Having failed a CCIE Lab exam on two occasions, I can tell you that being informed that you are indeed a failure is a humbling experience, always difficult to hear and something nobody ever appreciates.
My kids spend their weekends during summer at swim meets in the Bay Area. You know what the kid who finishes a race in last position receives? A “participation ribbon” (that might just be in California by the way). But when it comes to the harsh world of CCIE Lab score reports, there are only two possible outcomes – “Pass” and “Fail”. I sometimes wish Cisco would re-phrase this as “Pass” and “Participated”. I just can’t get over the fact that somebody can score 79% in an exam and being told by a Bot that you failed. There is something very un-Californian about that. But that is what we all sign up for when we sit a CCIE Lab exam and I fully expect my complaints to fall upon deaf ears.
I am going to tell you why, from my experience, CCIE candidates fail the Lab exam. I’ve been in this game for about 13 years and have enough white hair (also lack of hair in general) to have a reasonable assessment on what causes folks to end up spending $1600 for a lunch in one of the testing locations (San Jose, RTP, Brussels to name but a few). To add insult to injury, the food does not warrant the price tag!
Everybody wants to pass and achieve the IE, but, this requires a great deal of preparation that would have taken many hours of staying up late, avoiding your boss and/or spouse and a little bit of luck and the stars to be aligned. But, I want to talk about the reasons why somebody fails.
Category 1- The Under-Cooked Candidate
This is an easy one to figure out. The candidate is unprepared and has suffered from pre-mature IE testing. Most likely work or family got in the way or the subject has simply under-estimated what it takes to pass. The CCIE is a journey and maybe the lab attempt came too soon.
As a result of being under-prepared, the candidate hasn’t understood the technology well enough (not book smart) or simply has lacked spending quality time being hands-on with the necessary software/hardware. Most successful candidates end up spending several hundreds of hours on the lab equipment running into quirks/bugs – reading books can only take you so far.
Candidate Pain Level (CPL): 4/10. It hurts, but ultimately comes as no surprise that you failed, you possibly weren’t even expecting to pass on this particular day.
Category 2- The Candidate Who Cracked Under Pressure
A candidate can spend hundreds of hours on lab equipment. Boot camps can be attended. SRND’s can be read. But nothing can emulate the pressure cooker environment that every CCIE has to endure on the big day itself. When you crank up the pressure, the number of mistakes increases. FACT! This category is very common for first time candidates. If lessons can be learned, the second time of testing is hopefully a more calm experience that bodes well for a positive outcome.
CPL: 6/10. You may have expected to pass but you can probably accept that nerves got the better of you. You are hopeful to pass at the next outing. Don’t forget, this is not a matter of life and death, so take it easy!
Category 3- The Unlucky Candidate
Sometimes things from outside of the candidate’s control contribute to unexpected problems within the testing environment. It could be that there was a power outage and this resulted in lost configs and simply upset the flow of the lab. It could be that a candidate became sick or a fire alarm went off in the hotel the night before which resulted in a disturbed sleep the previous night. It might be that you see some tasks that are completely unexpected from what you saw in previous attempts. Whatever it is, these factors are not within the control of the testing candidate. You need a little bit of luck, and this is what I mean when I say the stars need to be aligned.
CPL: 7/10. Depending on what it is, this can be quite depressing since you will have to wait 30 days or more for the next attempt. But, hey, you have no choice but to move on. If there are real issues in the testing environment, such as hardware failures, then Cisco should provide a voucher for another attempt at the lab. This is only for the rare cases whereby the candidate is able to prove that hardware issues are being experienced.
Category 4- The Candidate Who Celebrates Too Early
This is the worst category. This is the one, as an instructor, I dread when chatting with my students the day after! And this is the one that hurts the most. Why is it that candidates “get everything working” and “successfully complete all tasks” yet still fail?
Well first of all, the testing candidate should not be the judge as to whether a task is completed successfully or not. Maybe this is the problem to begin with and why we have this category. The perception is that everything has been done correctly but the reality is there has been some break-down in one of two things.
- The lab tasks have not been carefully read and understood (or at least not to the required level). Something has not been interpreted correctly along the way. It is most likely the things that don’t matter, the cosmetic things and the minor details that have been overlooked. Certainly not things that affect functionality.
- Maybe certain things that were happening in a previous test or practice environment have influenced the candidate, but, small deviations in the live test have not been assessed carefully enough. Don’t come in with pre-conceived ideas, you must read, re-read and repeat.
- (2) The validation of one’s work has been insufficient and incomplete. In all the years of being a CCIE trainer, I very rarely see folks think about a verification strategy. Yes, for sure everybody has a configuration strategy, but, it is equally important to focus on a verification strategy. I focus a lot on this within the CollabCert boot camps. Just ask any of the folks on our Hall of Fame.
What can be done to rectify the root causes that caused somebody to be a category 4 candidate? The lab tasks need to be completed in less than 6 hours allowing for 2 hours for re-reading and validation. No question about this. Having the time for re-reading, processing and interpreting could mean you catch a single word that was glossed over from the earlier part of the day. The hardest part of the lab is reading the lab in such a way that you are able to process with a clear head. This last 2 hours is essential to transition from a score around 70% to beyond 80% and achieve a passing score.
CPL: 10/10. You are probably blaming somebody else. Maybe Cisco’s backbone was incorrect. Maybe the grading script was wrong. Maybe they gave you somebody else’s score. The proctor had it in for you! You thought you had passed, only to come to find out that you failed and this has left you in a state of shock. Next time you have to make sure you have the 2-hour window at the end of the exam and are able to catch some, or all, of the errors. And focus on a verification strategy. This last mile is always the hardest.
Vik Malhi, CCIE#13890
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VikMalhi
Twitter: @vikmalhi
www.collabcert.com
Good post Vik. Thanks.