I want to take a few minutes to talk to everybody out there reading about how to get the most out of your CCIE training experience. There are certain things you can do to get the most out of your experience, and these are things that are too often overlooked.

The bottom line is that for many students, it is their hard earned money at stake when they decide to come to an instructor led training course. IPexpert offers a few different courses. Namely, we offer the ILT which is an intense 5-day bootcamp program designed to teach all of the blueprint topics, while mixing in complex labs as well. The second course is the OWLE (One Week Lab Experience) in which the students come in and do very challenging full mock labs all week long in more of a real “lab” type scenario. The goal of this article is to focus on some of the things that you as a student can do to maximize your time while at a class.

Come Prepared

I really can’t stress this enough. The biggest issue I see with students coming into the ILT or the OWLE is that they are grossly underprepared for the complexity and sheer volume of material. The recommendation is that you have already been doing this for a while, are comfortable with CCNA/CCNP level topics, have some solid experience, and have gone through our CoD product and volume 1 technology specific labs before coming to the class! I have to say, this is very rare in a student, and it costs them an incredible amount of wasted time when they come into the class. Don’t get me wrong, we are here to dig into technology, and to handle the hardest type questions students can throw at us. The problem is that when students are not familiar with the core topics on the blueprint, and have little to no practice configuring many things, their speed is dismal and they spend much more time banging their head against the wall on things, and learning the things for the very first time than they do on “fine tuning” their knowledge. The course is designed to hit every blueprint topic, and to fine tune your existing knowledge, not to teach everything from the ground up. There simply is not enough time. When a student comes armed with the core knowledge and very good questions to ask to help us fine tune his arsenal of tools and strategy, that is when he will get the most benefit. For example, I myself attended a boot camp about two weeks before my lab exam. Most of what was covered was review, as it should be. You will of course be learning some new and exciting things, but the main idea is to fine tune, and to get practice with things, or clarification on things that maybe a book or a CoD didn’t give you. Get your core knowledge and practice down. Come see us when you are ready to find tune and take things to the next level.

You can bring a horse to the water...

...But you can’t make him drink! The idea here is that YOU have to seriously want to be a CCIE. That means at the end of the day YOU have to put in the countless hours of reading, practice, and more practice. YOU have to make the sacrifices necessary. All too often, I see people coming in with the mentality that this is the “magic pill” to their CCIE success. Hey, just spend some $$$, come sit and listen for a week and BOOM, I’m a CCIE!!! It just doesn’t work like that. You could have the best instructor on the planet, but if you don’t put in the time and energy, you will not be a CCIE. Remember, this is about you guys. We are here to make you that much better. I tell my students on the first day to plan on a very long week. My classes typically range from about 8-10 hours a day of lecture and lab time. Most students don’t finish their daily assigned lab work in class (because they came unprepared hehe) and should expect to be doing another 3-6 hours after class at the hotel. That is anywhere from 11 – 16 hours a DAY of hardcore material coming in at you and configuration. Some people are simply not willing to commit to that kind of madness. This is what you NEED to succeed to be a CCIE...practice, practice, and more practice! The point is that nobody is going to hand you a CCIE #. You can spend all the money in the world, and go to every class out there, but until you are ready to commit and put in the time and energy, it’s not going to happen.

Ask Good Questions

This is another big one. So far I have found that the best classes – The ones that most enjoy their time, the ones I most enjoy teaching, and the ones that typically have students passing their lab are the ones asking all the questions. I find student participation very important. I ask lots of questions. I can usually tell by the end of the first day what kind of class it will be. I typically ask questions that people should know coming into this class, and some to make you ponder things...when I get no answers I know people are unprepared. When I get people answering questions or answering MY questions with their own questions, it’s a good day! Do not be afraid to ask questions!!! Chances are, if you have a question somebody else can benefit too. Everybody wins! If there is something haunting you during your personal study, come ready with some good questions for the class. You will only benefit.

Put aside this time to not be distracted

When you come to a class like this, you want to have the time completely isolated away from your overly busy everyday life. That means family, friends, and work should all be given notification that hey I am there for you guys in an emergency, but for the most part I am busy this week! You need the time to focus on your study. Too many times at home we are distracted by a network outage, or driving kids somewhere, or noise in the house. Do yourself a favor and get away from it all for this week. Come in with the idea that you are going to ONLY focus on CCIE for the length of the class. No phone calls and taking care of business unless it is an emergency. Leave your phone at the hotel if you have to. Make sure you tell your boss and your family you are basically unreachable during that time.

Learning Doesn’t Stop After Class

One of my goals as a trainer is to take people end to end. Learning doesn’t stop when you walk out that door on Friday. You have to continue to push yourself. Make sure you already have time set aside in your schedule at home to study, and stick to it. You HAVE to stay disciplined. I also tell all my students, please add me to your facebook, your linkedin, your Skype. Email me, call me if necessary. If you have questions, they don’t have to end on Friday with the class. I am constantly interacting with students I had in class somewhere along the way, and I really enjoy that. The best part of my job is when a student calls me and says “I passed!!! Thanks Joe for teaching me!”

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