Rick Mur - 21 year old double ccie - story

First of all, thanks to all people that have congratulated me the past 2 days. It’s such a great feeling to receive all these compliments from great people!

About my SP track

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 attempt in Brussels (yes, I was one of the few fortunate people being able to book a seat :-P) and I really like this location (apart from that it’s less than 2 hours of driving for me). We had Dell 20″ widescreen LCD’s and the breakroom had a good variety of choice. Temperature was perfect, AC’s did make some noise, but I wasn’t bothered by it. Equipment is behind a glass wall and you don’t hear anything from it (I had the last seat of the room, so my back was almost against the glass wall).

Funny thing was that when I started IE7 I got the good-old UniverCD page as a homepage. I could also access the new documentation, but I found it a little weird that the old docs were accessible as well. I had some benefit from it as well, since the documentation of old releases is not on the new site and the SP lab uses a little older IOS releases.

The overall impression of the lab was tough but fair. You really need to know a lot of stuff and the questioning was quite difficult. The language was not 100% correct English and I felt that some words were added or removed from the sentences, so I had to get up and ask the proctor for making it 100% clear. In total I went to him 3 times and he really helped me with his answers, which he gave very fast, all 3 times I wanted to give 2 possible answers, but he gave me the right direction immediately, so my questions were good enough or I had a nice proctor

My adrenaline level was really high the first 2 hours, everytime a ping didn’t succeed I got so nervous, especially since I got stuck on the third task, which is the only one I skipped. After getting my IGP, BGP and MPLS up and running I got a little more relaxed. At lunchtime (11.50) I had configured everything (except one task), so I got to lunch with a good feeling.

Lunch was great, I had some shrimps with noodles and vegetables, I hope the garlic smell wasn’t that awful the rest of the day

After returning from the lunch I went on looking for the task I skipped. After digging in the documentation I found a great example config which had one command extra and that was the entire trick Silly that one command can drive you nuts.

For the rest of the lab, some stuff was straight forward, other times you got a lot of freedom in choosing the right way to go and some times they brought in some freaky features.

The day ended at 4.50 at which I reviewed and tweaked about 5 or 6 things in my config. Everyone left the room really quiet after the proctor checked our workbooks if all pages where still in it.

When I got home I hoped the result would get in at a normal time, for my R&S lab I got it at 11.45, but at 12.00 still nothing so I went to sleep. Woke up about every hour and checked the CCIE site and at 4.30 I got up and had 1 unread e-mail. The adrenaline level was back again and it seemed to take ages before the page refreshed.

There it was: PASS. I totally freaked out. Wow I was really a double CCIE now, maybe the youngest on the planet at age 21

Today I got congratulated by at least 200 people, which feels really good.

For my preparation I used both Internetwork Expert and IPexpert.
For the written I used MPLS Fundamentals, this is a gold-mine, it’s called fundamentals, but it contains all the Cisco MPLS knowledge you’ll need for the lab. The other books were MPLS-Enabled applications, which is the best book out there to give you a vendor-independent view of MPLS and really learn the theory behind it. The last book I used was Interdomain Multicast Routing, which is the best text on PIM I ever read. I never knew PIM that well untill I read that book, previously Multicast has been one of my weaker points, but after that book I just rush through it.

The Class-on-demand of Internetwork Expert is fantastic!! I used it for my written prep as well, since it teaches you the importance of an end-to-end LSP and all the funny things that IOS has with MPLS. This is one of the biggest resources of knowledge I had for my SP preparation.

Workbook 1 of INE goes over several set-ups of different types of SP technologies, it skips the R&S type labs and assumes you have a good understanding of IGP and BGP. Workbook 1 of IPexpert is quite good as well, this one goes over the basic areas as well and focuses less on SP stuff. So both are good for preparation, for learning SP stuff I would go for INE, since it covers these things a lot deeper.

Workbook 3 of IPexpert is one I wouldn’t advice if you are really up to speed already. The labs are short and easy. The video walkthroughs only show ‘typing in the answers’, there is very few explanation about technology in there. I contacted IPexpert about this and their customer service is the best! They agreed with my arguments and promised to improve it.

