I wanted to share some stats and info about my studying for the R&S written and lab exams.  I figure that if I share what I put into my successful CCIE attempt, it’ll remove some of the mystery around what it takes to get those lovely 5 digits.

First, I’ll give you some background on my experience and knowledge heading into my CCIE prep.  My work experience was confined to the switching realm.  I had not worked on any routers or WAN connections.  In terms of routing protocols, I only worked with EIGRP.  My experience with the other CCIE technologies (such as QoS, security, management) were at a basic level.  I had also just come off of earning my CCNP.  So I had built up that knowledge and also had some study momentum going into my CCIE.

Next, I’ll list out the materials that I used for studying.  You can find reviews of most of these in the blog.

Books

• Routing TCP/IP vol1 and vol2
• CCIE official certification guide
• QoS study guide

Workbooks

• Internetwork Expert vol 1-3
• IP Expert vol 1

Audio/Video

• Internetwork Expert Advanced Technologies Class videos
• Internetwork Expert Open Lecture Series videos
• IP Expert Technology Lecture Series audio and vidoes

Lastly, here are the numbers in terms of hours/weeks studied.

Total hours studied= 690:55
Total weeks of studying= 42
Average hours per week= 16.45

Total hours of Reading= 171:35
Total hours of Audio/Video= 188:50
Total hours of Labbing= 330:30

Total hours by topic.

So what does all of this mean?  I don’t know.  I’m sure different people will take away different snippets of info that might be helpful to them.  I just wanted to make sure that I was sharing what I could with the community.