Blaine Williams, CCIE #18316
CCIE
I just want to start by saying thank you to everyone on Groupstudy, the guys over at InternetworkExpert, and all the 50 pound brains at my old shop. I passed my R/S lab yesterday and now I don't know what to do with myself. I think I'm in a bit of shock. It really is all about psychology. I know everyone always says this, but I'm a firm believer now. I went in for my first attempt yesterday morning, but I'm convinced that the test really started four days ago when I stopped studying. I made it a point NOT to study the few days prior to my test. It was really hard not to go digging around in the doc cd or try and do one or two more labs, but that may have been the best decision I made over the course of my studies. It REALLY helped me keep the stress down and get a good nights sleep the night before. Of course, the wonderful bed at the Residence Inn helped a little on that part, too. When I got to the testing facility in the morning at RTP, I was refreshed and ready to go. Now for the study stuff. Dynamips is a godsend. It can be really annoying and really buggy. But for guys on a budget like me, it's perfect. Once you get the kinks worked out, you can lab anything up in minutes. I'll probably keep using it from here on out for quick testing at work. The workbooks from InternetworkExpert are wonderful. Their advanced technology series are a great place to start your labbing. The core workbooks are excellent for building your speed. And their main workbooks are great for building technique and developing good lab based critical-thinking. Reading the Doc CD can't be stressed enough, either. Use it as your primary source of information. It's your only asset in the lab, so why not base your studies off of it? It helped me a lot when I was unsure of something. It should only take 15-20 seconds to look something up for clarification. Lastly, don't get overwhelmed. It's a lot of material. But, it's not so bad if you break it up. I guess it's time to get back to the real world. Thanks again for all your help.