Workbook 2 of INE is very good. The labs built up from easy to hard with all levels in between. The real exam is like a level 8 or 9 IE lab, so it’s pretty tough.
The labs cover all the stuff that you need, except the real lab has a little more tasks.

The workbook 2 of IPexpert is fantastic!! If I may advice one workbook that you should buy from those guys it’s this one. The 5 labs are so tough and cover every little thing in each lab. You can’t do these when you just started preparing. First time I did one of these I totally got overthrown. When I got a little more prepared it was a great resource. So much stuff is asked for and they are at least twice the size of an INE lab. So as a preparation for the last month, they prepare you really well for the real deal.

Mid-April I was able to join the INE Online SP bootcamp with Brian McGahan as instructor. I wrote a large article about it on my blog, so I won’t go in to that with much detail. The mocklabs we did during the week (total of 3) were great. They are much more like the real exam and have troubleshooting and even L2VPN. I would change the name to a mock-lab-workshop. Getting a few labs graded was really the push I needed in the right direction, since I never got graded I never really knew if what I did was the right thing. Getting those scores made me confident and I knew I could do it. A want to say a huge thanks to Brian McGahan for his excellent explanations and again helping me reaching the able-to-pass level

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 Heaton 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)

Story of Panterck

Hey!


Finally, in my 2nd attempt I passed CCIE R&S Lab Exam in Brussels. If you remember I had some bad luck on my first attempt with only 1% missing for pass.
I requested a re-read of my exam, but there was no update in my score.
So I took another 2 month for studying and finally got it.

For those who are interested, I started with my CCIE preparation in Aug 2008 with CCIE R&S Written Bootcamp at Unitek ( Fremont,California ) and then I took
about 5 months for preparing for the LAB exam and then went to another Bootcamp at Unitek for the LAB exam the last week in January. My first attempt
was in March 2009 where I have failed sadly and then my 2nd successful attempt in May 2009.

I studied the:

- Official CCIE R&S Written Exam v3.0 book
- TCP/IP Vol.1
- IE Workbooks Vol1,2,3
- DocCD documentation
..and some old CCNP materials especially for BSCI exam and BCMSN

I spent about 400 hours in remote labs practising which was quite a lot in this time period, because I also worked full work hours all the time of my preparation.

Anyway...I would like you all for your contribution to this forum, it helped me a lot.

Also about the LAB itself in Brussel, I was both time left with good feeling about the whole day, the ambience is nice, they now have 24' widescreen monitors
on all Racks, the temperature in the room was fine, the proctor was kind and ready to help, although I used him only twice in two attempts.

For anyone going in Brussel I suggest the NH Hottel in Diegem, because it's only 2 minutes walk to the Cisco center and 5 minuted drive from the Airport.

Those who are preparing for the CCIE Lab Exam I wish you all the best and don't be afraid of the Open Ended Questions, if you studied the theory for the written exam
carefully and are familiar with all the techonologies, it shouldn't be a problem.

CCIE success story of "ccietr"

Hi,

I passed CCIE RS last week in Dubai.

I have started working with cisco devices 2 years ago. When i started, my the company has started moving management building, my manager gave me the moving project. We bought new Cisco 6500s. 7200s and 3560s and i learned most of the network during that time.

One of my friends outside of the company was preparing CCIE RS lab at that time. I was asking most of my questions to him. He suggested me to study for CCIE. then i decided to study RS. I did not read any book cover to cover but i must say that i read a lot. I started with IE volume1. It took about six months to finish. I entered the written exam and passed. Then i finished IE volume 2 in 8 months. i have completed IE volume 3 and Cisco`s asset labs.


One day before exam,

I woke up at 5:30 am in the morning as usual ( for 2 years). I spent some time outside and had breakfast. I read my summary notes. Around 5 pm i went outside for dinner. I came back around 8. I told reception man to wake me up at 5:30 am. I wen to bed at 10:00 pm.

