I passed CCIE lab exam on April 9th 2008. Certificate#20484 in Tokyo.
I’m Chinese Japanese, born in China, Japanese nationality, permanent US Green Card, living in US, trilingual speaking, went to China, Beijing, three times (last time was longest, 4 weeks) CCIE boot camp, totally passed CCNA,CCNP, and finally passed CCIE I in my sixth lab attempt.”
I remain in the trust of many CCIEs and this particular CCIE story comes from the latest female CCIE.
April 9th 2008 is a day I will never forget for the rest of my life! Every time I think about that day it makes me cry with joy. It was a day of joy, but it started very badly for me. I remember vividly that it was a day with so much going on. I passed the CCIE lab exam, which is most difficult and most respected high-level certification in the world!
The morning began at 6:00 AM with the sound of my alarm pulling me out of a restless sleep. I took the Center line of Tokyo from Kunitachi station which is close to my apartment to Sinjuku station.
When I got to the Mitsui Building – CCIE exam location it was 10 minutes before 8:00AM, I found a sign in the lobby that read, ‘Cisco front desk on 10th floor’, so I took the elevator to the 10th floor and was surprised to find there was no one else there. So I thought it was still early so I waited there until 8:20AM, and when no one else showed up I began to panic. Since the exam was supposed to start at 8:30AM I was wondering why there was no one else showing up. So I rushed back down to the lobby and asked security to verify the location of the floor and exam area. I weas told to go back up to the 10th floor and at 8:30 I was in a panic. I took the elevator to the 8th floor which is another Cisco floor and was shocked to find an even smaller sign that said, ”CCIE candidates please push the button”. I quickly pushed the button twice and suddenly the examiner opened the door ,”you are late”, he said, “you cannot start the exam with the other candidates”. Bang, he shut the door. I was left unsure of what to do. I began to look around to see if I could get into the test room. Since I was not told to wait or if I should expect his return I began to feel very badly about my chances of passing the lab this day. I was so frustrated since I had prepared for the lab and hoped to pass it this 6th attempt. I was feeling very low as the time ticked passed and I was late by 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes! I began to think I had wasted the $1,400 fee for the lab I had paid and the 8 hour lab does take all of that time to complete. Would the examiner let me pass today? What a day! I could hear the sound of the other lab candidates typing on their keyboards and I was so distraught as the time passed from 30 minutes to 40 minutes late. I was afraid if I pushed the button again the examiner would be angry and I would really have no chance to pass. God, help me I pushed the button again. The examiner opened the door again at 9:10 AM and he said, “I have to tell you the exam role”. I explained that I had taken the test before and felt I knew the role well. He told me the role had changed and to listen to his instructions. When he let me start the test it was 9:30AM, I had lost a whole hour and now only had 7 hours to complete a timed exam that was designed for 8 hours. If I hurry, I told myself maybe I could still do it. I read all the requirements and then drew a topology with IP addresses out, osph, eigrp, bgp protocol on one A4 paper, and congfigure, configure…WOW! Frame-Relay works! 4 switches… trunk works! BB1, BB2, BB3 works! I can ping them! I built up some confidence and before I knew it it was lunch time. Just then I showed IP routes, I had already almost made all the topology routes works! I checked my watch it was 12:30, I was suddenly very happy and felt I could be pass.
After lunch, I had four and half hours left, think, I was slowing down my typing speed, being very careful and tested everything as I went along, tested all my answers ensure they were correct, I felt very confident! “re-do” the exam. I found some mistakes and corrected them, 2.5 hours left… suddenly I was on the IPV6 question (5 points)… I couldn’t type the IP address in! Jesus, why was that happening? I had no idea! Should I give up? No. I but I could fail again if I could not figure out why I could not type in the answer on the screen. I was afraid to ask the examiner if there was a problem. He might deduct from my score if I made a bad impression. But it still won’t work! If I could type the address init would be correct since I know exactly how to configure IPV6. The examiner announced 10 minutes remaining so I finally asked him to look at my screen and explain why I could not enter the information in the box. He saw my screen and it seems he had never seen this error before. So he returned to his desk and typed in something which allowed me to start entering the information. But I only had 5 minutes left! I had no time to configure all of the IP addresses and then the exam was over.
I went back home that night and I could not sleep at all, no matter how hard I tried. Then it was mid-night and I thought that maybe in the US they might already have the results posted. I couldn’t sleep anyway so I got to check the Cisco website. Pass or fail I had to know. When I checked the Cisco web site, I was shocked. I saw “ PASS” as my result! I began to babble; really? Really? REALLY! I could not believe my eyes! Yes, I passed! I passed the lab exam! I passed the most difficult, highest level exam in the world!
I felt I climbed the highest mountain, I was on the top! Oh my GOD you do love me , I could not contain myself and began to cry. I wanted to yell and scream and announce to the whole world what I had done. “I PASSED MY CCIEEEEEEE !!!!!!!!!” Thank you Cisco where once I was accepted to work as a contractor and exposing me to the this my highest goal. I spend tree years trying to claim this prize, to reach the top of this mountain. I spent lots of money and failed many times:
17-Nov-2005 failed!
12-Apr-2006 failed!
16-May-2006 BGP 100%, Multicast 100%, but failed!..
08-Aug-2006 almost there, failed again..
18-Jul-2007 failed again…
09-Apr-2008 just another day but I passed!
That day finally, I reached my dream! I first thought about my family, I had to thank them for being patient with me and allowing me to travel overseas to the CCIE boot camp three times. They did not even understand the true value of my desire to become a CCIE, yet they still supported me. I had a great professional experience working for British Telecom, Cisco System Inc, Telepacific telecom and AT&T all these companies helped me realize the value of this certification. I will never forget the nice people I worked with either since they inspired me. I wanted to thank especially Joujun an excellent boot camp instructor who becam my mentor. Even after he resigned from his position at the boot camp he remained my technical mentor through all my failed attempts and continued to support me with advice and answers to my technical questions. I also wanted to call Zhengtao Huan who is a CCIE genius with 3 CCIEs. I bothered him many times with questions and he always responded promptly and added value to my quest. I learned so much during this past few years that I really feel it was what gave me the push I needed to pass.
“I was felling my heart is so big! I can see all the world wide!”
“My dream cross over 3 years finally come true!”
“April 9th 2008, I never forget this day and I will put this day to be my special day forever!”
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