Keith Palka, CCIE #24917

The reality of it is still sinking it, but it's official: I am now CCIE RS 24917 after my first attempt! Without question, my success is greatly due to the materials available from Internetwork Expert. I went through all of the Class on Demands, Workbooks 1, 2, and 3, and the Core knowledge simulator. My schedule was short and aggressive, exactly 4 months from start till my lab date on July 20, 2009. On average, I studied 3 hours a night during the work week, and 6 - 8 hours on the weekends. Due to the time committed, and the high quality of the Internetwork Expert materials, I didn't find the lab as technically challenging as I expected. The study materials put me at a technical level that was above and beyond what I encountered in the lab, and it became more an issue of time management and lab strategy. My thanks again to the Internetwork Expert team. Over the past four months, I bounced between praising and cursing the Internetwork Expert name. The end result is that thestudy materials pushed me to reach a level of technical proficiency that has made me realize this: I was a CCIE before I walked into the lab- the lab was more a necessary formality.