How hard is the CCIE lab, really?
The lab is not hard. I know coming from someone with my history of making a few too many trips to the lab that might be a hard statement for people to believe.
It's not "that" hard. It is "that" intimidating. If you have any doubts, it will make you soul-search, waste time validating or referencing a solution to something you already know the solution too, or just make you waste time searching for something you couldn't find or a task you could not perform if you had a week and not just a day.
It's easy to come close to pass the lab. It's a lot harder to work on your own to pass the lab in one's own fashion.
While it is true there are "labs" out there, I'd rather ask if someone gave a person a copy of any vendors lab and that person did not have the solutions guide or any assistance from the rest of our online study buddies, then how long would it take us to resolve any given lab with a score of 80% eventually providing the same expected solutions that the lab exam desingers did.
You see that is the meat of being a CCIE and passing the CCIE Lab.
The fact is different for most candidates and here are some examples:
1. I went to Networkers/Cisco Live and attended 2 techtutorials in 2009. Well aside from myself, a CCIE voice sitting next to me, and maybe 1-2 other CCIE RS Lab scarred veterans most of the people in the room could scarcely answer the majority of the questions. In the session with NMC, I don't think there was more than myself and "maybe" one other who could configure Frame Relay at all, much less on the fly and get 4-6 routers working in under 15 minutes for any protocol.
2. I went to a CCIE Beta Lab in Seattle. Of the 8 people there taking the lab, when there was an issue with Frame Relay, I was the only person who knew how to verify my Frame Relay PVCs. The only one. The other 7 would not have been able to build a core in a real lab environment, test it, and move on without looking back.
3. I've been to a lot of CCIE Bootcamps by now and first-timers (those who have not been to a bootcamp are usually left to leave the class in stun and awe... feeling terribly out of place most of the time). There are some few first-timers who actually completed entire workbooks of 1-2 vendors before coming to class - usually this means they worked through the solutions and used the solutions guides or... did not. Anyway they score in the 50-75 range usually if I had to give an average.
None of them are ready to sit the lab at that time and most are 3-6+ months or more off - easy.
4. I've also went to classes (or a class or two) where 1-2 students completed at least 1-2 workbooks mostly on their own, took their licks and bit their own pride... 2 of these people went to the CCIE Lab and passed on the first attempt. One of them could teach mostly any subject and the other blogged quite publicly about his experiences.
5. The rest of the people in the classes I observed had been to the lab 2-5 or even 6 times (most stop counting after 5 attempts it seems to me - they say... "I think I went to 4 labs" one day and then say "I went to 5 labs" when asked again or they'll just tell you they don't remember... Ouch!).
The worst part about the CCIE Labs is our own ego. That's really it. It is.
You see, we practice, we read, we blog, and we do it all over again. The truth is the people who pass the lab and do so on their own whether they do it one attempt ( by definition this should be rare... like lightening striking a person 3 times in a row in the same spot) or if they take several attempts... really know the material when they go to the lab and return victorious.
You see, to pass the CCIE Lab, and pass it on your own, without any sort of shortcut or cheat... there is no such thing as luck, only very very hard work.... these guys/gals know every cranny of the CLI for their respective track. They just do. There is no "I forgot"... It's just not in the vocabulary.
You see the people who pass the lab, either studied very hard to pass the first time. I mean to the extent they can pretty much get up and perform an impromptu lecture on any given topic.. or by the time they do pass the lab... that is exactly what a CCIE can do and is willing to do to prove and differentiate themselves from the chafe.
There may be a very few who slink by and passed without this level of knowledge but I'd have to believe that number is small, very small. Luck might be there for a few people, however, there is no such thing as luck, there is however a defined measure of skill and expertise.
This is why there is no such thing as a "Paper CCIE" and if you find one who isn't as I have described, then either that CCIE is playing dumb since you may have insulted him/her and won't play the game... or that person holds digits but is not a CCIE in the first place.
Some people pass the CCIE Lab and were not such as I decribed above. True. However, I have seen many of these folks earn the title of the CCIE and are quality engineers after the fact. I'll not divulge names to protect the innocent.
Me... I'm still a CCNP and I'm working on it. I can configure most stuff on the fly and for sure any basic config and verify it - sometimes even quickly. However, I'm still working on total mastery of the IOS and I am not sure I can beat Narbik's mastery of the CLI or have Scott Morris' glib tongue while trying to descibe every topic. I am getting closer to the prize for mostly every technology and I've offered my services as a tutor to up and coming network analysts and engineers specifically with the goal of attaining such final mastery. I'm working hard to make 2011 the year.
