Passed!!!

I finally made it through!!! Whew, that was a challenge. I'm going to relax for a bit and then put together a guide for getting from R&S to SP. In the meantime, time to have some drinks and kill off some of those brain cells that have been tied up for the past year.

Waiting Again

Here we go again, I'm waiting for the score to post.

This time, I had an estimated 77 points before lunch, and had the entire lab completed in 5 hours. My max score was 97%. I went through a very detailed verification and found 9 points that I made stupid mistakes on--basically not reading the requirements properly.

I did run into one situation where I decided to proceed with one method instead of the other. On the drive home it occurred to me a possibility I didn't test for that might have required the other method. The most I could see that costing me is 6 points.

Also, there were another 6 points that I was pretty sure about, but may have been open to interpretation.

So, the absolute worst score I can see myself getting is 85%. This is a lot like when I passed the R&S lab. I better have passed this time!

INE Bootcamp Lab 2 Complete

This lab wasn't too bad either. I did run into a few issues this time though. A few things I just need to pound into my head.

1. is-is knobs
2. vrf nat requires the global keyword on the ip route vrf
3. for mdt, make sure all of the intermediate interfaces have pim enabled
4. Peak rate vs average rate

I'd put my score as follows:
Layer 2: 7/7
IGP: 17/23
BGP: 7/7
MPLS: 14/14
VPN: 12/16
Multicast: 4/11
QoS: 3/6
Security: 6/6
Management: 7/7
IP Services: 3/3
Total: 80/100

INE Bootcamp Lab 1 Complete

I have 6 days left until my attempt, and I sure took my time getting back into studying.

I didn't run into any major issues at all with lab 1. I didn't have to look up anything and was able to get l2vpn, atm, pppoe, and l3vpn up and running. Final score was 96%. I lost 4 points because I couldn't find a netflow knob. I didn't spend too much time looking for it and would have probably come across it eventually.

On to lab 2...

INE Bootcamp Over

Note I didn't say the bootcamp was complete. Especially when it comes to lab 3, I have a lot of work to do. The three bootcamp labs cover most of the lab topics really well, I feel. After taking three real attempts, I didn't see many core topics that weren't covered in these labs. Sure it wasn't exactly the same, and there are always going to be some knobs that they dig up for the real labs that aren't covered anywhere else, but there's not much you can do to prepare for that besides knowing the DocCD well.

But as far as fundamentals, it's pretty much all covered in these 3 labs. Therefore, my plan is to revert back to my R&S study ways, which was to study every weekend, instead of trying to squeeze study time in during the week.

So I'm going to repeat these 3 labs over and over again until I have them down pat. One on each Sunday. That should give me about 3 practices each, and everything in them should be second nature by then. I'm pretty optimistic that this will get me over that 4% hump.

INE SP Online Bootcamp Lab 1

Wow, I actually passed the first mock lab. All I can say is this lab is MUCH better preparation than the INE vol 2 workbook.

Final score: 80%. I missed 4 points from lack of understanding, 8 points from stupid mistakes, and 8 points weren't attempted (long story...).

Aside from the lab, it's also quite nice to rent Scott Morris for the week as he gives excellent explanations. I managed to ingrain 3 or 4 fundamental concepts into my head which I didn't quite catch onto before. I hear the next two labs are much tougher so I hope I'm up to the challenge.

Signed up for INE bootcamp next week

To further ensure my success in November, I signed up for the INE online SP bootcamp next week. I debated for a bit whether or not to take it, but it was a great deal and I know, even with my 76%, I still have some areas that could use a lot of help.