CCIE Looks Back On First Year As A CCIE

Very cool and interesting post on Group Study:

I thought I’d take a moment and do a quick review of the past year…my first year as an IE.

– Got a promotion. Same company, different department.
– Was completely confused, for like a month, by the fact I didn’t have to study anymore… man, that was weird
– First assigned task <drum roll>… team lead enterprise QoS development. My least favorite topic of topics… joy, joy! Wish I could have seen the look on my face.
– Number of times I’ve heard “We’ll you’re the IE” when presented with some off the wall question: lost count back in the spring
– Number of times I’ve said “I don’t know everything!” in response to the line above: lost count
– Number of times I’ve been asked “How did you past the lab?”: ~20
– Have received zero appreciation for my lab induced creative solutions 🙂
– Have received praise for suggesting what I thought was an off-the-wall feature Cisco made me learn… go figure.
– Number of times I’ve had to clarify the fact that I’m an R&S IE when presented with VoIP, security and MPLS questions and of course the always mentioned “We’ll you’re the IE” statement: way too many
– Found out my non-IE co-workers like to make a big deal out of my mistakes… after all “I’m the IE”
– Number of times I’ve wished Cisco had not removed ATM from the lab (to make me learn it) : several! 95% of the connectivity I deal with is ATM… not sure what Cisco was thinking there.
– Surprised by the number of people who are inclined to regurgitate their resume’ when they find out I’m an IE
– Biggest screw-up: Fubar’d an ATM connection to a 400+ user call center… who knew PCR/SCR was THAT important? 🙂
– Coolest new (new to me anyway) technology I’ve been working on… WAAS
– I’ve learned way more about QoS than I think I wanted to know
– Have enjoyed having access to the expertise of our Cisco AS team…instant guru on any topic
– Number of times I’ve had to deal with BGP: 2
– Number of times I’ve had to configure multicast: 0
– Surprised by the amount of knowledge I’ve lost over the last year…of course I’ve gained a lot of new stuff

All in all I’m having a blast and it was absolutely worth all the blood, sweat and tears to become a CCIE:-)

Cheers!

—
Scott
CCIE #17040 (R&S)

CCIE Lab Scoring

This thread over at GroupStudy shines a light on some of the CCIE lab scoring questions.

Here’s the original question followed by responses from the big guns at IPexpert and Internetwork Expert:

Hey peeps,
 
Quick question on grading, the exam guide says something like you need to get all points in a section for it to be marked correct, no points are awarded for a partially completed or partially correct section.
 
that’s cool, my question is what constitutes a “section”
 
For example, if Bridging and Switching is task “1” and has sub tasks such:
 
1.1  2 points
1.2  2 points
1.3  3 point
1.4  2 points
1.5  3 points
 
does that mean I have to 1.1-5 all correct to get any points (12 in this case) in bridging and switching, or does it mean I have to get all of 1.1 right to get my 2 points, all of 1.2 right to get another 2 points, etc etc
??
 
Ben

Responses:

No, the partial credit rule has to do with tasks INSIDE a point section.  So if each of those subsections (1.1, 1.2, etc) had two tasks each but you only did one of them correctly in 1.3, you could get points for 1.1, 1.2, 1.4 and 1.5 still.

Now, there are “exceptions” or variations to that.  This is a results-based grading in most instances.  So there’s a chance that what you did not get working in 1.1 made it impossible for 1.4 and 1.5 to work, so by that you would lose multiple areas.

Having the right commands in doesn’t necessarily mean that things are working everywhere you expect.  That’s why it’s important to do your own show/debugs to let the router/switch tell you that you’ve done a good job!

HTH,

 Scott Morris, CCIE4 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/Service Provider) #4713, JNCIE-M
#153, JNCIS-ER, CISSP, et al.
CCSI/JNCI-M/JNCI-ER
VP – Technical Training – IPexpert, Inc.
IPexpert Sr. Technical Instructor

Here are a couple questions and answers from the Ask the Expert session in regards to grading (edited by me for clarity 😉

Q – How are points awarded in the exam? Per question or per section?

A – You are marked down points for questions, not per section. Suppose you have 4 QoS questions, 2+2+2+3 points total 9 points. If you got the first 3 correct then for the QoS section you will get 6 points or around 66% of the section. Again, candidates are given points per questions.
Q – Let’s say we have a multicast task that is worth 3 points. Suppose I can get it working but to do so I have to create a loopback interface, and that breaks one of the requirements of a 2 point task in an earlier section. Do I lose the 2 points for the earlier task, or 3 for the multicast task, or 5 for both tasks?

A – If in order to get your 3 multicast points you need to create a loopback that breaks a clear exam restriction on a earlier question you will lose points for the early question (worth 2 points per example) but not lose points for the multicast question.

Brian Dennis, CCIE4 #2210 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/SP)

Later in the thread a poster asks about the scoring feedback that you receive after failing the lab (if you pass you don’t get this feedback, just a number).  Here are a couple of responses:

When you receive your lab, it will have all that information there.  So you can see how many points each section has.

There is no magic formula, each exam may be different.  That’s what makes the grade report difficult.  While they give you percentages of major sections, it’s up to you to remember how many points there were in correlation to the blueprint in order to attempt to figure out a score.

In the long run, the score really doesn’t matter!  If you don’t get 80 points, you get a score report in order to help you figure out which areas of the blueprint you need more work on than others.  If you do get 80 points, you get your CCIE number, and NOT a score report.

