So I finally finished the weighted CCIE Blueprint. Just to re-iterate, this is based on my experience with taking numerous practice tests.  If you disagree with some or all of these.  Let me know, let’s discuss and make some changes.  This is ultimately a living document.  Maybe there’s some stuff that I don’t have on here that should be.

Download the weigthed CCIE Blueprint

What I’ve decided to do is to use the Internetwork Experts CCIE Lab Blueprint and modify it to show what I believe is important (at least relative to other tasks).  This is based upon my cumulative experience with practice tests, etc.  This is NOT based upon my test!  I hope to have it posted here in a few days.  Stay tuned.

I’ve received a couple of questions about what they should do to pass or if I had any good tips.  So I decided to write about what I did during my study process.  To study for the CCIE Written test, I read CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide, Third Edition. It did give me a very good idea about the basics of different technologies and helped me (barely) pass the written.  I also listened to Internetwork Expert’s Advanced Technologies class.  I highly recommend it.  I actually recommend listening to it multiple times.  After passing the written, I honestly can’t remember what I did until I attended CCBootcamp’s CCIE Routing and Switching Advanced Lab Boot Camp. Although CCBootcamp is a little rough around the edges (it’s definitely not as sexy as the other big training companies) it was really good.  What I like about it is that as a package, you get a whole bunch of rack time, about 30 practice labs, a week of training, and access to an instructor you can e-mail any time.  But you don’t get a free lunch like a Red Hat class.   One of the things that I learned there was that you MUST read the Cisco Configuration Guide.  About this time I found the lovely Internetwork Expert’s expanded blueprint.  So I decided to go through the blueprint and read the Configuration Guides.  So I started taking notes (just like college days) about each blueprint item as I read the guides.  Then I would use GNS3 to play with the technology.  By the time I finished going through the blueprint, I realized I’d forgotten a lot of what was at the beginning of the blueprint!  I resolved to start doing the practice labs from CCBootcamp with GNS3 to refresh myself on it.  This is where it started all coming together.  The trouble that I ran into was I got a lot of practice with the switching, frame relay and routing protocol stuff because it was first, but if I lost of config or something happened, I wouldn’t get the same experience with the services, QOS, multicast, etc.  I tried to practice more with those as much as I could.  I didn’t have enough time to do every exam so I read what I didn’t get a chance to actually do, I read the solutions and tried to learn from them.   To prepare for the Core Knowledge questions, I re-read CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide, Third Edition, read CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Quick Reference Sheets, read most of the overviews of the Configuration Guides (not the actual configuration or the examples), and used the Internetwork Expert’s Core Knowledge Simulation tool (which I don’t recommend).

So that’s pretty much it.  Now, I know that this doesn’t answer the question about “what’s important”.  I’ll write about that next.

Well the results are in and I passed!!!   I’m, of course, incredibly happy!  I flew into San Jose the day before, got the rental car, and found the hotel.  I threw on some running clothes, grabbed some Subway, and set out to find the testing center.  I wanted to be sure that I could find the place with no problem the next morning.  After locating the proper building, I went for a jog to get rid of some of the nervous energy.  When I got back to the hotel, I watched “The Da Vinci Code” and tried not to think about how insane it was that I was going to be taking a test that I’d been studying for longer than anything in my life.   I settled down enough to fall asleep.  When I got up, I went for a walk and tried to enjoy the morning.  I found I was doing a pretty good job of not thinking about the test.  I let myself my mind wander once and I started thinking about IP protocols for PIM, ports used for RIP, etc, etc.  I got ready and went to IHOP for some breakfast, and headed to the test center.  When I got there, there were about 6 others sitting in the lobby.  I paced around figuring that I was going to be sitting for the next 8 hours.  The proctor showed up at about 8:15 and got the show started.

I approached the real test the same way I did all the practice tests.  I tried to familarize myself with the setup of the routers first by looking at the diagrams.  Then I looked over all the questions.  I tried to key in to the setup stuff like frame-relay, switching types, which routing protocols, routing redistribution points, and what types of services that I need to configure.  As I started to configure things, I added the IP addresses to my tclsh script that I was going to use to verify connectivity.  Things went pretty well up to lunch.  I had some problems with some redistribution, but no worries.  When I got back from lunch, I started working on the services and fixed some problems.  Toward the end, I realized I’d made some mistakes and tried to figure out some of the problems that stumped me.  I never did figure them out.

Leaving the testing center I was fairly confident but not even close to sure.  It was a long wait until Sunday night about 8pm when I finally got the e-mail.

Now the next adventure.  I think I’m going to spend some time making some practice exams.  Or if you have a project for me, e-mail me.  Questions?  E-mail me.

I’m back home now after taking the test yesterday.  I won’t receive the score report until tomorrow sometime, I’m told.  All in all, I think it went pretty decently.  There were a few items that I know that I didn’t get, and there is always things that I think I got, but missed some subtlety.   Then there are the Core Knowledge questions.  I’m fairly confident that I got three of the four, if not all four.  I’m hoping that I don’t have to take it again, but we’ll find out soon enough.

I’ll write more when I know more.