Ralph Olsen - His Journey Passing The CCIE Wireless !

Ralph passed his Wireless IE! Way to go buddy! I've had the pleasure meeting Ralph on a few occasions. The desire this guy had to pass the IE Wireless was in his eyes. You can see it. You can sense it. This guy was passing one way or another! I asked Ralph if he would take a few minutes and write a little blog on his CCIE Wireless journey. I hope this will inspire others in their journey! 

I started getting interested in the Wireless track around January 2010
I had to recert my R&S and took the Written. After I had been
implementing and troubleshooting Unified wireless for a couple of
years I started to look a the Wireless blueprint. It looked really easy.
How hard could it be. I had done most of it time and time before at
customers. So when going to the Cisco Live in Las Vegas in 2010 I took
the 4 hour CCIE Wireless Techtorial. I expected 4 hours of tips and
tricks for the lab exam but got a sample lab exam. I was NOT prepared
at all. I was pure murder. When coming home from Las Vegas I talked
with my boss and my wife about going for the Wireless and got a go.

I got Fastlane WB1 for technology focused labs and started working
that. In August 2010 I ordered WB1 and WB2 and a bootcamp. My plan was
to complete Fastlanes workbook 1 by October 2010, IPExpert workbook 1
by december 2010 and then IPExpert workbook 2 by March 2011.

But the plan didn't go at all. When labbing I needed to lookup everything I
didn't know or understand, and that turned out to be alot. So the
Fastlane workbook took me to untill christmas. But as IPExpert's
workbooks was delayed it didn't matter that I finished late.

IPExperts workbook started to arrive chapter by chapter late december. I got the
complete workbook 1 just weeks before leaving to the bootcamp in March
2011. My idea was to hit the bootcamp prepared learn the last 5-10%
and take the exam just after the bootcamp. Well I was not near the
level I needed to be when I took the bootcamp. I was at 50% and the
bootcamp to me 20-30%.

Did the first exam late March 2011 and failed. I guess I got around 50
points. I booked a new date at once and took my second attempt in late
May 2011.

In the 2 months between the exams I read the Mobility 4.1
Guide, the WLC, WCS and autonomous configration guides (some of them
for the second time). This time I was prepared. Took the exam and
believed it was perfect when I left building C. Got the score report
and I'm guessing I got around 70-72 points.

Before going for the 3rd attempt I wanted to do a reseat with the
bootcamp to ensure everything was repeated. Unfortunately I didn't
feel the bootcamp did that much for me, but I did get to do questions
and answers on topics I still wanted to verify. Took the exam the week
after the bootcamp and the rest is history!

Comments

[Joseph Andrews]

Inspiring! Congrats mate. That's right the desire to pass must be there. Keep on.