Exam day:

I woke up 5:30 and had breakfast. I checked out from the hotel and took a taxi to Internet city of Dubai. There was a guy waiting. I understood that he is there for CCIE. Then other 2 guys came. 3 of them were their second attempts. Mine was first. I asked them about the exam procedures etc.. They were not excited , so am i.. ) I was very excited..

Finaly, proctor came and took us to lab exam room. He told us the rules etc.. I have started Open Ended Questions. They were CCNP level questions. i answered 4/4 with full paragraph. I finished Open ended questions about 15 minutes and passed to lab questions. I read quickly all lab. about 24 pages.

Screen was 22 inch Dell. so i could see 8 console screen at one time.. i started with Layer2 than routing...etc..

Before lunch time, i have finished all lab except BGP. I reloaded all devices. Before lunch, proctor asked us what kind of sandwich... Everyone ordered chicken sandwitch.

After 30 minutes lunch time, I finished BGP in 40 minutes. Then i checked from the begining. I realised that i numbered all ipv6 wrong. Then i corrected IPv6.. I run tcl script to ping each interface.. I re-checked 2 times all lab. i went out before 15 minutes. lab was easier then i expected.

I took a taxi and went to airport. I was sure i passed the exam but there was something inside maybe i would fail.. I came to home around 3 am. My wife was waiting for me.. i checked my emails. There was nothing. I went to bed.

I woke up 6 am.. i opened my eyes and directly went to my study room. I opened my laptop and clicked on inbox at gmail. There was an email from CISCO.. It says, you can check your exam score from this link...I know this link. I clicked then i entered my written exam scores.. I was so excited. i do not remember any time in my life that i got excited like this.. Then i saw magic word.. PASSED.... At this moment i was very happy. I woke up my wife and told her that i PASSED.

Then i went to work. Everyone in our IT department was courious about my exam score. I told them i passed.

Now what?

My position at work is changed. Now i am one of the security guys.

I will start Security Lab.. I hope it will not take 2 years..

Story of Matt Hill CCIE#22386

Matt Hill CCIE#22386

Well… After making the most of my Qantas club membership on Monday night and not being in much of a state yesterday to do anything (Boss sent me home from work) I thought now might be the time to write up about my experience of the 20th…

I wanted to not hit the booze for a few days beforehand… make sure I would be all good. However I was forced to have a beer on Friday night and sitting out the front of the Stag Hotel in Adelaide in 28º weather with the sun setting made that rather difficult. Especially with the “view”. I was able to limit myself to one beer.

Saturday I attempted to study. I went though half a Narbik mock lab and byt about 1pm I thought, “bugger this, I’m over it, and if I don’t know it by now I may as well not bother” So I proceeded to sit on my arse for the rest of the day.

I left Adelaide at about 11am Sunday, and arrived in Sydney at 1:30pm (I think). Caught the train from the airport to St Leoonard’s, and used the GPS in my phone to tell me where the hotel was. Got to the hotel, checked in relaxed for a little. Got something to eat around 3 or so, then realised how dead St Leonards was. Apart from the train station and the McDonald’s and similar food shops there, there is not much to see. I have previously been to Cisco on Chatswood (and North Sydney) for other reasons and there is much more to do there. Shopping Malls, Cinemas, restaurants etc etc. For the traveller Chatswood is a far better lab location. I was forced to return to the hotel and spend $30 and enjoy one day’s worth of Internet. Yahoo. I love the Internet.

My action for the day was limited to rescuing a bird from being hit by a car on the way back to the hotel. The poor/stupid thing was sitting in the middle of the road trying its best to be hit by cars. I went out to the middle of the road and waved the cars past it (Pacific Highway is rather busy!) and then when it was clear enough I picked the thing up then put it in a small garden out the front of an office. When I went back an hour or two later it wasnt there. That made me warm and fuzzy because that was much better than seeing the thing meet its demise by a big truck on National Highway 1.

Had dinner at 7pm or so, and was in bed by 9:30. My plan was to wake up early, shower, brekky and have an hour or so to let the brekky settle and then go to the lab, which was right by the train station (900m from the hotel). The plan was all well and good… until I woke at 2-2:30.

