On November 25th, I made my first attempt of the CCIE and failed it.
I've always found insight from reading other people's lab attempt stories so I wanted to share my notes. I've always enjoyed reading more detail in these stories so this probably won't be brief. I realize this is a lot of advice from someone who did not pass but I feel like I have a pretty good handle on what I did wrong. Hopefully someone finds it helpful. If not, it's helped me organize my notes better. :)
Speed - This was what ensured my failure. People have always talked about the speed required to pass the CCIE and I feel this is a point which cannot be overstressed. Not just typing speed or anything like that. Speed where you read a bullet point and you almost instantly know what you need to do and why that solution is the best one. Accuracy. Like the Terminator's heads-up display. I had a couple of moments in the lab where I felt like that and I realized I needed a lot more of it to pass.
Knobs - At some point during or after my exam, I found myself murmering "Cisco Certified Knob Expert." I don't mean this with any negative emotion; I just really felt like it was the truth. You must be an expert of mostly every knob of the relevant Cisco IOS. I tried to explain it to a non-network friend this way, "You have to be able to look inside the cockpit of a 747 and say 'I know what every knob does and how it affects all the other knobs and the overall airplane.'" This is just like the issue with Speed. I knew it going in, but until you go to lunch and feel like someone hit you in the face with a baseball bat, it doesn't quite have the same meaning. :)
Time management - I feel like I did OK here. I told myself sticking to my plan was even more important than passing. I wanted to stay focused on the overall objective and no matter how stressed out I got I could still stick to my plan. I did about 8 minutes per ticket on TS and was really close to solving a bunch of them but still forced myself to move on when I was supposed to. In the end, I knew I had failed after TS but I didn't panic and flail. I was happy about that part. I wasn't really fast enough at TS or Config to make time management the single factor determining pass or fail but the next time when time management counts, I'll know I can do it right.
Timed excercises and stressful situations - This was another killer for me. I waited too long to start timed excercises. Mock Labs, Graded Labs, Full scale labs with the clock ticking, etc etc. I realized this a few weeks before my actual exam and I wasn't sure how badly it would impact my actual lab result. The bottom line was: a lot. There's nothing which can prepare you for the stress and pressure of the actual lab day, but anything you can do to make yourself race against a clock will help.
There was a guy taking his Service Provider exam who told me he ran a 10k one day and then made himself sit down and do a full scale 8 hour lab. Great idea! He also told me he made himself do a full scale lab while a game with his favorite football team was on the tv next to him. Another great idea! Anything you can to simulate stress on your body and mind and enhance your ability to focus under any conditions will be a HUGE benefit. This concept really got me thinking of trying to find the WORST times to do a full scale lab or timed drill. Got a head-cold? Great time to study! :) Late for a party? Do an OSPF NBMA drill. Promise your wife you will stop studying at 11 tonight? What type of timed drill can you challenge yourself with?
Not doing enough timed and stress inducing drills really was the single biggest factor in my failure. I have a good understanding of the technology and maybe enough to pass the exam on knowledge alone - if it were a knowledge exam. However, by not doing enough timed activities, I developed a somewhat "lackadaisical" style toward the technology. By that I mean, when I approached a full scale mock lab with an attitude that I can finish it "whenever I get it done" I was dooming myself. It's fine for initial studying but when preparing for the actual testing, it should be timed and stressful and focused and intense.
Juggling stuff - I think I got a little too used to my Windows 7 "Aero Snap" feature for arranging terminal windows and diagrams. That feature was not present on my exam workstation. I found myself tinkering with window size and placement and keeping track of all the different open windows. Minor struggles here but it can count overall. I would recommend against getting too caught up on a style of window arrangement which has a dependency on any monitor size or operating system.
I also felt like I was weak in "keep things straight." What I mean is, when you have to keep track that VLAN7 connects to widget 10 and VLAN9 connects to widget 1 and this interface uses that IP and this VLAN connects to this interface, it's easy to get lost. At best, you can find yourself going back to the source information over and over and wasting time and at worst you can make some big, time consuming mistakes. I'm not good at keeping track of a random list of IPs, VLANs, interfaces etc etc in my head and I'm going to have to find a way to improve at this.
Diagrams - I understand the classic INE approach to redrawing the diagrams and the reasons behind it. However, with the lab I took, I'm not 100% convinced of the value of it. Without going into any NDA areas, I will say A LOT of digrams were provided. The diagramming skills I've picked up from the classic INE approach along the way have really helped me but I'm not sure my redrawn diagrams need to have as much detail as I use. Redrawing the digram to get a good solid feeling for the network seems to make 100% sense. Going beyond that and adding lots of detail which might be provided in a diagram which looks exactly like the one you just drew could be debatable. And I will concede there might be an aspect to this I missed in my studies.
INE - I felt like the INE products were really spot on in preparation for the exam, even though I failed it. :) Vol 2 especially as timed excercises are really good. After having attempted it once, I would say a target goal with Vol 2 Labs should be "I could finish ANY of those labs in 4 to 5 hours and have enough time to go back over the whole thing." This is probably another thing that goes without saying. I just feel strongly if you can't honestly say that to yourself, you're probably not ready. I know I wasn't. The Graded Lab products were really good preparation for time stress too.
I did notice a bit of INE "polarization" when starting the lab. Obviously INE isn't going to - and can't - make their products look and feel exactly like the real thing. I had a few moments of "this doesn't look like INE" at first and I think I lost some time and points adjusting to this.
I also recommend trying to find the cheapest keyboard and mouse you can find (say a Logitech K120) and if you can make your desk small and really uncomfortable so that you bang your knees on the legs that might help out too. :)
I spent the day before the exam relaxing in my hotel room, which I think was a good thing. I cruised the Cisco DOC-CD site a little bit but didn't try to study too hard. I drove down to the test building from my hotel to get an idea where I was going in the morning and walked around the vacant campus a bit to unwind. By focusing on relaxing, I got a good night's sleep and I felt pretty clear headed during the lab day.
I took my exam at the San Jose campus. I will add some San Jose specific notes under the Lab Locations forum.
If you've made it this far, I hope you found my notes helpful or useful.
I scheduled myself for my next attempt in 4 months as soon as I got my results in. I'm really looking forward to attempting it again!
Cheers and good luck!