Well...

I failed, due to the open ended questions. Quite the bummer, but there is nothing I can do. I'm tired and it's been a really long day. I'll post more in a few days, but for now I just want to back away and spend some quality time with my family.

Thanks again for the support everyone.

Remember, there are only 20,000 in the world, if this were easy, everyone would have those digits.

Whew...what a day.

Well, I have completed my lab. I even finished early! (by a whole 2 minutes). I definitely feel like I didn't make the mistakes I made in the previous lab. I went through every task fairly quickly, then had time to go back and troubleshoot anything that I missed. After all of that, I still had to time to go back over everything and verify.

Now I am not going to say I passed, but I feel ok. Two of the open ended questions really got me, because I had never seen the scenarios before. I still feel like they were valid questions, just something not very well documented (I STILL can't find either on the DocCD!)

So I am sitting at the airport and now the waiting begins. I am hoping to have my results by the time I get back into Akron tonight. I have heard your results will arrive anytime after 9pm the same day. I am definitely eager to find out.

I will be sure to post the result later this evening, or early tomorrow. If anyone is interested in a complete run-down, just let me know and I would be happy to post it.

Otherwise, thanks for the support!

_matt

Well, I got a good nights rest. I slept for about 9 hours. Now I am gonna catch some breakfast and head over to Cisco to meet my maker. Wish me luck.

Made it to RTP...

Just got in to my hotel here in RTP. I had a connecting flight in Charlotte and both flights were delayed. So that was kinda aggrevating. I ran from one terminal all the way to another (with a bum knee) only to find out my connecting flight was delayed as well. The whole thing caused way more stress than I needed right now. Oh well, I made it to my hotel plenty early.

I originally thought I would get some study in, but honestly, I don't feel like it. I am way too tired and I doubt it would really help me at this point. Either I am ready or I am not. I will find out Monday evening. I'll head out for dinner at 5pm or so, swing by Cisco so I know where I am going tomorrow. Then I will head back to the hotel, catch a shower and head to bed.

I will be sure to post my thoughts and feeling tomorrow after my lab, provided I have time. But I'm expecting some free time between flights in Charlotte.

What a journey its been.....so far.,

Well first off, I did one of INE's mock labs yesterday. Unfortunately, I failed...barely. I didn't fail because I didn't know the material, I failed due to not managing my time properly, not reading the entire task, and not verifying every task after completion. I finished right about 8 hours. I spent too much time on a route redistribution problem (that was caused by a trunking error) and a bgp problem (that was incidentally solved by a reboot). I know I shouldn't have spent so much time on these two topics. I will be sure to NOT do that in the actual lab. If I manage my time, and verify and re-verify everything, I feel like I got a good shot of passing.

This has been one hell of a journey. Now although my journey is not yet complete, it will not be wasted if I don't get that 25xxx number come Monday. Throughout the last year, I have learned so much. I now know BGP pretty well, I know multicast, I know NAT, in addition to loads of other topics. So if I do not get that number on Monday, I will continue my journey and add MPLS, troubleshooting, VPNV4 and other topics to my repertoire. Then I will try again. This journey will only end when I get that number - no matter how long it takes me.

For now, I have competed my studying. If I don't know enough by now, 1.5 more days of studying isn't really going to help me. I do plan to fire up the INE Core Knowledge SIM over the next few days - just to keep myself sharp on the core knowledge questions.. I've been at it for 12 hours a day for the past 2.5 weeks and I don't feel like I can take in any more knowledge this week.

I will be flying out early tomorrow morning. I will get to RTP, rest, relax and get a good nights sleep. I will be sure to post my results Monday night (provided I receive them then). You can also follow me on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/impiouspunk

Wish me luck - it's been one hell of a journey...so far!

-Matt