Thursday 17 March 2011

T-1 month and counting.

So this time next month I should know if I am a CCIE. April 14th is rapidly approaching, so how am I going ? Well, I have booked my activities for the day after the exam – golf with 2 of my best mates in the world at Royal Pines resort followed by dinner with our other halves. So no matter what happens in Sydney, I’ll be actively engaged in a pleasant activity the next day.

And the study ? Well I seem to have had a bit of a boot camp hangover (plus there have been other distractions – six nations rugby, family events, work etc.) I got back on the horse this weekend and had a bash at IPExpert volume 2 lab 6 – but only for 4 hours (more distractions). I had the expected issues: setup ntp then fix replication, MLP QoS reload router no more connectivity bug and a few other things I can’t remember, but dealt with appropriately. The difference this time compared to earlier in my study was that I knew how to deal with each issue and was ready for the expected problems. I feel I have a much better handle on WAN QoS now. I still don’t know how you can deal with the reload bug in the lab if the proctor reloads your router though – maybe just leave a note in the pod ! (or maybe its a slight variation in the version of IOS used by IPExpert vs. the real lab!).

So what is the plan for the last month ? Well, more family events over the next two weekends mean I will only be doing full labs Sunday this weekend and Saturday next weekend. I start my holiday from work on the 2nd April, so I will be having my own 5 day lab boot camp from then until we fly to Oz. I intend to spend 10 to 12 hours a day each of these days as it will be the last serious lab time I get before hitting Sydney and the exam.

My chances of passing ? I’ll tell you in a month!

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