started. My panic was high. I started on the OEQs. Two seemed too
>> easy. A third was slightly challenging. The last question I had
>> typed out the right answer at first, but then had this stinging doubt
>> sensation and changed my answer. I realized after it was too late
>> that I had gotten that one incredibly wrong. So I knew that my other
>> three had to be right or, well... you guys know. That was slightly
>> stressful.
>>
>> I started the lab portion. I immediately separated all the sheets and
>> spread everything around. I started scribbling notes on my paper. I
>> had all my windows open and maximized, with many notepads for some
>> copy & pasting, of which I did lots. I was used to the right click
>> button being paste in the putty & teraterm I had been using. This was
>> my first time with securecrt. The middle button was paste. I got
>> used to it quickly, though. I started going through each task
>> methodically. I tried to see the big picture I was putting together.
>> Three hours later, at lunch, I was more than halfway done.
>>
>> During lunch I only picked at my food. Which is weird because I never
>> just pick at my food. Finally i got to go back and start. An hour or
>> so after lunch I had finished going through all the tasks. I spent
>> the next hour going over everything, and testing, making slight tweaks
>> along the way. Five hours into the test I felt that I was done, but
>> felt there must have been something I missed. So i spent another hour
>> going through everything again. Then I went through the documentation
>> to see if I could figure out some of the small little details I wasn't
>> sure about. Didn't have much luck with that, so I left an hour early.
>> I knew I had passed the lab portion.
>>
>> I knew it would all come down to the OEQs, I even knew which one. I
>> went back to the hotel room and looked it up, and I was 99% certain I
>> was right, but not 100% certain. So that meant I had to play the
>> waiting game. I went out to go buy a movie and a six pack of beer.
>> In my drained mental capabilities I somehow bought a six pack of non
>> alcoholic beer. So I went back to the store and got real beer (i left
>> a gift of non alcoholic beer for housekeeping). I was a few stress
>> relieving beers in when I finally got my result: pass. Spent the
>> next few hours on the phone with various friends & family. Most of
>> whom have no clue what it is that I do but are very supportive of me
>> anyway. I spent the next few days hanging out in San Francisco, which
>> ended up being mostly tiring. I'm finally back home and still not
>> sure what to make of the whole thing. Still hard to believe that
>> after all this time of such a narrow focus, it's done.
>>
>> I didn't even know about this mailing list until the day I took this
>> test and another candidate had mentioned it. Probably a resource I
>> could have used, but I'm still glad I did. I hope to eventually (not
>> anytime soon) take the SP exam. I also just love learning in general,
>> and I love helping out when I can, so it will be fun to participate.
>>
>> So there's my story! I would say that I'd be going to look for a
>> really cool job right now, but instead I'm taking my little brother on
>> a bicycle ride from Seattle to San Francisco. It will be a good form
>> of stress relief.
>>
>> (I did my best to leave out *any* details of the test, but if I broke
>> any rules then please let me know!)
>>
>> -Richard
>> #24589
>>
>>
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Received on Sun Jun 21 2009 - 02:54:07 ART