Short version: Get lab books and start working on them. Watch video-on-demand or attend a boot camp, if you can. Do more labs. KNOW the config guides. Read through them and become very familiar with them. Make sure you know the different show and debug commands that will help you validate your configs.
Long version: I originally wrote this long version, but thought maybe you didn't want this much info. >From my own experiences, IPExpert's BLS self study program really worked well for me. I started studying for the lab back in March of this year. I actually passed the written in Mar '08 and didn't do any studying until this year when I got the program. I started with watching every single Video-on-demand which was as close to going to a boot camp as I was going to get. Then it was hands on with the lab workbooks. Since I didn't have switches, I rented from Proctor Labs to do all the switch based labs. Then when it switched to all the other stuff, I used Dynamips/GNS3. The Vol 1 workbook says you should be able to do most of those labs in 2-4 hours. I usually spent 8 hours on each because I would take the time to try different things, making sure to look up what I was doing in the Config guides and Command Reference guide. (IMPORTANT: spend time learning the config guide! Anything on the config guide can be used as a question on the open ended question or lab portions of your exam.) I spent most of that time really trying to understand what it was I was doing. I highly recommend you spend a lot of time also looking at the various show commands that you would use to validate your config (the videos even tell you to do that, but I'm STRESSING it here). Once you get to Vol 2 and Vol 3, you're really just tying everything together. I especially liked Vol 3 because they are closer to what you would see in the actual lab. Vol 2 is good, too, because you do get a huge confidence boost by going through some of the easier labs (although I distinctly remember 2 hard ones that reminded me that they weren't all going to be easy). But Vol 3 is where every single lab is tough and that's where you practice your lab strategy/game plan. I spent 2 solid months for watching videos and doing strictly Vol 1 labs. I spent another month doing Vol 2 and first 6 labs of Vol 3. Then I took a 2 week vacation which actually extended to a month long hiatus from doing any studying. When I came back on July 1, I only had 7 weeks left before the test. I started with a couple of the easier Vol 2 labs (for the confidence boost and because I was a little rusty). Then it was 6 weeks of nothing but Vol 3 labs. I was surprised that I hadn't lost too much from my time off and was able to quickly go through Vol 3 Labs 1 - 7 without too much difficulty (in fact, with time to spare). Labs 8 - 10 were tougher for me, but rather than trying to complete them in one 8 hour session, I would give my self two 8 hour sessions and just get it working. I took the test on August 23. I know I had enough points on the hands-on portion that I would have passed if I had gotten the open ended questions correct. But I missed that section and, thus, failed the whole test. I'm starting to get back in to study for the Ver 4 exam in October, and aside from the MPLS, OER, IOS Firewall, and whatever else has been added, I'm just going through the various labs from each of the workbooks, just as a refresher. I am, however, spending a lot of time reading through the config guides, mostly the overview or explanations, not necessarily the actual commands. I'm also making sure to focus more on validating my configs with show commands and debugs (like I stressed before). I'm finding that what once took me 4 hours to complete, I can actually do in less than an hour in most cases. It's not that I memorized the labs (I haven't seen most of them since April), it's just that I know what they're asking me to do, and I already know how to configure it. In some cases, I even know several ways to configure a solution that all accomplishes the same thing. _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com
