Archive for August 20, 2008

Voice, you are next buddy

I was at work today and mentioned I was going to be working on the Voice track rather quickly. One guy mentioned, “There is more to life than studying and taking tests”.

I guess I get bored too easy. Let’s see, watch TV all night, or get to do something that’s intellectually challenging? You have to take breaks or you get burned-out, it has happened to me. That’s what weekends are for. Shoot, I love playing computer games and going out to the movies, but Mon-Thurs is all business for me. Come on, that’s very reasonable.

I’ve been doing Voice all day long at work for the last year, so this is going to be very helpful for me. I’m hoping for a quicker turnaround for the Voice (6 months at the longest). I’ve got to take the Voice written soon, so I need to look over the Cisco website to make sure I’m solid. I’m probably going to bypass the professional level certs for this one… I would rather focus on lab time.

IPExpert will be getting my business once again.

What worked for me…

I have to really give props to IPExpert, their training materials are great. I will come out and say I have never tried any other labs besides theirs. My opinion is bias, but why shop around when you know what works.

I studied the hands-on lab part for about 6-7 months. I started around February of this year. I bought their Lab workbook and proctor guide. I did every lab at least once and read over all labs as part of my preparation.

Breakdown ::
Volume 1 labs - 20 or so smaller technology based
Volume 2 labs - 15 8 hour labs
Volume 3 labs - 10 8 hour labs with walkthrough

I didn’t have time to go over the Video bootcamp before my lab, nor did I finish the Audio bootcamp. I think the audio bootcamp is great to listen to on the way to work. Use it to fill in your gaps of time, the more exposure, the better.

-Do the labs
-Understand the labs
-Get your butt kicked by the labs

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IPExpert Bootcamp Experience

Last week before my lab, I attended the IPExpert R&S bootcamp in San Jose. Jared Scrivener was our instructor for the week. Days started at 9am and ran until about 5pm, at which point they provide you with a lab to do. My days were basically from 9am till about midnight. You can choose to do the lab in class or back at your hotel (if you have internet access).

I prepared for the bootcamp in such a way that I was expecting to get my butt kicked. I spent the week prior studying about 16 hours a day.

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