The Final Six Months

With a now-solid background combining practical and theoretical knowledge, your final six months of preparation should involve reading the Cisco IOS Configuration Guides from cover to cover. As you read each chapter, review the associated chapter in the Cisco IOS Command Reference to ensure that you are familiar with the full configuration capabilities of the IOS for that protocol. Then use your lab to configure the protocol covered in the chapter in as many ways as you can. Play "what if" games , trying to make the protocol work in unusual situations. You will find that the best learning experiences result not when a configuration works as expected, but when it doesn't.

Keep a notebook of your configurations and your thoughts on how they worked or didn't work. Be sure to explore and record all troubleshooting tools, such as debug and show commands, relevant to the protocol.

Your goal at each end of chapter is to be able to configure at least the essential elements of the protocol from memory. When you are taking the CCIE lab, it is important to be able to configure the "easy stuff" with little thought so that you can be thinking ahead to the difficult configuration problems. You should also be familiar with how the protocol behaves, what configuration options exist, and how to troubleshoot the protocol. When you meet these goals for one chapter, move to the next .

Early in this final six months, you should take the written portion of the CCIE exam. Don't be fooled by this exam ”it is intended primarily to weed out anyone who is completely unprepared so that he or she is only out the price of the written test instead of the much higher price of the lab exam. If you have followed a good study program, you will not find the written exam to be particularly difficult.

Several Cisco training partners offer CCIE preparation courses, which give you experience doing lab work under conditions similar to the CCIE lab exam. Do not mistake these classes as a substitute for diligent study and practice. If you choose to attend one of these classes, you should first be fully prepared to take the CCIE exam. The greatest benefit you will gain from the commercial preparation labs is a feel for being "under the gun," working difficult problems within tight time constraints.