Just took the Internetwork Expert plunge

Well, I just purchased the self-paced CCIE 2.0 product from Internetwork Expert.  I couldn’t pass up the 25% deal going on right now.  By the way, IE has a 25% off sale on pretty much everything going on right now through the end of the year I believe.  So take advantage.  I can’t say that I’ve seen a sale this good from them on their self-paced products in the time that I have been paying attention.  Plus, they have great payment plan options to spread out the pain for no extra fees or interest.  So if you were planning on picking stuff up from them, now would be a good time.

I was heavily debating whether to just pick up the workbooks and the Advanced Technologies CoD or spring for the whole CCIE 2.0 product, which is over double the cost of the other materials.  Probably the biggest clinchers for me were the Lab meet-ups, open lectures, and poly-exams.  That comes out to a whole ton of content.  Plus, walk-throughs of the workbook 2 labs will be awesome once I get to that phase.  I’m also crossing my fingers that the poly labs will live up to the hype and become good indicators as to when I’m up to snuff in the different topics.

Over the Christmas break, I also took some time to revisit my study plan.  Starting this week, I’m really going to start focusing on lab prep.  I’ll be studying in the morning before work, and hitting the labs hard after work.  I’ll be using both the IE and IP Expert workbooks to make sure I get exposed to more than one product.   I also decided that I’m going to start using the online rack rentals when needed (where my home rack doesn’t meet my needs).  My home lab should allow me to do around 90% of the workbook material.  But when I need the 3560 switches, or start doing the poly-labs and workbook 2 labs, I’ll rent it out.

So in terms of study materials, I have everything that I plan on using.  I may end up picking up one or two more books if it looks like I need more theory material.  But I shouldn’t have any excuses now not to go full steam ahead.

Shout out to CablesAndKits.com

I just wanted to give some props to cablesandkits.com.  I received a nice thank-you package from them a few days ago that had some candy, a T-shirt, and some note pads.  I had purchased a bunch of my home lab gear from them over the last year.

If any of you out there are looking to pick up some used gear, be sure to check out www.cablesandkits.com.  They have pretty competitive prices compared to some of the other online stores that I cruise.  They also have a few nice traits that have won over a good chunk of my business.

They have pretty cheap shipping compared to other vendors.  They also usually include mounting brackets with the switches and routers.  These 2 things have often been a deciding factor when prices are close.  Another nice touch that I have come to enjoy is the little package of M&M’s that they include with your order.

I have also found cablesandkits.com to be the place to go to get memory and accessories (such as mounting brackets).  I find that they have a better chance at being a one-stop-shop when I need some of those extras.

The only pet peeve that I have with them is that they often do not publish the amount of memory included with their routers.  So by default, it is a crap shoot.  That gets frustrating when you watch your anticipated savings go out the door when you have to buy more memory.  I did call into their support line and found that I could request a certain amount of memory when I placed my order.  You may want to give them a call and check what they have in stock when you do this though.

So thanks to cablesandkits.com for their nice personal touches.  And be sure to check them out if you want to make any used Cisco purchases.

Net Master Class CCIE written practice test- product review

I have been using the CCIE practice test product from Net Master Class for about a week now, and I wanted to let you all know what I think of it so far.

The test costs $99, and can be purchased at http://www.netmasterclass.net/CCIE/Other-Products/Written/.  It takes about 1 business day after your purchase before your account is setup on their site.  You access the test from your Internet browser.  It’s not a downloadable product.  So you will need to have an Internet connection int order to use it.

I haven’t taken my written exam yet, so I can’t say exactly how well it preps you for the test.  But so far, it is doing a good job of challenging me.  Prior to using this product, I have been using the Boson written exam practice questions that were included in the Cisco Press Official Exam Certification Guide.  I was hitting around the 85% mark on the Boson product.  After I started using the Net Master Class (NMC) product, my scores dropped to 65% on my first few tries.  My scores have since gone up, but the questions are definitely trickier over all.

Even though the questions have been tougher, I have found the questions to be worded fairly.  Often when I mess up (even though I knew the material), it was because I didn’t pick up on the correct key words.  When it comes to test prep, I guess that’s a good thing.  You not only need to know the material, you need to make sure that you understand the question.  Assuming what the question is asking is something that you want to avoid.