HTH,
Scott Morris, CCIE4 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/Service Provider) #4713, JNCIE-M
#153, JNCIS-ER, CISSP, et al.
CCSI/JNCI-M/JNCI-ER
VP – Technical Training – IPexpert, Inc.
IPexpert Sr. Technical Instructor
 

Hi Lim,

I realize I’m the wrong Scott to be answering, but I found it very interesting that Maurillo Goritos’ recent “Ask The Experts” session on Netpro actually addressed point percentages on a couple of different occasions.  Conventional wisdom I think has always held that this is NDA stuff but Maurillo apparently doesn’t view it that way.  Here are a few quotes:

“The Security topics in the lab represent about 6% to 8% of the exam and the blueprint cover basically:

1. AAA
2. Security server protocols
3. Traffic filtering and firewalls
4. Access lists
5. Routing protocols security, catalyst security
6. CBAC
7. Other security features”
“Keep in mind that Switching and IP routing are about 70% of the exam.”

One gets the impression that we could have gotten a full official record of the current lab point breakdown if we had asked the right questions.  I got into the discussion towards the very end, though, it was too late by then.

Other things of note were that no changes to the written nor the lab blueprint is in the offing.  No changes to lab hardware are eminent or even decided upon at this point.   More lab locations are likely to be announced in early 2008.  Elvis is indeed alive and well (rooms with Hoffa).  Wireless is still under consideration for its own CCIE track or perhaps incorporation back into R&S.  The blueprint will shortly be updated to clarify a few things to do with multicast.

Cheers,

Scott 

$1400 And They Can’t Afford Copies???

This comes from the recent Q&A with Maurilio Gorito (content manager for the CCIE R&S exams) on Ask The Expert at Cisco.com:

Maurilio, having failed CCIE once and ready to fail again in January, I hope this does not breach NDA but, I was wondering why we are not able to write on the exam papers/lab diagrams during the lab, this added to the likelihood of making a simple mistake. This was very much the case on the diagrams as info such as AS numbers or OSPF processes were missing and simply writing them on the diagram would mean I would not have to look time and time again at the config. I am not blaming this for my failure but it all added to the already very difficult exam. Could we not have a photocopy of the exam and that could be handed in at the end?

This is something that bothers me as well.  I have heard that Cisco gives you some network topologies, BUT you are not allowed to write on them.  This has lead to many candidates recommending that you draw your own topologies (sometimes with colored pens) so that you have a topology that you can mark as you wish.

Here is Maurilio’s response:

Hi Andy,

In most of the lab locations we do re-use the lab doc for the next candidate and then we give you blank paper so you can draw and to make notes as needed.

I will get your suggestion to discussion internally to see how we could add it in consideration.

Thank you for the feedback.
Regards,
Maurilio

WTF!?!  Cisco wants to reuse the exams so you aren’t allowed to write on them?  $1400 doesn’t cover the cost of copies?

More Lab Locations Coming In 2008?

There is speculation on GroupStudy that Cisco will open one or more new CCIE lab locations in 2008.  This speculation was started with this post in the Ask The Expert forum at Cisco.com:

Yes. We are working to open up more seats availability to our current labs, but the ultimate goal is to extend the offering worldwide to more locations. The idea is exactly to minimize the cost and travel time to candidates while opening more opportunities to candidates worldwide to take the exam.

I can’t tell you at this point how it is going to be as we are working on the planning. News on it we will have more in 2008.

Regards,
Maurilio

Maurilio is Maurilio Gorito (CCIE 3807) who is the content manager for the CCIE R&S exams, written and lab exams and also serves as an exam proctor.

This is GREAT news.  Currently it is very difficult to schedule a lab as the labs are all full for the next 6 months (the furthest out that you can book the lab).  Opening up some more seats in the existing labs would help alleviate this log jam.

Opening new locations would benefit some candidates by decreasing the distance they need to travel (thereby reducing travel costs) to take the lab.  I’m located in the middle of the States so I pretty much equidistant from the two US locations (San Jose, CA and RTP, NC).

The rest of the GroupStudy thread consisted of posters pimping their favorite locations for the new labs.  There were some rumors about specific locations: 

I’ve heard rumors about Dallas, Japan(adding new tracks to existing location), and the UK. However, at the moment, they are having issues with the facility in Australia (lack of proctors).

Thanks,
Brad Ellis
CCIE#5796 (R&S / Security)
CCSI# 30482
CEO / President
CCBOOTCAMP – A Cisco Sponsored Organization (SO)

Interesting…

I stumbled across this on GroupStudy (the original question concerned study materials):

As a side note a new highly successful approach that we (Internetwork Expert) are recommending to certain candidates is taking only 5 or 6 full scale labs but doing 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 doing them once or twice each.  This approach should get you to the point where you can do any of the 5 or 6 labs within 4 hours and be able to complete the additional 2 or 3 labs within 5 to 5.5 hours.  You would be amazed at the amount you can learn by doing a lab more than once.  Plus one of the big benefits with this approach is that you gain speed and accuracy (accuracy = correct configuration the first time around) which is important in passing the lab.

Brian Dennis, CCIE4 #2210 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/SP)

There were posts requesting more details, but I guess that I’ll have to wait until next week to get more details as I am not subscribed the the GroupStudy mailing list (I don’t have the time or inclanation to sort hundreds of emails a week- I already do that at work 🙂  ).