Here’s a little info on the CCIE exam. You all know that it’s hard as hell. They expect you to be able to configure everything, but they don’t expect you to do it without a little help. You are allowed one tool to use during the test, the Cisco Documentation CD. This is a powerful tool if you know how to use it.
Basically, it’s all of Cisco’s documention on all of their products, loosely organized. You can find out how to configure anything you might need. The trick is to be able to locate the information in a reasonable amount of time. You could spend hours sifting through all that crap. So part of anyone’s study philosophy should be to integrate that documentation into your mind. Know where to find commands that you are sure to need. For example, configuring Call Manager Express is strictly a Command Line thing (the GUI is not going to accomplish what you need for the CCIE Lab). The problem is that the commands are lengthy and difficult to memorize. The solution? Know by heart where to find them in the Doc CD, and you will have saved yourself a lot of frustration.
Easier said than done though.
Also, I’m currently making flash cards based on the IPExpert Proctor Guide v4.0 that should really help me speed up my configurations. Time is of the essence.
Also, thanks to Nick, I’m now worried about what the CCIE Lab proctor is going to do to my configs during the test. The rumor is that they screw with them. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that they randomly reboot routers just to see if you’re saving your configs. Of course, they could leave you alone the whole time. No one seems to know for sure, and the CCIEs aren’t saying squat thanks to the NDA.