One thing that I have been impressed with is the quality control of the questions.  I would say that about 10% of the Boson questions are wrong in one respect or another.  That manifests itself with incorrect diagrams for the questions, multiple identical answers in the same question, or just wrong answers to the questions.  Often times, the errors are so blatant, you wouldn’t even need to know anything about networking to realize that there were errors.  The saddest part about the Boson product is that is has a built-in update function along with a built-in ability to submit feedback regarding questions.  They evidently just never read the user submissions, or bother to update their tests.

The NMC product would be on the opposite end of the spectrum.  So far, I have only found 1 question where the answer was incorrect based on how they asked the question.  I used the option to submit a comment on the question (which is just an email with the question number in the subject field).  A day or 2 later, I actually got a response back admitting the error and letting me know that they were going to update the verbiage of the question to fit the answer.  I was quite impressed with that response.  Especially after dealing with Boson.  It’s good to know that they take an active role in keeping their content correct.

A few other nice features in the product include the ability to narrow down the scope of the questions to specific subject topics.  You also have an option where you can choose to no longer see a question after answering correctly 1-4 times (which you can customize).  It also keeps track of your tests, and you see see all of the questions and what you answered.  One other nice feature is that you can either answer questions and move on, or you can it show you if you answer an individually question correctly before you advance to the next one.

There is one complaint that I have about the product.  It does not seem to have a feature that will break down how well you did on a test by topic.  So you can’t see a nice graph showing you where your weak subjects are.

Outside of that one thing, it’s definitely a nice product.  If you are looking to pick up a practice test product for the CCIE written, I would definitely recommend this.  If you go to the link that I provided earlier, you can see a sample question from the product.  The question changes each day, so you can get a feel for it over a week or so.

Written test postponed

Well, only a few days after scheduling my written test, I had to cancel.  My wife had lost her job a month and a half ago as a casualty of the crappy housing market.  Unfortunately, she hasn’t found another job as of yet.  Double unfortunately, we learned today that unemployment in Minnesota is 7 weeks behind schedule due to the large number of claims.  So unless she can pick up another job soon, we’ll be a few more months without a second income.  That $350 that I paid for the test reservation just became pretty important to have back in our bank account again.  So my test will be postponed until we have a second income again.

On the bright side, that’ll give me some time to shore up a few weak areas in my studies.  Mainly BGP, Multicast, and QoS policing and shaping.  However things pan out, I think I’ll start focusing on the lab after the Christmas break and do some written refreshers 2-3 times per week to keep everything fresh until I can take the exam.  Fortunately, my wife has a good line on a job that will start in January.  So with any luck, I’ll be able to get this out of the way next month.  Worst case, it should be February.

Written Exam Scheduled

I scheduled my written exam for this upcoming Wednesday, Dec 17.  I was originally hoping to take it Friday, but I guess I waited too long, and that day was all booked up.  So was the following week.  Since I wanted to get this done before Christmas, I had to move it up a bit.

I fished off my second read-through of my materials this morning, including taking notes of everything that I had previously underlined.  As I went through each section, I also used the Boson practice test included in the Cisco Press Exam Cert Guide to see how I was doing.  This had 2 effects.  First, I’m feeling fairly good about my chances this Wednesday.  Second, I have re-affirmed that Boson has the absolute worst quality control of any company that I have ever seen.  But I’ll save that tirade for another post.

So my plan between now and the test is to hit the practice tests hard, making note of my weak areas.  Then I’ll work on shoring up those weaknesses good enough to get me by for the test.  I’ll  be picking up the practice tests from Net Master Class.  I had another person recommend them to me, and I’ve also been checking out their question of the day for the last week.  From what I have seen, it looks pretty good.  They also have links to documents on Cisco’s site in their question explanations.  So they point you to more info if you need it, which I thought was nice.  I’ll be sure to give a full review on it once I pass my test.

From what I have heard, the written test isn’t overly difficult.  Not much worse than the CCNP level exams at least in terms of individual question difficulty.  I hope that’s the case.  If it is, I’m feeling optimistic.  I can’t say I want to have to shell out another $350 and spend my Christmas holiday break  studying.  I’ll be sure to let you all know how it goes.

Next few weeks

Just wanted to give you all a heads up that I won’t be posting anything very technical for a little while.  I’m shooting for taking my written exam on Dec 19.  So I’ll be putting most of my time into studying.  Also, with Christmas and lots of get togethers coming up soon, that’ll also be sucking up my time.  My hope is that I’ll return with a vengeance (in terms of blogging) after Christmas.  With any luck, I’ll be starting to focus on the lab then.

I’ll probably throw a couple of light posts between now and then.  But if not, hope everyone has a great Christmas.  Be sure to take a little time off of studying to focus on what’s important.