The Final Sprint
The perfect time to attend the CCIE Voice Boot Camp is approximately one month before your lab date. If you sit the class too far out from your date, you run the risk of losing the momentum gained from the dedicated week you have with the instructor and a bunch of like-minded, self-inflicting engineers. Your hard graft will have paid dividends and you will come armed with the necessary advanced knowledge to maximize your time in class, as well as a long list of constructive questions.
When you read a book or watch a movie for a second time, is it fair to say that in most, if not all, cases you will find something that you missed the first time. The purpose of class is to give everything on the blueprint a once-over. You might find that some of your knowledge needs re-organizing and in other instances you have to fine-tune certain skills. Getting out of town for a class works best for most people. There are no obvious local distractions (unless you go to Vegas!) and you have to be prepared to put the hours in. Expect to work 12-16 hour days. You attend a Boot Camp to clearly maximize the chances of passing the lab and this is achieved by having a week in the company of an experienced instructor, the continuous use of proctored equipment and a classroom full of students that share your goal. Think of this week as the icing on the cake and, so long as you’ve put in the hours, you will be rewarded with increased knowledge and a clearer understanding of what needs to be done.
As for the final few weeks, these should be spent absorbing any new information gained from the Boot Camp and continuing to work through practice labs and new scenarios that you have developed. The exam is very passable if you studied hard and studied smart. Just remember that when you do eventually win gold, you’ve got a whole bunch of chores awaiting you, like tidying the garage, spending time with the kids and your customers. As for me, I’ll look forward to welcoming you to an IPexpert Boot Camp. Maybe you will be that special “one” in class; the world-class engineer without weaknesses.
About the Author
Vik Malhi is one of the full-time CCIE instructors at IPexpert, teaching and developing products and courses for the CCIE Voice track. With over 10 years of IP Telephony training and consulting experience and a wealth of technical certifications, Vik has proven that he is one of the top Cisco CCIE Voice instructors and consultants in the world!