I couldn’t get back to sleep until about 4:30. I knew the whole time I was awake if I could sleep for one more hour I should be ok. All my work for the past decade would have gone down the gurgler if I was tired. Luckily I fell asleep again and my wake up call came at 6:30.

Got up, SSS (Shit, Shower, Shave) then went downstairs to have a delicious eggs benedict for brekky. Back upstairs, pack my stuff, sit down for a bit then went for a walk to the lab. On the way I popped into the chemist and purchased some earplugs, just on case.

Got into Cisco at 8:15. Lab was due to start at 8:30. There were four other guys doing the lab. One fellow was Malaysian (SP), two English guys (R&S) and one other Skippy bloke from Brisbane (Security). The proctor arrived at about 9:10 and by that stage we were all ready to jump out the window. Luckily the reception and lab is on level 3 and we may have survived the jump. I believe the lab in Chatswood was on level 9. I am sure the elevation of the lab was a factor in considering the new location.

The proctor briefed us and gave us all the answers for the lab. I am glad he likes fine Barossa Valley Shiraz.

Just kidding.

We started work, and I proceeded to read the exam book cover to cover. It was in between 1 and 1000 pages long. The pages were made out of paper. There was ink on them, which was dry. The ink spelled out a variety of words. One of them was “Cisco”. I hope that last bit helps you with your studies…

Seriously though, setting up my L2, all seemed ok. Started on L3 and I broke a few things and it all went into a screming heap. Took a little while to fix, but got it working. I took a little longer than I wanted with IGP but I was still on track. I wont say any more about this I’m sorry.

After lunch, I skipped a few sections which I wanted to do last because I knew I could get things done quicker. So bang points per time and all that. There were a few things that I had never seen in my life before, so luckily the ? key and the doc cd are there. I am able to find anything I want in the doc cd in about 30 secs. I strongly advise you to learn to do the same. I think this got me 10 points in the end. I checked all my configs for just about everything in the doc cd just to make sure.

I asked the proctor about 5 questions throughout the test. I think the wording of the questions were ok but the proctor was able to clarify what I was asking.

I was “finished” with about 90 mins to spare. I then went through the whole book again checking everything. I changed two things, worth a total of 6 points. Of course I do not know if my changes increased or decreased my total but to be honest right now I really dont care :P Once I did this check, I had 40 or so mins to go and I did one more check. Nothing else was changed and I thought the whole thing was working ok. 15 minutes to go and I was reasonably happy. Of course I was not 100% that I passed, but I thought it looked ok. Just OK.

So it was time to go. The proctor informed us that the Brussels lab would be marking our labs. Remember this point for later.

Three of us caught the train back to the airport. I immediately took my sweaty stressed out body to the bar of the Qantas club and immediately proceeded to make the most out of my membership fee. By this stage it was about 6:30 and one hour after the lab was over. I set up my laptop, and wasted time on Facebook and other fun things. I also perpetually pressed “refresh” on the CCO page for the lab scheduling tool.

After an hour or so of sinking vodka, lime & sodas and abusing the “refresh” button, a popup says “pass” for my lab. About 30 secs later I got an email telling me to check my result. I clicked the button and my number was not yet ready, however I got a congratulations message. The first thing I did was ring my parents to tell them. There I was sitting down the bloody Qantas lounge with about 8 empty vodka glasses with tears in my eyes in front of my stupid laptop talking to my father. I told him the news but my mother was not home, so I went to call her on the mobile….

BUT!!! now this is a HUGE BUT…..

I clicked somewhere else, and then it said FAIL. FAIL FAIL FAIL. Bad luck but feel proud you paid your money and sat the lab. I was like… “WTF??? How can you do this to me??? You just told me I passed!” I had to run out of the Qantas club, and out onto the tarmac to pick my heart up, which was down in the basement somewhere by this stage. When I returned and refreshed, the page then updated to say pass, but I still had no number. I was very wary. I spoke to Narbik and he said it took a while to sync to all the pages. I called Arden to ask him how long it took him to get his number. He didn’t answer! I was shitting broken glass…. “What if something was wrong and I really failed?” I clicked on every bloody thing I could and all I could see was “PASS”. That was ok. Still no number. BACK TO THE BAR.

