I was all geared up for my CCIE R&S lab in san jose. I was a bit nervous as most of my lab practice came from job experience, plus some online workbook scenarios. Not to mention that I relied more or less on a non-conventional style of study. Dynamips was definitely a great help especially if you are running your dynamips on UBuntu Linux ( I love it).
I arrived in San Jose 2 days before my lab, and tried to manage my stress and jet lag. I promised myself that I would not look back in to my notes, but guess what i was so stressed that I started looking back in to my Qos,multicast and IP securtiy notes. I tried to have a good night sleep before the exam, but I was not able to sleep. I was getting cisco dreams all night.
I woke up at 6:30 in the morning and got ready for the exam, I had a yogurt for my breakfast as it was my wife’s suggestion. Arrived at site, checked in and the front desk guy asked for my ID, then he checked me in with other candidates waiting in the lobby. I could see some going through notes and other just confused and lost. Proctor arrived at 8:15 and he acquainted us with rules and regulations.
by the lunch hour I was pretty confident as i thought I was doing well but right after the lunch I had some doubts, I skipped a few questions and moved on to the next. I finished rest of the tasks and the time was already 4:30. 30 minutes to go and i had still few tasks left which i had skipped earlier. I went back to the tasks and tried to finish all of them. By the time I finished all the tasks , my time was up.
I came out still confident and with a great hope that I would clear the lab. I was awake again whole night as the proctor told me that I would get a result the next morning. I checked my mail almost three times in the night but nothing fruitful came out of it. In the morning at almost 7:15 AM, I checked my mail again and I could see a mail from cisco. I logged in to Cisco with my CCO id, my heart was beating fast. To my surprise, I could see FAIL next to my score. What went wrong , I asked myself. My technology score was black and white enough to show me where I messed up.
For my secont attempt, I’ve signed up for Narbik’s bootcamp in June, and am planning to retry my lab within a few weeks of completing the bootcamp.
Filed under: Technology and Software, cisco
It takes some cajones just to get to the lab. Good job on that.
Good luck in the retake.
but you kn0ow what I really think, that cisco test you pretty well. Score you get is a true indication of what level you are at
[...] make a big jump to the new CCIE certified, day after day, I discover new certified bloggers, or [...]
Keep your head up. As discouraging as it may be, learn from the test results. I’m certain Narbik’s class will tweak your knowledge and the 2nd time around will be easier.
I kind of agree with you. I have heard about Narbik a lot. Lets see how it goes.
Tough break on the first go-round, but now you know where you stand on the technologies and can tighten your belt. Time management is also very important. Keep practicing until you nail the majority of the lab within 4-5 hours. I’m confident you’ll ace it on your next sitting!
Dear frind,
every one maybe fail some times
but just keep relax and try again
Good louck
don’t give up and thanks for sharing your experience. What do you think made a difference?
I m confident….you’ll be CCIE in next attempt. BEST OF LUCK man
Did you try any tests? prior to the “BIG ONE” I ask this because in my experience practice tests put you in the right frame of mind and accurate ones can be useful guides to help you see your stregths and weaknesses. The guy at http://ccie-in-3-months.blogspot.com/
has some detailed preparation notes, he like you had a lot of hands on real-life experience and it sounds like your biggest problem was doing it the “CISCO” way–I have heard this a lot from both from candidates and CCIEs. Anyway good luck I have some MLPPP bundles to troubleshoot
POZ
Have you retried yet? Let us know how this is going
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