I decided on aiming for the CCIE R&S shortly after completing my CCxP exams in 2006/07, however had the initial thought, while doing my CCNA way back in 2003. Basically I found while doing my CCNP studies, despite being an enriching and enjoyable experience (labbing, reading, applying in the real world), not many people were all that interested or not willing to differentiate between a CCNP or CCNA when it came to job responsibilities and remuneration. Perhaps this is because they may have been burnt by someone who may have taken ’shortcuts’ or not quite what they claimed to be.
I’ll admit I’ve met some people like this myself, and it is a little disheartening, when you’ve put in a lot of effort. Yes, they don’t last long and are found out rather quickly, but it was seriously getting time to separate the wheat from the chaff.
I had completed my R&S written exam (350-001) in the middle of May 2008. I mainly used most of the Tech Library I had built up over the years of Cisco Press and O’Reilly books (including Routing TCP/IP Vol 1 & 2), as well as the CCIE Routing and Switching Exam Certification Guide 3.0 recently updated. The written didn’t contain anything too difficult or unseen before, while doing my previous certifications or on the job experience. The amount of questions did press me for time; I wouldn’t expect anyone to fly through these, regardless of the difficulty.
From here, I spent the next 9 months preparing for the Lab, going through a popular vendor’s workbooks and video/audio classes to practice out configurations, blueprint topic technology behaviour (this includes the caveats), and completing tasks under pressure. I think most other CCIEs have all been here, therefore wont expand on this.
It took me two lab attempts to get over the line, which I’m rather happy with, as I’ve read some horror stories about some candidates getting into 6+ attempts. Both of my labs were fairly straight forward with what they asked for, and to be honest there was nothing difficult about them, as you really should be familiar with the CORE of the blue print topics (L2 Switching and FR topics, IGPs and EGPs), and know where to find everything else in the DOC-CD. Based off my first attempt result, I felt I only missed out but a few points, by violating a requirement, as I was able to verify 90% of my configurations. After getting my first result, I wasn’t crushed, but more psyched up to get back to the LAB again :-). I can see why you barred for 30 days before able to attempt the lab exam again for the same track.
I gave myself 8 weeks off before going back, and didn’t really do much revision during this time either. I only need to keep the grey matter warm, but not burn out on 24 hour revision or labing, as I had already done this. Plus my day to day job is 100 percent networking, so I wasn’t completely cold.
Day of the second attempt arrives; I’m back at the lab, powering my way through the tasks getting the important tasks out of the way by lunch time. This gives the remainder of the day, to verify and nut out the remainder tasks with the DocCD. I left feeling pretty confident this time round.
The following day I get my score report and the all important numbers!! PARTY TIME! Just as well, with the CCIE R&S 4.0 change announcement at the time.
For those wondering… I did have to do the Open Ended Questions format during each attempt. My advice to those still panicking about them is to not worry ‘too much’. They are simple and I’d expect a CCIE candidate to be able to answer them, you MAY get a curve ball in the batch though, so prepare for it.
I’m now deciding where to go from here, as CCIE Security and Service Provider do interest me, but I’m not sure if I want to commit the same amount of time I did with R&S on another CCIE, as I DO WANT A SOCIAL LIFE!! I may just go back to learning networking tech that just interests me at a slower place, without sticking to a blueprint or exam topic list.
I for one welcome our new overlords of normality 