Now, my ex girlfriend lives in Brussels. She works in the same area as Cisco. So I called her in my state and asked her to go and visit Cisco and flash her boobs at the Proctor for me to see if that would help me pass. She is rather attractive so hopefully that would work.

By this stage my plane was ready to board and I was a right vulnerable mess. I arrived in Adelaide 2 hours and 3 mini bottles of Shiraz later, logged on at Adelaide Airport the second I got off the plane and still no number. It was 10:30pm.

I got home at about 10:50. I logged in again and kapow. #22386. My ex did a great job.

Now… How did I do it? I really only seriously started in about March or so. The two words you need are Narbik and Bootcamp. The combination of the training plus the workbooks were invaluable. If you know everything in those lab books, you will pass. Thats it. End of story. Also sitting the second bootcamp two weeks ago helped. It was a good refresher and jogged my memory about things I may have missed. So if you want those numbers, go and sit Narbik’s course and get your arse into those advanced tech lab books. it worked for me, it will work for you too.

So… Thanks to everyone who has helped me out over the years, thanks to my parents, Narbik and all you guys who read and post to my drivel.

Oh, and thank you Kathleen for flashing your cans at the proctor in Brussels. I knew they would come in handy again some day!

Story of #20484

“Dear all:
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!”

Story of Joe Astorino, CCIE #24347

Yes, it’s official!!!! After a grueling 9 hour wait, most of which was in my hotel room here in Raleigh, I just got my score report, and I am officially CCIE #24347!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! The greatest 5 #’s I have ever heard! Keep in mind, that I am 5.5 beers in at this point as I decided around 10:30 that no matter what I was having a 6 pack for my troubles hehe. So what can I say? I guess I will give you my experience today and a little bit about my preparation.

I flew into Raleigh Sunday afternoon, and stayed at the Wingate. The Wingate came highly recommended by the many that have gone before me, and they were right on. I can’t recommend it enough. They picked me up at the airport, and took me right to the hotel. When I inquired about where I could walk to pick up some redbull for the lab the next day, they DROVE ME to the nearest gas station like it was just normal. I guess that is the southern love…being from Detroit, I’m not used to that sort of thing hehe. When I was picked up at the airport I was told I was the 3rd CCIE candidate being picked up that day…they knew exactly what I was there for, and exactly what to do.

The lab started at 7:15, and I was told the shuttle from the hotel to Cisco would leave about 6:30, giving us plenty of time. I woke up at 6:00 AM, threw on my jeans and T-shirt (opted against the sweatpants!!!), grabbed my 3 large size redbulls from the fridge and headed down to the hotel breakfast area. I was too nervous to eat a thing. I chatted up the other 2 candidates staying there and passively sipped a cup of coffee. The other 2 guys were doing voice, so there wasn’t really much to talk about. The shuttle drove us over to Cisco and we were there by 6:45…in total there were about 6 of us waiting outside…it was the most awkward thing EVER….after some brief introductions by a few of us, it was DEAD SILENCE for 30 minutes as we stood outside and waited for the proctor to show up. Our proctor pulled in about 7:10, and took us into the lobby where we were ID’d and given our temp stickers and rack numbers. The proctor gave us all the regular instructions and told us basically where the bathrooms and drinks were, and gave us the general rules of the lab (get rid of any macros at the end of the day, save your configs often, etc…).

I sat down at my pod and started in on the OEQ … the first one threw me….it seemed very simple. All I can say without breaking NDA is that it was some command output and a diagram, and I couldn’t place the answer… I gave it my best shot and moved on. The other 3 questions were no problem at all, although later in the day I feared I might have messed up the wording of one of them….all in all it took me about 5 minutes. Guys, after reading all the posts and fear regarding this I have to say, IF you have studied properly, there is nothing to fear!!!

