Story of Dmitriy Litvinko

Congratulations Dmitriy Litvinko

His story ....

Started to prepare for the lab in November 2008 but after 2-3 month of long hours I had to stop because I was burned out ... took month off and started back in February. Purchased the INE Moc Lab workshop (lead by Anthony Sequeira) in June. It’s a great class for final preparation before the lab. Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet in person with the other instructors (only know them by their voice and now thanks to facebook can add faces to the voices) but you guys are simply the best. When I came back from the Moc Lab workshop I scheduled my lab.

A long time ago I started using NMC as my training material and their awesome ShowIT engine but their labs are way too off-course (redistribution is a killer). Then last year in November I learned about InternetworkExpert.com and purchased their product. This is when I said to myself .. after investing so much money, you CAN'T stop. I have been motivating myself through out my long journey to help me stay on track. My son Ryan was born on August 20th 2008 and I had to dedicate my self to pass the test before his 1st birthday (actually if I wouldn’t, my wife would kill me .... another motivation . It was hard with a little one (crying and feeding often) to get normal sleep but a BIG thanks to my wife and whole family who gave me the opportunity to study and concentrate on what I need to do.

So, no personal life since November ... Sorry a bit off topic ... Going back to Preparation ...

I don’t know how many books I read (none of them cover to cover) but I do have a big library at home of almost all CISCO books that could help me with preparation. I am not going to list them all (but if anyone is interested i can post that) but i found that 1 book which i dont see a lot of people mention (CCIE Practical Studies, Volume II (CCIE Self-Study) by Karl Solie and Leah Lynch (Hardcover - Nov 17, 2003)) to be great material (with configuration examples and theory in one). I watched 10 day CoD and did all WB-I (few times). WB-II i did almost all labs (may be 17 of them) and 8 labs from WB-III. I took the Moc Labs 1-6 and all scores were ranging from 62-70. Not a great score but it showed me where i make the most mistakes and to work on those areas.

Week before the lab i did no configurations. I decided to relax my brain and just review my notes, browse configuration guide and command reference. During my preparation i didn’t goggle any topic until i searched the whole DocCD for answers so i was pretty comfortable with DocCD and finding stuff there. 3 days before the lab i did 1 WB-III lab just to do some typing (finished 4 hour lab in about 1.5 hours).

2 days before the lab i got sick and that wasn’t a good way to start. I am still stick but it is over.

I stayed at Wingate and i don’t know what to say but i think i was not lucky .... wireless was not working, and internet in the room was not. Good thing i brought my notes with me and some stuff on PC.

Lab

Open Ended Questions .... well they are nothing to worry about if you ware prepared for the lab. Read them carefully but don’t overthink .... I had to read each question at least 2 times to make sure i understood it. Level of questions .... Well i can say they were CCNP level difficulty.

Lab ... Well difficulty comparing to INE i would say about 7-8. Diagrams are not the best but can work with them. I drew my own for layer 2, mcast and BGP. IGP i used their diagram which i found to be very very poor. Questions are less vague than INE's but they do throw a monkey wrench once in a while ... I had to read questions multiple times to make sure i understood the requirements. They are pretty straight forward with telling you what they want. Pick the easiest solutions to implement. VERY IMPORTANT .... read the lab Do's and Don't as i had some that i had to go to proctor to clarify. Proctors answer to all my question ... Umm .... it's what Anthony tried to do during Moc Lab workshop (to be evil proctor), is look at you, smile and tell you ... Read the question . everything you need is in the question ... 5 times, the same answer and ... Hmm ... he IS RIGHT :-) what i am looking for is in the question. You are TOLD what to do and if you are NOT told then is there still a question?

Anthony Sequeira has Open Lecture Series about Skipped Tracket List which is GOLD in my opinion. I had been using this method on my own since i started studying in february and this helps me to see my overall progress. Do not spend more than 5 minutes on the Non-Core task, simply move-on. I was finished with IGP and BGP by lunch. Then came back and finished the rest with 2 hours to spare. Spent 1 hour and 15 minutes to verify everything and save configuration and 45 before the end i left.

This was a long and hard journey .... i couldnt have done it without the help of my family (my wife Susan especially) for helping me to dedicate 9 month of my life to this. INE team ... you are simply THE BEST ... Keep up a good work

Oh ... always wanted to tell Scott Morris that one of the other motivations i had was his quote which i love ... "Knowledge is power, power corrupts, study hard and be evil" ... absolutely brilliant.