Tracking the amount of time spent studying is popular for CCIE candiadates. Like most I started off using a simple spreadsheet and manually entered after each study session. A few weeks ago I was talking with one of my friends, Sam (@sam_byers), who showed me how he was tracking his progress with a google form.

I loved this idea and he helped me create one for myself. I still find some things to add, but what I like about it is the simplicity. I have a bookmark that bring up the page pictured below, I enter the information and it automatically gets recorded to a google spreadsheet with date and time, along with all the other info. The other nice thing is how easy it is to enter this information from my phone as well. I created a bookmark as an app icon, which allows me to quickly enter the study time incase I forget and I don’t want to walk back to my computer.

Hours Studied: 11

This week got delayed some on the amount of studying due to life. It’s a bit light, but at least I got some done. I’ll make up for it week 9

Sunday

INE Full Scale Lab 3 – this lab was a bit of a struggle for me. I was exhausted going into this and made a lot of reading mistakes. I did not complete the lab due to the rack giving me issues and hitting a bug that would not allow specific tasks to be completed. I took down a bunch of notes on what I need to make sure I read the specifics on to not get tripped up on wording

Monday

I researched further on studying techniques. I setup my phone to be more study friendly by putting education in it’s own page and bringing the flashcard app up in front.

For labbing I worked on EIGRP filtering techniques. I’ve been putting a focus on filtering because it gives me additional practice with ACL’s and prefix lists along with reinforcing some subnetting which I’ve found has taken me longer to figure out than in the past.

Tuesday

BGP traffic engineering labs

Listened to the podcast episode Art of Manliness #385 – Learning how to Learn

I took notes from this to see if there is a new strategy I need to add to my studying habit. I’d highly suggest people listen to this and get a different perspective on how to study.

I’ve also started putting notes on my desk that I can easily glance at throughout the day

Wednesday

Posted my study material and strategy video.

Labbed QOS, I did not get through a bunch of the labs, but more focused on the math of finding the Burst comitted rate and understanding how to get to the correct numbers. I also looked at the different ways to change the quueuing type and how to validate the configuration.

Thursday

Got to some videos, INE ATC OSPF still with a focus on authentication

Friday

More INE ATC videos, focused around redistribution

Saturday

Took the day off, helped my brother get stuff ready for his move

Hours studied: 17

This week was a bit of a struggle. I took an easier week due to other things taking my energy. I need to keep reminding myself that this is a marathon and not a sprint. I spent more time going through videos.

I have started making index cards with highlights of topics I strugle with. These topics are things I should have memorized around OSPF, for example, which stub area types generate a default route vs don’t and wording to watch out for that dicate a stub / filtering type

Sunday – Took the day off for 7 year wedding anniversary

Monday – INE ATC videos, finished EIGRP filtering, OSPF. Labbed RIP filtering

Tuesday – INE ATC videos OSPF, labbed OSPF filtering, stub areas. XtremeIE multicast videos

Wednesday – INE ATC videos – OSPF

Thursday – INE ATC videos – OSPF

Friday – Day off

Saturday – INE ATC video, NSSA config. I labbed OSPF filtering techniques