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Study Tip: CCIE>Blog - Blogging as a study tool!

Arden Packeer, CCIE #20716 — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:19:03 +0000

IPexpert has just recently launched their CCIE>Blog site. The site allows you to create your own blog or add your existing blog to the CCIE blog directory. I had a browse through and there were a few jems that I hadn’t seen before! They have also released the new IPexpert Blog. So far it contains a bit of marketing material, but hopefully we will see some tutorials and the like from some of their instructors.

Some of you out there are probably thinking, why bother? Why bother creating a blog about your CCIE pursuit? Creating this blog is by far one of the best things I did in pursuing the CCIE!

One of the things that gets in the way of getting your CCIE is your own ego. It’s important not to fall into that trap. You will have weaknesses. You need to acknowledge them. Don’t be afraid of them. Turn them into your strength. I made it a point, for every weakness that I had I would write a tutorial on it in my blog. This forced me to learn that topic inside and out, and in the process hopefully help someone else out. Blogging has shown me how valuable this technique is, and I definitely recommend it. It has opened doors that I never even knew existed.

I think its great that IPexpert have decided to embrace the community this way. If you are pursuing your CCIE, I highly encourage you to start a blog! Share your trials and tribulations in your pursuit. Write down every little thing you learn. Not just for yourself, but for the community. Know that you are not alone. You’ll be amazed at how much it pays you back!

Resources:

CCIE>Blog

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Blog: Cisco, the new CCIE Plaques suck!

Arden Packeer, CCIE #20716 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:38:05 +0000

I got my CCIE plaque in the mail yesterday:

To be honest, I’m really disappointed.

I wish they didn’t get rid of the old ones (Greg I’m soooo jealous!). After all that hard work, this thing looks like its made out of plastic. What am I saying, it IS made out of plastic! Plastic with a bit of glass stuck on the front. Bring back the old medallions. That is something you can show with pride!

According to Tassos, the company that made the old ones, Brandvia, is still around. I’ll be sending them an email to see if can get one of those old school medallions….

Seriously, Cisco, the new CCIE Plaques suck!

We pay $1400 a pop for the Exam (not to mention countless hours of blood sweat and tears), surely Cisco can make the prize at the end a little better than this!

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Scott Morris Joins Internetwork Expert

Arden Packeer, CCIE #20716 — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:54:28 +0000

Man this is huge news. Scott Morris joins the all-star team at Internetwork Expert! Scott Morris, Quad CCIE, Uber Geek, The man behind that lab, has officially joined Internetwork Expert. Scott was Vice President of Technical Training at IPexpert where he delivered and developed CCIE classroom training.

Here is Wayne Lawson’s, Founder & President of IPexperts official response:

Wayne Lawson’s Statement on the Departure of Scott Morris from IPexpert

Over the past five years, since Scott Morris joined IPexpert, we have worked together towards a common goal of making IPexpert the world’s best CCIE training organization. In this time, the company has faced many successes and challenges in our journey to stay at the top of our game.

Growing from a team of just three, a short time ago, to our staff of near 20 today illustrates the continued evolution of our business model. One effect of adding new employees to a team is that their contributions and effort draw comparisons to those already on board. As we have continued to add new faces to our group of instructors, the individual roles have evolved for each of them, based on various criteria.

In order to ensure that IPexpert’s business goals, product objectives and growth strategies continue to be realized, I felt that it was time for IPexpert and Scott to move in different directions. In our early years, it was easy to roll with issues that may arise during the course of business. Today, I bear the responsibility of ensuring the success of IPexpert for the benefit of a full staff and their families. My decisions, however difficult, must be governed by this broader interest and that of the customers we serve.

To be clear, I sincerely appreciate the contributions Scott has made with our company and, in the bigger picture, the CCIE community. We are all better for it, without question. I am confident that, as one of the most recognized network engineers around, Scott will find great success along the next path in his career.

Moving forward, I can guarantee that the IPexpert team will continue to develop, innovate and deliver the best possible products and courses in the CCIE training space. We are more excited than ever about the new product line recently announced for the R&S, Voice, Security and Service Provider tracks.

If you have any questions, concerns or comments about this announcement, I welcome you to contact me directly. We appreciate your business and the opportunity to be a part of your success!

- Wayne Lawson II – Founder & President, IPexpert, Inc.

Whoa! I remember when I first started out down the CCIE path and finding out about Scott’s $2 million Lab. It was one of the reasons that led me to IPexpert as a training company. That lab was pure marketing genius. Heck I still tell my students about it. Scott has been an inspiration to many (myself included), and no doubt he will continue his excellent work at Internetwork Expert.

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Study Tip: CCIE Practice Lab Strategy

Arden Packeer, CCIE #20716 — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 02:21:45 +0000

I was reading through the GroupStudy archives and stumbled on this fantastic thread on another CCIE study strategy. In the thread, Brian Dennis from Internetwork Expert notes that a highly successful approach that they recommend for some candidates is “taking only 5 or 6 full scale labs and do them 4 or 5 times each. Then during the last week or two before the real lab taking 2 or 3 additional full scale labs and them once or twice each”.

I think this is great advice. I have been doing labs 6,12, and 18 over and over again and I’ve definitely noticed my speed and accuracy improving quite a bit. I am concerned however that by doing only those three labs over and over again I am just implementing my configs from memory (which I am). It gets to the stage that I don’t even have to look at the questions and I can recite the entire configs for those three labs. This might however (as it is mentioned in the thread) get you used to only a certain topology and make it harder to adapt.

I have decided to go with labs 1,7,8,9,10, & 11 as my next strategy. I will do them in that order and then start again (ie, do 1, 7-11 then start again at 1, 7-11 etc). This is the strategy that is apparently recommended from the Internetwork Expert 12 day bootcamp.

By repeating this larger cross section of labs, all of which have different difficulty ratings (Lab 1 is rated a 5, labs 7-10 is rated an 8 and Lab 11 is rated a 9) my hope is that the configurations become second nature. While repeating the labs like this, my goal is not to memorize the topology or answers (which my last lab strategy led me to do), but to have the configurations become second nature. There are only so many variations of routing loops, hub and spoke frame relay and other technologies and this should expose me to most of them.

I’ll let you know how it goes. Now back to labs!

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