So is the lab hard? No, not to a properly prepared CCIE candidate who has showed up to earn the digits. Not at all.
It's not "that" hard. It is "that" intimidating. If you have any doubts, it will make you soul-search, waste time validating or referencing a solution to something you already know the solution too, or just make you waste time searching for something you couldn't find or a task you could not perform if you had a week and not just a day.
It's easy to come close to pass the lab. It's a lot harder to work on your own to pass the lab in one's own fashion.
While it is true there are "labs" out there, I'd rather ask if someone gave a person a copy of any vendors lab and that person did not have the solutions guide or any assistance from the rest of our online study buddies, then how long would it take us to resolve any given lab with a score of 80% eventually providing the same expected solutions that the lab exam desingers did.
You see that is the meat of being a CCIE and passing the CCIE Lab.
The fact is different for most candidates and here are some examples:
1. I went to Networkers/Cisco Live and attended 2 techtutorials in 2009. Well aside from myself, a CCIE voice sitting next to me, and maybe 1-2 other CCIE RS Lab scarred veterans most of the people in the room could scarcely answer the majority of the questions. In the session with NMC, I don't think there was more than myself and "maybe" one other who could configure Frame Relay at all, much less on the fly and get 4-6 routers working in under 15 minutes for any protocol.
2. I went to a CCIE Beta Lab in Seattle. Of the 8 people there taking the lab, when there was an issue with Frame Relay, I was the only person who knew how to verify my Frame Relay PVCs. The only one. The other 7 would not have been able to build a core in a real lab environment, test it, and move on without looking back.
3. I've been to a lot of CCIE Bootcamps by now and first-timers (those who have not been to a bootcamp are usually left to leave the class in stun and awe... feeling terribly out of place most of the time). There are some few first-timers who actually completed entire workbooks of 1-2 vendors before coming to class - usually this means they worked through the solutions and used the solutions guides or... did not. Anyway they score in the 50-75 range usually if I had to give an average.
None of them are ready to sit the lab at that time and most are 3-6+ months or more off - easy.
4. I've also went to classes (or a class or two) where 1-2 students completed at least 1-2 workbooks mostly on their own, took their licks and bit their own pride... 2 of these people went to the CCIE Lab and passed on the first attempt. One of them could teach mostly any subject and the other blogged quite publicly about his experiences.
5. The rest of the people in the classes I observed had been to the lab 2-5 or even 6 times (most stop counting after 5 attempts it seems to me - they say... "I think I went to 4 labs" one day and then say "I went to 5 labs" when asked again or they'll just tell you they don't remember... Ouch!).
The worst part about the CCIE Labs is our own ego. That's really it. It is.
You see, we practice, we read, we blog, and we do it all over again. The truth is the people who pass the lab and do so on their own whether they do it one attempt ( by definition this should be rare... like lightening striking a person 3 times in a row in the same spot) or if they take several attempts... really know the material when they go to the lab and return victorious.
You see, to pass the CCIE Lab, and pass it on your own, without any sort of shortcut or cheat... there is no such thing as luck, only very very hard work.... these guys/gals know every cranny of the CLI for their respective track. They just do. There is no "I forgot"... It's just not in the vocabulary.
You see the people who pass the lab, either studied very hard to pass the first time. I mean to the extent they can pretty much get up and perform an impromptu lecture on any given topic.. or by the time they do pass the lab... that is exactly what a CCIE can do and is willing to do to prove and differentiate themselves from the chafe.
There may be a very few who slink by and passed without this level of knowledge but I'd have to believe that number is small, very small. Luck might be there for a few people, however, there is no such thing as luck, there is however a defined measure of skill and expertise.
This is why there is no such thing as a "Paper CCIE" and if you find one who isn't as I have described, then either that CCIE is playing dumb since you may have insulted him/her and won't play the game... or that person holds digits but is not a CCIE in the first place.
Some people pass the CCIE Lab and were not such as I decribed above. True. However, I have seen many of these folks earn the title of the CCIE and are quality engineers after the fact. I'll not divulge names to protect the innocent.
Me... I'm still a CCNP and I'm working on it. I can configure most stuff on the fly and for sure any basic config and verify it - sometimes even quickly. However, I'm still working on total mastery of the IOS and I am not sure I can beat Narbik's mastery of the CLI or have Scott Morris' glib tongue while trying to descibe every topic. I am getting closer to the prize for mostly every technology and I've offered my services as a tutor to up and coming network analysts and engineers specifically with the goal of attaining such final mastery. I'm working hard to make 2011 the year.
So is the lab hard? No, not to a properly prepared CCIE candidate who has showed up to earn the digits. Not at all.
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