How Did You Do?

With the aid of the answers section and full configurations and routing tables on the CD, you should now have an accurate evaluation of your lab. If you scored more than 80 points within the timeframe, you should congratulate yourself. You are well on the way to becoming a CCIE; you have demonstrated the ability to think laterally and shown an impressive knowledge of your subject. If you scored less than 80, do not worry, take the lab again when you can to improve your score.

Did you spot the landmines in the lab? The classics in Lab 6 were to give you, under this IP IGP topology, the basic setup for OSPF, RIPv2, EIGRP, and BGP, as well as QoS, IOS features, and IP features. These subjects are possible candidates to be found in the real lab exam.

This lab added some routing authentication and some VoIP, too. Section 9 provided coverage of routing authentication to intentionally give you an idea about one more variable that can break your topology. This part could be found directly on the IGP section. Also, an important thing to keep in mind is the feature each area has. You need to explore these going through Cisco Documentation. You need to explore on each section of the documentation specially the features that are available.

On each of the labs throughout the book, you were required to demonstrate your knowledge in more complex tasks, environments, and behaviors, and prove yourself to be capable of solving the issues. The real one-day lab exam does not have the Troubleshooting section anymore, but, on the other hand, during the exam you can find yourself in a "troubleshooting" situation if you do not have a solid knowledge of what you are configuring. Keep in mind that you will need to perform some "basic" troubleshooting during the exam. The hands-on experience will give you the confidence that you need. Always be careful when configuring network masks and pay attention to which router you are working on.

Your ability to spot landmines, ask the right questions, and increase your configuration speed will improve as you tackle each practice lab.

For each question that you did not answer correctly, take the time to research the subject thoroughly and turn your weaknesses into your strengths. Research and plenty of practice will ultimately lead you to gain a passing score.