Dot Encrypt

I have been delaying for a great deal of time the completion of my CCIE R&S lab and have finally decided due to life events that it is time to kick things into high gear. To this end I am setting a goal for myself of completion of the lab in 120 days. As we all know progress toward the CCIE requires an immense investment of resources in time, money and post-poning of many of lifes other aspects. I have decided to utilize this blog as a method of spurring myself to completion and holding my own hand to the fire while recording, sharing and hopefully inspiring a few others out there who are traversing the same path. Having discussed this project with my wife over the last few years as I have dabled from time to time with the lab I am choosing this time to lay out a specific timetable and move forward on that path forsaking all other joys and many responsibilities for the next 120 days. To this end the first item on my list was to enlist the aid and support of my loving and immensely patient wife for this arduous journey ahead. My wife is truly the foundation of my life and without her I would stand little chance of completing this journey. As I am gainfully employed in a fulltime status despite the current economy the study schedule I have planned will require me to lock myself away for the evening after work and take over my weekends. The planned schedule is as follows:M-F 6pm to 12am S/S 10 hours per day as a goal with 6 hands on a 4 reading/reviewing.At this rate with the odd lunch hour thrown in it should be possible to rack up on the order of 50 hours per week minimum towards the goal. I think it is widely accepted that a minimum of 400-600 hours of intense study is required to even consider the lab and have a reasonable hope of passing therefore at this rate 50 hours per week for 12 weeks puts me in range and allows for some slippage in the 12 week schedule. Along the path I plan to evealuatemy progress and readdress the schedule as required.MaterialI plan to utilize the INE program as the basis for my study plan supplemented by the invaluable Safari Books online subscription, Evernote, my trusty Moleskine and IPAD loaded with my vast collection of .pdfs built up over the years. The doc CD has become a bit of a challenge for me to study with as I find it most distracting to constantly be led from one broken link to another while trolling through the vast repository of Cisco documentation. This is however, the only resource available during the lab and I am planning that by week 4or 5 of my studies I am no longer referencing outside documentation unless absolutely necessary.

Read more...