I moved on to the lab just like I would any other mock lab I’ve been doing for 10 months….followed the method Jared Scrivener gave us at IPexpert bootcamp, which was AWESOME. Yes, I read the entire lab first, which was a good thing, because there were things towards the end that definitely effected how I did other tasks. I made a list of tasks, point values, and notes for every task. I redrew the diagram…I made 1 diagram with all my L3 and IGP information. The BGP diagram they provided was sufficient enough for me, and I didn’t feel the need for a seperate switching diagram. Having initially read through the lab, I felt pretty good. There were only 2 things I had not done before…it was just a matter of implementing all the things I had learned and practiced time and time again, and making sure to pay special attention to detail.

I was not going for speed…I knew one of my weakest areas was not paying attention to detail enough, so I took my sweet time. I knew I had good speed coming in and I’d likely have plently of time.

Just as the proctor called lunch (11:15) I was starting in on multicast and had full IP reachability, so was feeling pretty good. My personal experience on the point system was that all my points added up to 80. At lunch time I had 42 points and was feeling pretty damn good. Lunch was basically silent….they had a pretty decent tasting chicken contraption with soda, water, and salad. It was pretty good. I was actually so juiced up on redbull and coffee that it didn’t really matter, as long as it was food : ) We had to wait through the whole lunch time that was allotted to us. Actually, the proctor let us start working 5 minutes earlier, noting to everyone that we would lose 5 minutes at the end, which I found fair. I approached the proctor more than anybody else in the lab…probably about 4 times. Guys, you are paying $1400 for his time, do not be ashamed!!! Most of my questions were just verification of things to be 110% sure of what they were asking!

Later in the day I felt a bit less confident, as I hit my weaker areas (QoS, Multicast)… I felt 75% sure on about 75% of these tasks….maybe 85% sure…like you know you are right or very close to right, but the kind of thing where you want to look at the solutions guide to double check yourself. No solutions guide today gentlemen : ) I completed all the tasks by about 2:00 and started verification, which was SOOOOO important to my success I can’t even explain! I went through task by task and did the appropriate show commands to prove I had done it right. What I found was suprising. It is a little unnerving to have already marked down points and with 90 minutes to go find you have one section broken completely, and a routing loop somewhere else , as well as about 3 other stupid minor mistakes. Had it not been for verification I don’t know if I would have made it out OK. I wasn’t in it for speed…I stayed until they called time verifying and reverifying with my trusty TCL scripts. At 3:28 the proctor told us we had 2 minutes left and to save our configs, remove any macros and TCL scripts (which I don’t get because TCL scripts are not saved), return all the devices to priv exec mode and reboot our PCs. I found it a bit alarming that they didn’t say something like “OK you have 30 minutes left” but just like that BAM , OK you are DONE in 2 minutes! Oh well…I got about 75% through re-checking everything.

I counted up about 68/80 points I thought I had for sure….and I had about 8 points “on the fence” that I just wasn’t sure about…so I felt pretty good walking out. I felt like I probably had a good shot at it.

The worst part of my entire day was the waiting game…I am staying the night here in Raleigh, and have no car and nothing to do…I coudn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat much…I pain stakingly sat here refreshing my email and watching TV for about 4 hours….finally I decided to go take a walk. I walked about a half mile to a gas station and bought a 6 pack of beer while listening to the new Dylan album on my iPod. When I got back I killed some time talking to a friend on the phone….right before he hung up the email came in…I checked it live on the phone. I HAD PASSED!!! CCIE #24347! Obviously, I couldn’t even describe how I felt, but it was a great experience to share with a friend!

Wow this is getting long, so let me tell you a bit about my preparation. I am a straight forward kind of guy and I am not on here to promote any company over another, just to tell you my experiences. As far as vendors go, I uses STRICTLY the workbooks and blended learning solution from IPEXPERT. Their blended learning solution came with all 3 of their workbooks (1 technology focuses, and 2 workbooks of full scale labs), as well as the full Scott Morris Video On Demand / Audio on Demand series (When Scott was still with IPexpert.) This was my bread and butter guys. I passed my written at the end of July, 2008 and immediately started on the material. I read most of the usual recommended books cover to cover, and really tried to grasp the concepts…I went through the entire video on demand, and listened to the audio portion countless times. In fact, my wife even does here Scott Morris impersonation now : ) Thats how you know you have a keeper hehe….Anyways, I worked through these labs with all my heart and soul for 10 months. I got involved in the various communities, and I can’t say enough about them. Groupstudy especially…there are so many guys on here that you can learn from, it is just awesome!

