CCIE Candidate

This document is the roadmap Ethan Banks followed to prepare for the lab after passing the written qualification exam.  Every candidate will have their own plan of attack; different approaches work for different people.  This is just an example of a roadmap that happened to work for a guy with a full-time job and a family.

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REVISION 6.4 (FINAL) of LAB ROADMAP by Ethan Banks
Last updated 5/2/2008

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July 29: Purchase NetMasterClass DoIT Volume 2 workbook, prep CCIE rack.

August 5-12: DOiT Lab 1
August 19: DOiT Lab 2
August 26: DOiT Lab 3

September 2: DOiT Lab 4
September 9: DOiT Lab 5
September 16: DOiT Lab 6
September 23: DOiT Lab 7
September 30: DOiT Lab 8

October 7: DOiT Lab 9
October 14: DOiT Lab 10
October 20: Scheduled lab attempt #1 in RTP, NC, USA. FYI, there’s a 6 month lead time.
October 21: DOiT Lab 11
October 28: DOiT Lab 12

November 4: DOiT Lab 13
November 11: DOiT Lab 14
November 19: DOiT Lab 15
November 20: DOiT Lab 16
November 21: DOiT Lab 17
November 24: DOiT Lab 18

December 1: DOiT Lab 19
December 8: Read, review, study.
December 15: InternetworkExpert.com CCIE R&S Mock Lab #2, difficulty 6. (Scored 47.)
December 21: DOiT Lab 20
December 22: DOiT Lab 21
December 29: DOiT Lab 22

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January 5: DOiT Lab 23
January 12: DOiT Lab 24
January 21: DOiT Lab 25
January 26: Narbik’s Soup-to-Nuts

February 2: Narbik’s Soup-to-Nuts
February 9: Narbik’s Soup-to-Nuts
February 16: Narbik’s Soup-to-Nuts
February 18 - 23: Narbik Kocharians’ CCIE Lab Bootcamp
February 24 - March 1: Narbik’s Advanced Lab Workbooks

March 2 - 8: Narbik’s Advanced Lab Workbooks
March 9 - 15: Narbik’s Advanced Lab Workbooks
March 16 - 22: Narbik Kocharians’ CCIE Lab Bootcamp (retake)
March 23 - 28: InternetworkExpert.com Workbook v4.1 Volume 3, Lab 1
March 29: InternetworkExpert.com CCIE R&S Mock Lab #6, difficulty 8. (Scored 59.)
March 30 - April 4: InternetworkExpert.com Workbook v4.1 Volume 3, Lab 2

April 5: IEWB v4.1 Volume 3, Labs 3+4
April 6 - 11: IEWB v4.1 Volume 3, Lab 5
April 12: IEWB v4.1 Volume 3, Labs 6+7
April 18: IEWB v4.1 Volume 2, Lab 6
April 19: InternetworkExpert.com CCIE R&S Mock Lab #5, difficulty 8. (Scored 55.)
April 21: IEWB v4.1 Volume 2, Lab 7
April 22: IEWB v4.1 Volume 3, Labs 8+9+10
April 23: IEWB v4.1 Volume 2, Lab 8
April 24: IEWB v4.1 Volume 2, Lab 9
April 25: IEWB v4.1 Volume 2, Lab 10
April 26: IEWB v4.1 Volume 2, Lab 11 (did read-through only)
April 29: First lab attempt passed.

“DOiT” is the NetMasterClass.com series of CCIE level practice scenarios. I completed working through the DOiT Vol.2 series of 25 scenarios as a part of my self-paced CCIE lab preparation on January 21, 2008.

Narbik Kocharians is triple CCIE #12410. Narbik’s written CCIE training material and CCIE lab bootcamp schedule is available from his Micronics Training website. I have completed Narbik’s Advanced Lab Workbook series and attended 2 of his CCIE bootcamps.

“IEWB” is short for “InternetworkExpert.com Workbook”. As final preparation for my first CCIE lab attempt, I worked through all of the IEWB volume 3 labs, which are 4-hour labs intended to improve the candidate’s speed and accuracy when configuring core routing and switching tasks. In my final week of preparation, I completed 5 IEWB volume 2 labs, which are full-scale practice labs, plus did a meaningful read-through of another. The InternetworkExpert.com R&S lab workbooks are available at their web site.