Ryan McKinney CCIE #17074,

"First of, I started my CCIE preparations last year about December. I started with Reading the standard books.

Routing TCP/IP vol I & II. I actually did all of my studies off of Vol I first edition and the re-read the 2nd ed when it cam out. I recommend reading the 2nd ed.
I also browsed thru Cisco Lan Switching, but the entire books is based in CAT OS so I ended up going back to my CCNP BCMSN (Cisco press) book. I think it pretty much covered what I needed to know. It is actually a pretty good book.
I used the QOS book (Cisco press) for CCVP.
I referred to the BGP commands and configuration guide as needed.
I referred to the OSPF commands and configuration guide as needed.
In the last week before my written, I used TestKing.. (yes I used TK, but only after I felt I have a strong background in all of the core topics)
I took and passed my CCIE R&S Written on March 11.
I bought the CCIE Exam certification guide after I passed the written and read it. It is much more useful it you get it before the written, because it is mostly for the written.

I then played around a little bit on the CCIE Practical studies VOL I until I started my class in June.

On Just 6 I stared a bootcamp in India. I attended Ip Solutions R&S Lab bootcamp in Mumbai India. It lasted for 1 month. Basically I sat in front of a computer with a Full Lab sitting next to me and for 8 hours a day I completed Labs with a CCIE instructor helping me. The class itself was 1 month, but I stayed a little longer, (about 4 more weeks) and utilized the equipment doing Internetwork Experts labs. I really liked them and felt they thought me A LOT.

CODEwww.ipsol.net


I got back to the states in August and continued to do Internetwork Experts Labs with online rack time. I used Internetwork Experts online labs a few times, but mostly used CODEwww.ccie2be.comas they are cheaper for the time. Their equipment is set up perfectly for the IEWB.
I made sure I could get thru all of the IEWB labs. I did 1-30 and repeated 1-10.
In Late August I signed up for an IEWB Mock Lab and did pretty well on it and then I signed up for the CCIE assessor Lab. I did well on it too, so I figured I was ready.

I sat my lab for my first attempt on Sep 8 and feel I came pretty close, just not close enough.

After that I was pretty discouraged for a while and did not study at all. I was just being lazy but really wanted to continue but did not have my heart in it. I scheduled a trip to Hawaii and for the day after Hawaii, I set up the Heinz Ulm bootcamp.

So, after my trip to Hawaii, I flew directly to Denver and sat in Class with Heinz Ulm for his Mock Lab bootcamp. October 9-13CODEhttp://www.heinzulm.com/mocklab.php
That ended and I had one week before my Lab Date of October 20. I made a deal with Heinz and utilized his Online Labs until the following Thursday morning. (day before Lab) I used that week to do a few more of his labs and go thru the DOC CD every chance I got to find things I knew I might need to find in the real lab.

I sat down on Friday, Oct 20 and was pretty confident. I was finished with my IGP and had started BGP before Lunch. When i got back form Lunch, I continued with BGP and moved on to the rest. I had completed my entire Lab with the exception of one security Task I never got to work right. I ended up leaving it alone because I felt it would mess me up in other areas because I never did get it right. I got up to leave about 1 our before time was up, but for some reason came back to my seat to run a few more tests (LUCKILY). I found one thing that was broken from one of the later tasks I did, and fixed it, after that I could not drag myself away from the seat until they told me to go. I ran ping, Telnets, and Trace routes to EVERY SINGLE IP in the Exam. I highly recommend that if you have time, do it.


--------------------
Ryan McKinney
CCIE #17074, CCNP, CCNA, CSPFA"