CCIE R&S Expanded Lab Blueprint

Internetwork Expert posted an expanded lab blueprint on their blog a little while back.  I took that and put it into a nicely formatted Word document.  That way, I can have a copy on my laptop or print it out so I can reference and mark off topics that I am prepared for.  If anyone else would like a copy, you can grab it at the link below.

http://ccietrek.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/ccie-study-blueprint1.docx

Status Update

I recently hit a milestone in my studies.  It’s been just over half a year now since I began this trek for my digits.  Things have been going well for the most part.  I passed my written exam on the first attempt.  Not that passing on the first try means anything, but I was happy to save myself any retesting fees.  I was able to get that out of the way a little over a month after my original goal.  Now that I have that out of the way, I’ve been able to start focusing on the lab.

My original goal for passing the lab was to do it by the end of 2009.  I felt that timeline was long enough to give me plenty of time without feeling the need to cram or rush.  But short enough as to not drag things out longer than they needed to.  Now that baby #1 is slated for an early August arrival, my goal changed to getting my digits before the baby comes.  Something tells me if I don’t get it before then, the first 2-3 months after the baby comes will pretty be pretty unproductive in terms of studying.

I have my lab date tentatively scheduled for July 9.  I still have a few weeks left before I’m required to put down money on it.  So I’ve been really trying to get a feel for how well I’m doing these past few weeks in terms of preparedness.  If I really don’t think that I’ll have a shot at passing, I’ll postpone until later in the year.  But at this point, I’m optimistic.

So far I have done 2 PolyLabs and 2 of Internetwork Expert’s workbook 2 labs.  They have all been at an easier difficulty level than the actual exam.  But the results are promising.  I’m pretty much nailing the core topics.  I’m getting most all of the points in the switching, frame relay, and IPG sections.  I’m also starting to get the core BGP, multicast, and IPv6 topics down pretty good.  But the QoS, security, and IP Services sections are just killing me.  My progress with those is not moving along as fast as I would like.  But even with that, I still scored a 75% and a 83% on my first 2 workbook 2 labs.  Plus, I’m doing pretty well in terms of how long it takes me to do a lot of the tasks.

So all in all, I’m feeling optimistic about being ready for July 9.  I’m doing well in the most important topics.  In the topics that I’m so-so on, I feel pretty confident that I can get myself to where I’ll need to be by test time.  I’m still not sure about my problem topics.  My count-down timer is telling me that I have 15 1/2 weeks left to prepare.  I know I’ve got the ability.  I just need to make sure I’m putting in the effort during each of the next 108 days.