First, I would like to say thank you Josh for the introduction and for giving me the opportunity to write and share my experiences with all of the Blindhog readers as I prepare for the CCIE Voice Lab Exam.  I have always been a fan of Blindhog and am very excited about being able to contribute!



I began working with Cisco Telephony a little over two years ago and  have  been fortunate enough to be involved in several  deployments of Callmanager 4.x, 5.x, and 6.x, Callmanager Express, Unity 4.x, 5.x, and IPCC.  I obtained my CCVP in December of last year and immediately began preparing for the CCIE Voice Written exam.  To prepare, I basically reviewed the  GWGK and QoS books as well as used CCBOOTCAMP’s CCIE Voice Written study Guide and CiscoPress’ CCIE Voice Quick Reference Sheets.  Both of these guides, although similar, offer a very good overview of all topics to be tested on the written exam.   I sat the exam on February 1st, and was happy to receive a first time pass!

 

Immediately after passing the written, I scheduled my lab exam for the middle of November and began my studies.    I have been preparing for my exam now a little over four months using a combination of different vendors training materials, and have a lab at work (minus the Catalyst 6503 and vg248) to practice with.  I have used rack time when needed to practice configuring the equipment missing in my lab. For the remaining time until my lab exam, I will primarily be using IPexpert’s NEW Blended Learning Solution.  My plan is to spend the rest of July, August, and September working through Workbooks Vol 1 and Vol 2 as well as utilize the audio training and the Class on Demand to continue to build on my knowledge configuring the different technologies and work on my weak areas (IPIPGW, IPMA, IPCC).  Starting in October and through the first part of November, I plan on working through Vol 3 which includes ten full 8 hours labs with several hours of video walk-through solutions for each task in a lab. I hope to be able to work through each lab at least a couple times.  Also during this time, I will continue practicing and building my speed.  I plan on utilizing both rack time from ProctorLabs.com as well as my own lab.

 

My intent is to blog as frequent as I can on my progress as well give voice related tips.  I think that is enough about “me” -) , let’s get it started!

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