Johan Prasetio, CCIE #38343

hi, getting CCIE number is truly a great experience. i start learning ccie by joining a community and through it buy ine workbook and also tokens for rack rental. It was all self funding. most of my L2 study where done at INE rack rental and the rest by GNS3. INE'w workbook is really a good material, every task help me to get deeper in each technology, i make notes on each technology and these notes help me even now. I also try INE's TS challenge... it is very challenging and good stuff. well , i don't think the exam's TS is as hard as INE's TS. So, WB INE and INE's TS are very good stuff. about after eight months since doing iNE WB (and actually finishing WB vol1), i attend the ccie lab for the first time, but unfortunately failed. I think, unable to cope with the exam pressure is the main reason. After realizing the reason why i fail and try to forget the money;-) i decide, with whats left in my bank account, i book another attempt at tokyo, in february 2013. This is the first time i go that far. But this time, i try to be ready not only for the exam tasks but also for the pressure. The proctor, james hsu, was also very helpful, he used enough time to explain the exam rules and communicate with us so that none of us doing the exam with extra worries. Being Relax before the exam is very important guys. Troubleshooting part was very challenging. I was planning to do as quick as i can, but end up using the very last second of the whole two hours to try to solve all the questions perfectly. I only managed to solve nine of ten tickets. This gives me worry. I then try to focus on Configuration part. Configuration part had some injected failure that i had to find. And most of the tasks also challenging. I finish the configuration one and a half hour prior to time limit. I save all configuration and reload all devices, going to toilet, take two bottles of mineral water after that, and beginning to verify everything. i use notepad and papers to do that. I verify Each line of each task. I finish the verification, five minutes before the exam end. Going back to hotel with big headache and feeling uncertain, it was very cold at tokyo afterall. I wen under the coverlet on my bed, can't sleep but pray the wholetime, feeling uncertain about the next attempt's funding and try to ready myself to receive bad news, But about twenty minutes praying, my wifi gadget gives an email alert, it was from cisco... and drum roll! I Pass! Thank you God, thank you everyone, and thank you INE. I'm planning to study for the second track, SP. and start to do INE WB version 3 for SP. hopefully, i just need one attempt for this. To all, happy studying, you're all already in good hand (i mean INE). CCIE#38343 (RS)