From CCNA to CCIE, I Gained More Than a Certificate

My network learning journey started from my sophomore year. I had never heard of CCIE certification before one of my roommates who was good at writing code mentioned CCIE certification during our chat. Then I looked up relevant information on the Internet and it seemed that CCIE certification had nothing to do with me. It happened that we had a course called computer network in our sophomore year, which made me start learning network.

Learning of CCNA certification

When I started learning network, I bought a book called CCNA Study Guide. It seemed to be a very basic book, but it took me a long time to learn. I read this book all day and brought it with me to go to self-study. When I met some knowledge points which were hard to understand, I sought help from the Internet. However, some knowledge points were totally new to me, and I couldn’t understand them at all. It took me more than a month to finish reading this book. Then I did a static experiment with PT. The first time I did it, I wrote not the wrong address or the wrong static routing. I was really frustrated. When I finally saw the five “!”, I feel great. It was time to learn the contents of CCNP certification after passing CCNA certification exam. But I found it hard to read and understand some CCNP textbooks by myself. Later, I found a course on CCNA certification by chance and became addicted to listening to it. In this way I consolidated what I have learned. When I heard the students who had talk about their stories, I also wanted to be a CCIE and a network engineer.

Learning of CCNP certification

I learned for CCNP certification during a winter vacation. Because my home was far from SPOTO, I could only attend the online off-duty CCNP training class. To be honest, the progress of the off-duty class was very fast. If you missed a few classes, some protocols would be almost incomprehensible. Unluckily, I missed several classes, so I couldn’t understand CCNP’s knowledge well. And I had to watch the recorded classes to catch up with the teachers. I took notes while watching the videos, and wrote down all the details with a pen. For each point which I couldn’t understand, I took notes. And I turned over my notes whenever I forgot a point. (PS: CCNP has many knowledge points, so you need to spend more time to learn and consolidate)

Learning of CCIE certification

The teachers of the training institution are responsible for arranging the study schedule according to your real situation, so that you can review the knowledge points in time and thoroughly understand the knowledge points of each topic. You should thoroughly understand the contents of CCNP certification, otherwise you cannot understand some points in CCIE class later, so taking notes is very important!

After finishing the CCIE certification course, the teacher asked us to prepare for the written exam which was very simple. Many of the more than 100 questions were about previously learned knowledge, and some of these questions’ answers were recited directly. After the exam questions were finished, there was a satisfaction survey which was not important. Finally I passed with high scores.

After taking the written exam, I started to prepare for the lab exam. Although there were school classes during the day, there was free time at night. I could only type the version at night. The teacher would make a reasonable schedule for you. I had time to knock code in the dormitory. When I encountered a wrong point, I would take notes and wrote down the solution ideas. In this way, I could quickly locate the wrong point.