I don't know about you, but tracking my progress gives me a more concrete sense of progression. It also gives me a good idea of how far along in my studies that I am, which is useful when studying something as vast as the CCIE. I have created a Monthly Knowledge Assessment based on INE's CCIE RSv5 Expanded Blueprint. I encourage you to use my spreadsheet, or to make something similar-but-better yourself. Updating this spreadsheet each month should only take 5 or so minutes. Some people may not find it particularly useful, but it is the best way that I have found so far to track my progress.
Directions for using the spreadsheet
- Save a copy of my spreadsheet
- Create a new column each month
- Update all fields
- Fields with black text/borders = DO NOT UPDATE (auto formula updated)
- Fields with blue text/no borders = update
- I have found that the easiest way to update after first month is to copy the whole column from last month by highlighting it, and then using the little "copy cells" drag marker in the lower right
As you can see if you look at my example, I rate myself from 1-5 on each of the items in the expanded blueprint. Here is a general guideline for how to use the numbers:
1 = weak on this topic, don't know it well or at all
2 = familiar with this topic, but not enough
3 = capable with this topic, but may need to use DocCD to perform all tasks
4 = pretty good with the topic, unlikely to need DocCD reference to perform all tasks
5 = I can do this in my sleep
1 = weak on this topic, don't know it well or at all
2 = familiar with this topic, but not enough
3 = capable with this topic, but may need to use DocCD to perform all tasks
4 = pretty good with the topic, unlikely to need DocCD reference to perform all tasks
5 = I can do this in my sleep
Final Note
There is an obvious flaw in the way that my spreadsheet calculates the "Total Readiness" score. That is, that it does not take the weighting of the topics into consideration. I am sure that I could try to remedy this with a better formula using the weightings from the official Cisco blueprint, but I'm not going to bother. The most important thing (to me) is that it is tracking progress, and lets me easily see what I still need to cover or cover more thoroughly.
Hey. First of all, Congrats on getting your CCIE. I recently passed the written, and I'm getting ready to study for the Lab (which is how I found your blog. I just have a question or two on this char you created. on the third sheet is the "repetition' calculator. Can you go into a little more detail on how that works? Also, would you study one topic a day, or just study as much as you can in whatever allotted time fram you set for studying?
ReplyDeleteSorry for the late reply I don't jump on here much anymore. The repetition calendar is the schedule I used to review the material. It should be used after you pretty much "get" a technology, so you are just going over it again and creating extra flash cards for material that you forgot or had a hard time recalling properly. By the end of each "review" you should feel fully comfortable with the technology. Depending on your schedule, that may mean spending a few hours every day for a few days, or it could mean going over it in one long day (or more). I also recommend using different materials during your reviews, as having things explained in different ways by different people really helped me understand many of the technologies better.
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