CCIE #7171
Well I guess it's time for my story. I finally passed at RTP yesterday after a couple of failed attempts. I was very calm on Day 1 since I had been there several times already. One guy quit after lunch and left. I thought I did really well on Day 1 and felt good going into Day 2. Another guy didn't bother showing up on Day 2. That left 3 of us. One lady didn't make it to Day 2 so that left 2 of us. Day 2 was tougher than Day 1 to me. During lunch I was going crazy with the waite to find out if I made it to Troubleshooting. I did along with the other guy. Then it took over an hour for the Proctor to mess with my configs. That was very hard sitting in the lobby waiting. Finally Troubleshooting....Troubleshooting turned out to be very difficult unlike what most people think. You get 3 hours to complete Troubleshooting...with 10 minutes to guy I hadn't found any more problems for about 20 minutes and pretty much gave up on finding more. The Proctor came by and told me when he passed he found 5 problems in the last 5 minutes after not finding any for 40 minutes. So I looked a little longer and found 3 problems. Now the hard part....It took 40 minutes for him to grade it. My Proctor strung me along pretty good before finally showing my that little yellow sticky with my number on it. I had 2 Proctors on the weekend and both were fantastic. Michael King
CCIE #7168
Long Journey, short note. Passed my CCIE today in RTP on my first attempt after studying for over 1 year. I think the key for me was a large home lab. With my schedule I could not have passed without it. ISP dial in June, so there is no time to rest, but right now it's time for a beer! Thanks to all my study partners, groupstudy, and very supporting wife.
CCIE #7156
Hi guys: Finally the day has arrived. I've just finished the exam. I got my CCIE in the second attempt. Both times were in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I'd like to thank Elaine (the proctor) since she was always open to answer questions and encouraged to all the candidates. My first attempt was on Feb 21-22, and I didn't pass the first day. I knew I did stupid mistakes I didn't this time. Day 1 was OK, and I felt it since I had 2 hours for checking everything, rebooting routers and re-checking again. Even though, I lost some points. Day 2 was a little bit difficult but now the spare time was 5min. I missed too much points. After lunch (I couldn't eat) the proctor told me I needed at least 22 points (it means I've got 58 between day 1 and 2), I found 25 mistakes. I can't believe it. My preparation was: Read and re-read Internet Routing Architectures, Second Edition, by Sam Halabi. Read and re-read Routing TCP/IP, by Jeff Doyle. Read the Cisco Certification: Bridges, Routers, andtches for CCIE's, Second Edition, By Bruce Bruce Caslow, Valeriy Pavlichenko. www-tac.cisco.com, here you have a lot of tips and tricks. Tons of hands-on, the last 2 weeks I was typing from 8 AM to 8 PM from Monday to Saturday. I used fatkid (www.fatkid.com), thanks Derek, for different scenarios and solutions. The rack we have at the office has 2 x 2610, 1 x 4500, 4 x 2500s, 1x2511 (access server), a RIP/EIGRP/BGP generator (2514), Cat5500 w/ATMtch and a Cat3900. As you can see in my email address, I work for Cisco in Argentina, for that reason I used all of this stuff. Tips: . Remember where to find things in the documentation CD, better if you don't use it. . Read the exam carefully. . Practice and practice and practice. . Don't get nervous (I was the second day). . Trust in yourself. . Practice a scenario, when you finish, delete it and start again. . Use this newsgroup, I used a lot of information that helped me on this achievement. To finish, I'd like to thanks to all of you that are always posting great information. Take care, Nor.
CCIE #7149
I did it. I passed in San Jose attaining the number 7149. It's been a long hard road to get here. Now I can finally close this chapter. I finished my day one with 3 hours to spare. That allowed me to check and recheck all my configs. I finished day 2 with an hour to spare and I finished Troubleshooting in an hour and a half. I only had a few errors to find in troubleshooting, but I found them all. How did I get to this point. A lot of reading and practice. I read the usual books Doyle, Caslow, and Halibi. I used the bootcamp labs for practice. If you use the bootcamp labs just take off the technologies you know will not be on there. I was fortunate to have great study partners. At the begining I was doing it by myself. I learned so much more when I started studying with others. I truly believe if it wasn't for them I would have never made it. My suggestions on how to get your number. Read the entire lab. Use good time management skills. There is plenty of time on the lab unless you don't configure the way you always have. Keep it simple. Set your lab up a layer at a time. If you jump in and try to configure it the way it's layed out in the lab you will have a hard time passing. Like Cathy told us on the first day, the lab is written in expectation of you reading the whole thing and not doing it section by section. My proctors were Cathy and Jose. I thought they were awsome. If you have a question don't be affraid to ask. As long as you can prove to them you know what you're talking about they will help you. This is an attainable goal. Just keep it simple. Don't read to much into the lab. There are tricks, but if you are prepared you will spot them. As long as you prepare hard and keep a cool head during the lab you will pass. I owe a great deal of thanks to my family for their constant support and to Craig, Wade , and Aaron for all their help. You couldn't ask for a better group of guys to work with. I guess it's time to get back to real life and try to relearn who my family is. Carl Timm
