CCIE Methodology

This is from a doc I created related to non-technical (almost) aspects of the CCIE labs. It may help many people that fail for some reason that may not be technical sometimes. It does not apply to a specific track.

CCIE MYTHS

· Lab is impossible to pass

· 2000 hours of lab practice are necessary

· 10 years of experience

· Sacrifice your life for the lab

PLANNING TO TAKE THE LAB

· Blueprint is very important

· Try to see where you will have to make an effort

· Understand the parts of the labs

· Speak with your family - sometimes they may not understand why you work so hard and it may not help

· Where will you practice labs?

· Relax

PREPARATION OF THE LAB

· Work every part separately (if possible). By doing a lot of master practice labs you might lose precious time that you could spend on getting a deeper knowledge of some point of the lab. Usually we do not have infinite time to prepare for the lab so time management is a key point.

· Be sure to know every way a technology (protocol...) can be configured

· If you think you don't understand some point at 100% then work harder to understand it.

· If you think “ this topic will not come at the exam” you are probably wrong

· Do scenarii "mentally" and repeat step by step how to configure any topic of the lab blueprint

· When close to the lab date I (you don't have to do it) enter in "lab mode" where I recheck mentally again and again everything so at lab time configuring a specific topic should be easier.

DAY BEFORE THE LAB

· Sleep well

· See where the lab will take place

· Remind all the steps for configs to refresh what you know

· Try to avoid last minute work , just do it to sleep well if needed!!

· Relax (if possible)- Stress is your worst ennemy at the lab. Many people I know failed because of the stress even if technically ready!! This point is 50% of your lab, don't forget it.

DURING THE LAB

· Write down all configuration steps that you may forget later.. This would depend on the lab you are taking

· Read the lab

· Spot tricky points (and annotate not to forget later)

· Better go slow but well instead of fast and bad

· Try to avoid troubleshooting more than 10 minutes

· If there is a question you don't know then don't fight, do not do it, you would lose time for what you know

· At the end of the lab check if what you have done is still working

· Do not change a critical part at 30 minutes of the end

Between Attempts

· Learn from failure

· Try to figure out what you did not understand well

· Prepare for next attempt

· There should be a short time between attempts not to forget what you've learnt

That's it.

Fabien CCIE #6684 R&S/Security/Voice