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Blog: 17 days to go….

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I spent this morning going through Mock Lab 6 again. I booked a 6 hour lab session and gave myself a challenge of completing the whole thing in those 6 hours. I just managed to do it (with a few minutes to spare!). I had spent the greater part of Thursday and Friday going through it thoroughly, analyzing it, trying out different things and multiple solutions. I figured out a couple of things that I stuffed up the first time.

Repeating labs definitely helps. I tend to do a lab now repeatedly until I know it back to front. A lot of people have said “what is the point of doing a lab over and over again, you just end up memorizing it”. This is true in some respects, but what I tend to do is go through the lab again until I don’t need to look up the answers for that lab.

I try to practice and repeat the scenario and as I practice it, for each point section, I try and ask myself:

• “How can I validate this answer?”
• “How can I prove that this is the correct answer (even though I know it is)?”
• “If I stuff this up, what other sections will it effect?”
• “How else can I solve this problem?”
• “Where is this section in the DocCD? (Look it up, even if you know the answer)”
• “Is this the simplest way to do this?”
• “How can I do this faster?” (notepad, BGP Peer-groups etc).
• “What are the other different interpretations of this question? Are there any keywords that I am looking for?”
• “What would happen if I introduced something tricky here? (Use your imagination and play)”

These questions become the basis for my study and analysis of each practice lab. When I first started studying, I just did heaps of labs. This was great because it exposed me to a wide range of problems and solutions, but what I found was happening was that I was making the same mistakes over and over again. After I took the approach above (repeating, and analyzing) I stopped making those mistakes as often. I’m still making stupid mistakes, but that is getting a little better :)

For the Troubleshooting Sections:

• Compare IP Addressing with diagram:
  • sh ip int b | exc una
  • sh run | in int|ip add
  • Look for things like subnet masks different, or swapped octets etc.
• On switches:
  • Look for port-channel inconsistencies (configuration on one port, that will stop a etherchannel from forming etc)
  • No switchport conifigured when not needed etc.
• Check other stuff
  • Configuration register (0×2102=good!, anything else=bad). Sneaky one…only shows up when you try to reload

My Toolbox:
I try to keep these in mind when the question requires me to get outside of the norm:

• NAT
• IP Tunnels
• Default or static routes (including mroutes)
• Summary Routes
• Administrative Distance, Route Filters, or Passive Interfaces
• Route-maps, policy routing (if allowed)

For example if you are not allowed to advertise a network with a network statement, maybe a summary will do, maybe NAT might help, maybe a tunnel to get past a routing black hole. All these things can save you.

I’ve got another Mock Lab tomorrow, and hopefully I take my own advice. :)

BTW: If anybody out there is on twitter. Add me: http://twitter.com/ardenpackeer

Related posts

• Blog: My CCIE story….
• Blog: Doc CD Issues and fixes
• Blog: 10 Days to go…Last Mock Lab Done!
• Tutorial: IPv6 Tunnels Part 1 - Manual GRE & IPv6IP Tunnels

© 2008 Arden Packeer. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway. This material is not sponsored or endorsed by Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco, Cisco Systems, CCIE and the CCIE Logo are trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and its affiliates