Nick, At this point, I would concentrate on passing your Written instead of trying to master the configuration aspects of each technology. The CCIE Written is designed to test your knowledge of conceptual and "under the hood" aspects of the technologies - not as much of the "type this command here, and this here." Once you get the Written out of the way, you can start working on the fun stuff! I hated studying for my Written by the way... Exteremly boring (I thought).
Obviously I am only a CCIE candidate and not a CCIE (yet), so please take my advice with a grain of salt! -Erik -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of nicholas golden Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 6:06 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [OSL | CCIE_RS] When do I start the workbooks? (Senor Joe A,I know you have an aswer!) Hey everyone, I got some questions, and as many know I am a newbie in every sense of the word. I am getting I believe close to the prize as far as the CCIE RS written is concerned. Here is my approach: I ask myself : What does it take to get a basic working configuration of technology X? Then I set it up see how it works, read some RFC's, Doyle's bible(s). Once I got a basic understanding of it and use some hands on to reinforce my knowledge. I move on to the more advanced areas of that technology, watch some videos, hit cisco's website read blogs etc etc (endless reading/watching videos - beating the dead horse until I can recite in my sleep configurations and concepts!). So that's what I have been doing. I am going through the blueprint got the first page down cold as of last week topics 1.00 through 2.50 for the v4 blueprint. I started on BGP long ago with my BSCI completion several months back, so I am pretty comfortable with BGP at least on the basic to intermediate levels. Basically, I can set up the basics of most topics on the v4 blueprint (5.00 IP multicast, 6.00 NW and some of 8.00 QOS I can do the basics, but want to master it all) security, with things like EIGRP, OSPF, RIP really nailed down where I don't get tripped up but BGP I believe will ALWAYS COME AFTER ME WITH A BIG STICK. Maybe I am wrong here, but seems that way haha. So the question is, I really want to get the MOST out of the workbooks, so I just don't want to start them as I want to see them for the "First time" and not see the answers, if that makes sense. I want the practice labs to be a true "gauge" of where I am at so I don't give myself "False hope". I am sure from what I can tell, if you read something and you THINK you got it, sometimes you get tested on it and realize that you SUCK AT IT. So at one point does one start tackling the workbooks? I watch the VOD after I have gotten the basics down so I can understand what's being talked about. Feels good to start looking at this blueprint and not feeling like the devil is coming after me :) Thanks for the input, I am hoping I will start to see some blue sky break from the CCIE RS cloud soon! -Nick _______________________________________________ For more information regarding industry leading CCIE Lab training, please visit www.ipexpert.com
