Cisco CCIE Routing & Switching V4 Experience

Hello @walter.nakatana,

These are good questions and the things you mention are real problems.

When you see someone has a CCIE number, from the outside it might seem like they are gurus who were able to study 24/7, didn’t have any problems, were hyper-focused, and passed the lab on their first attempt. Those people are out there, but most of us (including me) have to deal with boredom, distraction, and lack of willpower :grin:

You need to think about why you want to pass the CCIE lab. In my case, I was still teaching Cisco classroom courses and I liked the idea of having the highest certification out there and having seen all R&S topics. I also try to do things that offer rewards in the long run. Having the CCIE number gives you more options in your career. In your case, it sounds like CCIE would open some doors as well.

One of the hardest things about CCIE is that it takes a LONG time to study before you pass the lab. I had a lot of trouble studying before I booked the lab. I would study hard for a few weeks, then life/work got in the way, I lost interest, or I just “let it go” for a bit.

What made a huge difference is when I booked and paid for the lab. Nowadays, I think it’s $1600 USD. When I paid for it, I committed myself to it. I didn’t want to go to the lab, throw away that money, and fail. Instead of some vague future plan, it suddenly was a real goal with a set date.

Few people go out to run 25 - 35 kilometers in the rain for fun but they do when they sign up for a marathon. Don’t fall for the “I’ll book the lab when I am ready” trap. I think this is the most important advice I can give.

CCIE has interesting and boring topics. In general, I love labbing and I still do. I really enjoyed the L2/L3 core topics but I didn’t like network management topics like SysLog, SNMP, or NetFlow. Once again, having that lab date helps. You don’t want to dominate the L2/L3 topics on the lab exam and fail it because you didn’t know how to do some of the syslog/SNMP configurations. Some topics are fun, some topics are less interesting. You have to go through them anyway.

Distraction is always just a mouse click away. I also had days when I was distracted. Especially when you can’t get something to work and you are tired. It’s easy to open up a tab, watch youtube, and before you know it, you didn’t lab much. It happens, try to get back on your feet quickly. The closer you get to the lab date, the more focused you become. When you have a bad day, you’ll try again tomorrow. It’s important to practice daily instead of studying like crazy for 2 weeks, then doing nothing for 3 weeks.

Concentration comes with practice. The more you lab, the easier it becomes. In the beginning, a lot of topics are new to you and perhaps difficult. It takes a lot of energy to go through them. The first time I did a “full” configuration lab, it took me 20 hours and perhaps I scored 40%. The last week before the lab, I could configure an entire lab in a few hours in notepad without any major errors.

When you do CCIE, it’s not just technology you learn but you’ll learn a thing or two about discipline along the way :slight_smile:

I hope this helps but if you have any other questions, let me know ok?

Rene

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