Here Is My two cents
The written and Lab are two completely different animals. However depending on how well you prepare for the written, you will have a better chance on doing well in the Lab. A quick example for me was that I read everything I could on OSPF and than during the heat of the moment in the Lab I had a simple task to summarize some routes on a router in a non-area0 domain a couple of hops away from the ABR, into Area 0. I configured it on that particular router, but the routes were not summarized down stream. I decided to skip that section. I then was back tracking and took a min for a break and it dawn on me that I have to summarize on the ABD and not directly on the router it’s self. There was several other situation like that for me I the Lab and I made it through.
My suggestions are.
Written
1. Put together a book list and set a timeframe for completing all of them.
2. Read the CCIE forums and see what others used for practice exams to pass (sadikhov.com and ccieforum.com). Most of the Questions from those exams are exactly what’s on the real exam, but don’t fall into the trap of just memorizing the questions. Use it to find out which subjects you are weak in. This method also help me in retaining what I read in the books, because when I got to a section in the book that I couldn’t answer in the practice test, I found that when I went back to the practice question I retain a better understanding of the topic.
Recommended books:
Doyle Router TCP/IP 1 & 2 is the bible
CCNP Switching and Routing books
CCSP SNRS (a must for AAA and CBAC)
IP QOS Cert guide
Optimal Routing Design
CCIE Practical Studies Vol1 (good FrameRelay section)
For the LAB:
1. Speed, Speed and more Speed. When I got in the lab and read the LAB, I thought WoW this is going to be easy. Next thing you know it was close to 2pm and I have one our left and had to rush through the rest. So of course I fail my first attempt. Most people fail the first attempt so be prepared to take it again as soon as possible. I took it a month later and aced it. There was a lot of tips I got from the forums I listed above that helped me out, like tcl scripts on the routers that you could set up o one of your edge routers to ping a IP in every subnet in the network to test connectivity. This will help you out by verifying that 1) your routing is working 2) you didn’t configure a task that broke another previous config task. Also I set up a macro key on the F5 key for the shift+6+x break seq, then I set up a reverse telnet for R1=2001, R2=2002,etc.., so from one terminal window I was able to switch between the routers/switches by just hitting F5 1 for R1 than F5 3 for R3 and so on.
2. You MUST condition you self to sit in front of you terminal for 8-10 straight hours. That was another problem for me on my first attempt. After 4 hrs I was shoot and wasn’t thinking cleanly. So the second time I downed 2 Red Bulls before I left the hotel and I was wired. Also the night before in the Hotel, just watch some TV relax and get at least 8hrs sleep.
3. When you get to the LAB, read the Entire LAB before you even touch the computer and take some notes as you read. One thing I did was write down all of the subnets/loopbacks in a note pad. This help me create my tcl ping script. I also made a quick section check list and checked off the sections that I know I nailed and which ones I have to go back to. I also tried to set a timeframe of 15mins to complete each task and If I was not done within that time I moved on to the next question. The best thing to remember is that you don’t need to complete ALL of the task, just enough to pass the LAB, for example if it took you 40mins to complete a task for just 5points and could not finish the exams because of the time you wasted, you could have skipped that task and completed three other simple task In that same time frame for 20 points.
4. Also look to get or go to a good bootcamp. I used Internetwork expert and completed about 10 out of 30 practice LABs. They opened my eyes to a lot, I still made a promise to myself to go back and complete the other 20 Labs some day. (But right now a studying for the CCIE Security LAB, so that is on the back burner). Without this it would have probably took me about five attempt before I would have passed or gave up.
5. Last but not least, know your way around cisco.com/univercd. You will have access to this during the lab without the search function, so you will need to know how to find things quickly. The were about three task that I never even heard of, but was able to find in two mins. For example “fallback bridging”. Before the lab I never configured or heard of it, but found it in 2mins in the “3560 Catalyst Switch” section. I picked up about 15 points this way. You must know the IP Service and Security sections well.
Good luck guys, hope this helped.
