Thanks for the notes of encouragement and good luck gestures; but unfortunately it was not my day in the lab. It was a good experience over all, I have a lot to take away and improve on (not all technical issues).
As much as I thought I was ready for the lab, I don’t think there is much that can prepare you for the lab except the lab itself. I am still processing the day, trying to figure out what when wrong and where my major mistakes were (this even before I get my score ;-) if that tells you anything).
Troubleshooting– was real tricky for 120 mins, especially when the majority of the paths between endpoints have 2 or 4 or 6 possible routes, I found that “isolating” the cause took a lot of my time, maybe I was over thinking but my thought process was, just because this path is not working doesn’t mean that THE fault so I would confirm the other paths before actioning what I found.
Configuration - Daunting amount of work to do in 6 hours!
MISTAKE #1, being too slow in basic tasks, in effort to avoid silly mistakes I was too slow with my Layer 2 and basic IGP configs.
MISTAKE #2, taking TOO much time to overcome an issue, I should have accepted the loss of points and moved on (once I should have moved on, once I REALLY needed to resolve the issue)
MISTAKE #3, failing to read/skim the entire exam up front for proper time allocation <--This was my killer
# 3 the was the killer - because of being on the slow side and working too long on a couple of issues I ran into, I was at about hour #4 of 6 when I made the assumption that I will never finish those last three sections (based on the size of the first two sections) (aka mentally gave up), so I might as well go back and troubleshoot that other issue one more time. I was able to resolve but it killed another 30-40 mins.
So the major failing / lesson is this; by not skimming the entire exam, I made the assumption that all sections were 6- 10 tasks (large tasks) in length, based on the duration it took me for the first two sections I would never finish so I reverted back to the make sure those tasks were solid because they were core (and for personal interest/challenge). However in actuality those last three sections combined were - lets just say, not a hugh percentage of the exam and would have been do about in 2 hour frame ( *IF* only I had read ahead and allocated time accordingly. Still don't think would have passed but I would have scored better.
All in all the tasks were reasonable and doable. I am still processing the day but I think my issues were 75% personal (speed, time management, and letting missed points and time constraints pressure me) and 25% not being technical strong enough where needed.
That’s what I say now….before the score come in J
Cheers,
K