Living In The Fast Lane

Ada seorang teman yg bertanya tentang bagaimana cara membagi waktu untuk belajar CCIE. Gue hari ini lagi in the mood, jadi langsung gue bales dgn bersemangat. Berikut adalah tips untuk CCIE Wannabe Time management. Ceile

Catatan: gue nulisnya mix antara inggris dan indonesia, semuanya gue copy paste dari email yg gue kirim ke milis indocisco dgn sedikit modifikasi

1. First of all, you need a reason
Ask this question: why do you want to do CCIE? Setelah denger semua hal yg bakal dihadapi, biaya yg harus dikeluarkan, social life yg harus dikorbankan, tingkat stress yg tinggi, dan yg paling parah, setelah lulus apa sih yg didapat?
Buat gue, setelah lulus lab 2 kali yg gue dapet cuman 1 pertanyaan: what’s next?

So why I keep doing this?
- because it’s fun
- karena tahun lalu gue apply ke Advance Services Team di Cisco Middle East dan gue di reject dgn alasan: not qualified
- karena gue pengen belajar hal baru dan cuma CCIE yg bisa mengakomodasi

Indeed, you’re gonna need a very damn good reason to start

2. It’s CCIE and CCIE only
Put all your focus on CCIE, you speak CCIE, you dream about CCIE, your mind is only for CCIE, your life is only for CCIE and CCIE only.
Nerd? sure
Geek? absolutely
Freak? can’t complaint
Yg ada di pikiran cuman ttg CCIE, lab blueprint dibawa kemana-mana dan ditandai mana yg udah ngerti dan mana yg harus latihan lagi. Buang semua buku2 selain ciscopress dari rack di rumah. Default website langsung ke www.cisco.com/univercd.
Di ipod instead of music pasang CCIE audio training atau recorded networkers presentation

3. Time is only 24 hours a day, and that’s the good part
So what if time is only 24 hours?
So what if your company doesn’t support you?
So what if you can’t get vacation few weeks before the exam?
Pake semua waktu yg ada buat CCIE
Schedule gue 8 bulan kemaren:
- 6.30 bangun, nganterin anak gue ke sekolah
- 7.30 ngobrol ama bini
- 8.00 ngantor
- 12.00 break 1 hour, makan 15 menit, tidur siang 15 menit, baca CCIE 30 menit
- 17.00 pulang ke rumah, maen ama anak istri, kalo semua tidur siang bisa ikutan tidur juga atau baca2 CCIE (bisa juga pulang kantor telat kalo ada kerjaan)
- 22.00 semua udah pada tidur, mulai ngelab
- 02.00 tidur, kalo tanggung bisa sampe 03.00
- 6.30 bangun, another day in paradise

Gue paling suka baca di toilet kantor, kebiasaan waktu jaman masih kerja di slb pas belajar CCNA/CCNP.
Nah sesibuk-sibuknya kantor, gak ada tuh yg biasanya ngelarang ke toilet kan?
Lumayan bisa dapet 30 menit tiap hari baca CCIE. Kalo ada wireless malahan bisa nge lab bentar. Dgn begini lu bisa dapet 6 hours easily everyday, and still can have 4-6 hours with family. Tidur 4-6 jam sehari cukup lah, ntar bisa dibales pas weekend

Tapi Wan, lu kerjanya kan cuman 8 to 5…

Iya bener, soalnya gue CCIE, double CCIE malahan jadi sekarang gak ada yg berani ngasih kerjaan ha ha ha
Jadi lu kerja 8 to 8? Ok, ambil break makan siang 2 jam donk, makan 15 menit sisanya buat CCIE. Trus sering-sering ke toilet donk, 2 kali ke toilet = 1 jam belajar
Believe me, that’s the best place to study in any office.
Pulang jam 8 malem toh gak bisa maen lama2 ama anak istri juga, mereka tidur kan jam 10 an. Dari jam 10 pm ke 2 am bisa dipake buat ngelab. Weekend kalo libur 2 hari bisa pilih 1 hari khusus buat keluarga, dan 1 hari nya khusus buat CCIE.. 16 hours straight!
Dengan belajar 40-50 jam an seminggu, cuman butuh 3 bulan buat mencapai target 600 jam.

But Wan. not everyone can live like you, rite..

he he he iya iya sorry gue jadi sok tau gini
Gue gak bakal bisa ngajarin ttg time management lah. Tapi percaya deh, kalo lu udah punya 2 points yg pertama, me manage waktu itu bukan masalah.

Gue cuman percaya ada 2 tipe CCIE candidate:
- one who keeps trying to find excuses why they should not do it
- one who just jumps into it without thinking, starts the lab, sacrifices everything and eventually will pass

No offense, and keep the spirit high.

So what if you become freak, lose all your social life, and can speak only CCIE?

Catatan 2: Gue kemaren lulus CCIE Service Provider - Metro Ethernet written exam. Berarti sekarang gue udah bisa daftar buat ujian lab.
It’s time to get dirty again.

I have just completed writing down an article ‘How to become a CCIE: Cracking CCIE Security Labs’ and I have sent it to various study forum.

In summary, there are only 12 easy steps to become a CCIE:

1. Start with the self-assessment, check the CCIE Security lab blueprint and verify your current skill level
2. Use other certification as steeping stone, for CCIE Security I recommend to take CCSP and CCIP, not CCNP
3. Build your home lab, with several routers and 1 PIX firewall at minimum
4. Passing written exam doesn’t mean anything, so just pass it with any way and register for your lab
5. Read a lot, no single source can make you pass CCIE lab, so you must spend lots of time with Cisco website, RFCs, Networkers, Ciscopress books, study forum, CCIE workbooks and any related links on the Internet.
6. Build your speed: practice, practice, practice. Keep repeating the same thing until your fingers, not only your brain, memorize how to configure Cisco security technology.
7. Join the community, you can’t fight this battle alone. Create small study group.
8. Learn how to ask, to the study forum and during the real lab to the proctors.
9. Understand the Lab questions, you need to know what Cisco expects from your answer.
10. Trust no one, trust no solution: You should not trust any of your resources (books, Cisco website, workbooks etc) until you prove it by yourself in your lab.
11. It’s all in your mind, CCIE is completely a mind game. You will pass if you believe that you can pass.
12. The journey must be fun. It is only an exam even it’s really hard and you will not have social life at all during the journey, but at least you should enjoy it.

Hopefully this will help all CCIE candidates to prepare for the exam
Read the complete How-to here.