Spring is in the air, at least where I am. But even though the trees are flowering, I won’t be going outside much to enjoy them—I’ve got a CCIE to study for.
Here are my stats for April. I took a week off to travel, but aside from that I went pretty “hardcore” this month:
- Study hours: 158
- Flashcards made: 1,668
- Current total number of flashcards: 4,906
I know the number of flashcards seems excessive, but trust me—it works for me! Next month, I think I’ll write more about how I make and use the flashcards as I study. But for this month, I want to focus on something else: this post from Yoshinori Okayama, who is both a CCDE and 8xCCIE:
Grok’s translation of point 6 is a bit too literal—basically, he means you should address your weak points on the (failed) exam so much that it feels like you’re overdoing it. What strikes me about this “CCIE-passing algorithm” is that failure is built into the process: you take the exam within six months, whether you are truly ready or not, and use your failure (which is the likely outcome) to guide your further studies.
Of course, it’s worth mentioning that the CCIE lab exam is $1,600 USD—not something that most people can easily afford to take over and over until they pass. But when planning your CCIE studies, you really should factor two to three exam attempts into your budget. From what I’ve heard, first-attempt passes are quite rare.
Following Mr. Okayama’s advice, I think I will take my first attempt before the end of this year. Of course, I’d be ecstatic if I pass on the first attempt, but the real goal is to get a feel for what the exam is really like and to identify my weak points.
To prepare, I’m planning to take Narbik’s bootcamp—either the July class or the October class. Until then, I’ll be continuing with KBITS, the CCIE R&S OCG, Routing TCP/IP, and the various other resources I’ve gathered. See you next month!
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