Just when I thought I was ready, I booked an IPexpert 5 day instructor led bootcamp just to touch up my weak areas and hope that it would be mostly review and a confidence builder. I did this 2 weeks before my lab date, and it was well worth it. You can read my review of that that I posted earlier as well. Jared Scrivener was our instructor and he was at the top of his game…just a really great experience for me.

Going into the lab I felt confident…coming out of the lab I can honestly say I was exteremely well prepared.

And now the obligatory thank you section : )

Big thanks goes out to — Scott Morris — Dude, no matter what shirt you were wearing you were ALWAYS willing to help me with my issues, and I can’t say enough about how much I appreciate that. Weather it was a question on a lab you had authored at previous jobs, or an annoying IOS bug I was struggling with, you helped me. Even when you had moved on professionally, you gave me honest and productive support. Yes, your voice is forever etched in my brain from the VoD and we know you don’t pay for therapy!!!

Huge thanks to Jared Scrivener, Tyson Scott, Mike Down, Sean Orr, Wayne Lawson and the ENTIRE IPexpert team, who have been with me from start to finish. These guys have been just awesome…from Mike and Sean in sales, to Tyson and Jared with the technical material. It’s been a fun and good experience! I got what I expected — world class training, support, and customer service, and THAT is hard to find these days! A special thanks personally to Jared for his excellent teaching methods, and willingness to go the extra mile time and time again, and for giving his students personal 1-1 support!

Huge thanks to cciejourney, the guy that runs our blog at sunpenguin.net! Carl, I couldn’t have done it without you buddy, and you WILL get your digits soon man! We will all still be here pulling for you, and don’t forget it! Carl was nice enough to give me a login here, and a place to dump my thoughts.

Group Study and the OSL — You guys have been my life for the past 10 months…I’d read the threads every day, and hopefully I helped a few people along the way. It is so awesome to have a community of people just like me, willing to help just because well, we love it and enjoy giving back to the community. Special thanks to Scott, Narbik, Anthony, Petr, and so many others that have chimed in. Bryan B, who achieved his CCIE # just a month or so before me…we were study partners and bounced things off each other all the time…good times! Thanks to everybody that helped me along directly or indirectly weather I mention you by name or not.

Last but certainly not least, my family and friends for their unwavering support over the past 10 months and ESPECIALLY my new beautiful wife Beth. I know everybody says this and I know when I read these threads it was usually the part I said “yeah right” and moved on but seriously…they have given up SO much to support me and let me pursue my dream. There were many times I had to come home from work, eat dinner, and by 6:00 PM tell my wife goodnight, I won’t see you until tomorrow after work because I have to study 6:00 - 2:00 tonight, or do a mock lab, or read the docCD or whatever…to my friends, congratulations I am back : ) I have not had time to do many of the things I used to like to do lately, and now I am looking forward to hanging out more.

I guess thats it guys…I know this was long, and thansk for anything that got through the whole thing…this whole post is sort of stream of consiousness at this point. The CCIE is doable, but like many before me have said, you have to seriously want it, and put in the time, effort, and sacrifice to achieve it.

- Joe Astorino, CCIE #24347

Story of beavis

Hi All,
Well, Ive been an avid reader of this forum throughout my CCIE studies and promised myself that, if I were to ever get through the lab, then Id make a post so here goes ...

Did the exam last week and am still coming to terms with the fact that I made it through first time round. I still check the Cisco site daily to make sure that they haven’t made a mistake. Start to finish took me about 9 months (inc written) on top of 7-8 years experience. I made the decision to hit the exam hard rather than dragging it out. First bit of advice I can give is not to under estimate the amount of time, energy and work that this track entails. This exam has dictated my life throughout with waking up early before work to get an hour in followed by more time in the evenings. Weekends were planned round study. Friends/family/partner also felt the pain that the exam brings Ive read blogs where people have somehow managed to make the exam a secondary concern. I did it the other way round based on the info given to me from other candidates. Fortunately there are three other CCIEs in the office so they were a great source of advice on how to approach the CCIE. I was also lucky enough to be able to take two months off work (unpaid) so have spent that time doing 14hr days surrounded by only books and routers.

