Hi Peter

Congrats on passing 1st hurdle !!

My advice for next step is as follows:

1-lookup blue prints.

2-Use blue prints to work out a schedule aiming to gain hands on on each topic.

3-start setting urself deadlines on when u aim to be done with blue prints ....1st round :-)

4-To gain hands on either get it own lab or find an online one. Dynampis are very good too, but some times bugged.

5-join a study group or find a study partner, its gonna be a marathon and u need a partner.

6-leave no stone unturned. work on speed, there will not be time to dwell on a topic so know ur configs "eyes closed".

7-Aim beyond CCIE, meaning becoming a good enginner...then CCIE will complement you.

8-2009 might be long way , but it will catch up on you. so set strict but realistic deadlines to avoid stress.

9-aim to be ready before Jan 2009, this will abvoid last minute stress...cos there will be last minute stress.

10-Start using Cisco doc page, get used to naviguate it.

best of luck !

Sam

Peter,

Sam had some good comments and I would like to emphasize a couple. #1 Read the blue print. Not only read it, read it over and over, print it out. Know what to expect. If in doubt study it.

Know how to do things multiple ways. Some times the way you are comfortable with may not be doable given some other portion of the test.

Get out of your head any questions of "Why would they have me do that? it would be easier to do it this way." The test is a test of skills, not a real world network.

Practice, practice, practice. (I know thats an old quote and I can't remember now who should get the credit.)

Sam also mentioned practice labs, very good idea. I used one and it worked well. I wont endorse any product here, so look around.

Dynamips os very good for the routing part. Need practice on switching also. After all it is Routing and Switching.

A lab partner is good, but do not let him/her stop you. If you use a partner, do not rely on them. It is your test.

On test day, get there early. I don't know about traffic at RTP, but it is horrible in San Jose. Arrive the day before the test and drive by the test location. I have been lost a few times in the San Jose Cisco complex. Relax and watch your time, hours spent getting 3 points takes away from getting 15 or more. You do not have to score 100%.

Good Luck!

Congrats! Now you begin the fun journey.

I am assuming that you are going for R&S. You didn't leave yourself a ton of time so I would recommend Internetwork Expert COD and more importantly the workbooks. What I did was go through the COD and take extensive notes, work through all the vol 1 labs. Go through the COD again take more notes, go through the vol 2 workbook. At this point, I took my first attempt and failed. So the next important step for me was going to Netmasters for the 1 week boot camp (part2). This will teach you how to have a strategy (which is hugely important) and not get stuck down a rat hole. After I got back from that, I took 1-2 mock labs (netmasters and internetwork experts) to get used to the time pressure, I studied the cisco CD that you will have access to (to make sure I knew where to find things) and took it. Passed on 2nd attempt.

With such a short timeframe to work, its going to mean long hours and some $$.

I hope that helps.

Craig Middlebrooks,CCIE#17623