Anyway, the new format. When they first introduced it I tried to cancel the lab and get a refund. There was that much fear. To be honest, Id never thought Id be saying this, but Im now an advocate of the open ended questions. When I heard I split my study 50:50 between theory and practical. The theory has obvious benefits to the practical and I was a better candidate for it. If it stops people cheating their way through then this is a good side effect. Its also hugely beneficial for candidates. Theres no other part of the lab where 21 points can be gained in just 30 minutes. Get this right and thats almost a quarter of the points obtained before 9 o clock. As Cisco state, a well prepared candidate shouldn’t fear these questions. (Please don’t ask for the actual questions – this exam has drained me and Ive no intention of breaking the NDA and giving it up).

Actual lab itself can be daunting. Ive watched the class on demand videos and read advice on what to do (ear plugs/diagrams/TCL etc etc) and I went into the lab telling myself Im going to do XYZ. Its easy to think this with a calm mind but can be in a different proposition with adrenaline. To be honest, as soon as I got in the lab the only thing I did was read the exam from cover to cover to try and catch any requirements that had dependencies further on. Diagrams were already done for you and the exam room was quiet enough. Dont get me wrong – I can see the benefit of doing diagrams but for me this would have wasted unnecessary time. Just my opinion. Another thing to remember is not to be complacent about time. Eight hours goes amazingly quickly. I also promised myself not to get dragged in to wasting time on any single questions. If it didn’t work then move on. Easier said that done and I fell into this trap and it almost cost me. I finished with just 10 minutes to go. Ive also read that the exam is about speed. This, in my opinion is incorrect. Speed is worth nothing if its wrong. Accuracy is whats important. Getting it right first time is half the battle and will save time and troubleshooting.

With regards to prep – used the IEWB labs and bought all the gear of Ebay and managed to scratch enough together to get some 2600s, 2520s for the frame switch, a term server and 4 3550s. If I were to do it again then Id probably add at least a couple of XMs and a 3560. These all cost extra money and my set up did 90% of what was on the blueprint. The other 10% I learnt the theory and then made use of ccierack.co.uk to get some exposure to the 3560s and unsupported features on the 2600s (good set up and Marks a helpful guy). Also invested in the CiscoPress TCP/IP vol 1 and 2, CCIE R&S guide, QoS and internet routing architectures. All great books esp TCP/IP. If buying only two books then make sure its these. I also spent a lot of time reading the Cisco Doc CD. Print it out, read and reread. This has the obvious benefits of learning the technology and knowing where to look if called upon in the exam. There were a couple of times that I needed this just to double check.

I was freaking out with a couple of days to go before the exam. Its difficult not be nervous. Best bit of advice I had was to “expect to fail the first time, enjoy it, take in the environment and to allow for a second attempt – only be nervous if its attempt 5 or 6”. In retrospect this was spot on although thought it strange at the time. Most exams it would have been words of encouragement. When I left the lab I wasn’t sure how I did but was strangely confident that Id make it through if I had to do it again. First time round theres a lot of additional stress such as dealing with the topology and coping with an unknown exam format and procedures. Giving up after just one go just wasn’t an option with the amount of time and energy invested.

Results came through within about 12hrs. Time seems to stand still while the page comes up and when it does theres an initial feeling of disbelief followed by a sense of sheer exhilaration and relief. The last few days have been a bit strange .. theres suddenly a concept of free time. In retrospect wish Id have done the exam earlier in my career. I always thought the CCIE is an unachievable goal held by a few network gods. The CCIE has improved me tremendously as an engineer and actually made life at work easier . Do I consider myself a network god .. not a chance. It just takes time, motivation and a hell of a lot of dedication ..