Why CCIE Practice Labs are Important

Logging in more hours on CCIE practice labs is a very effective way to ensure that you know what you’re doing come testing day. A lot of people breeze through the written exam, only to freeze on the hands-on lab tests. One of the reasons this happens is that people tend to memorize possible scenarios and procedures found in the mock test section of their lab workbooks. The thing is, no one knows what topic, scenario, or protocol will be thrown at them until the day of the exam, so in the case of the lab exam, memorizing what you’ve read doesn’t really work. Instead, study the concepts carefully and practice with different scenarios until you get the hang of it. CCIE practice labs can also be a great tool for self-evaluation. Once you’re confident that you’ve mastered a protocol or a topic, use the practice lab to simulate the actual test and time yourself while performing one of the mock tests in the CCIE workbook.

Why do we need CCIE Practice Labs?

Candidates study long and hard before the actual test. Logging in a lot of lab hours can help a candidate feel at ease with the equipment and make as many mistakes as they can in order to get the questions right. The dreaded CCIE lab exam is meant to test the candidate’s practical knowledge, so it’s only logical that one needs to put all the theories and concepts they’ve learned to practice way before the actual exams.

Logging Valuable Lab Hours

In order to log the necessary lab hours needed to understand and apply what a candidate has learned, he or she needs a workbook and access to a rack to practice on. A lot of training vendors offer workbooks and other training materials for each of the CCIE’s 8 tracks. The racks, however, are a different story. A candidate can get access to CCIE practice labs by renting racks in 4-6 hour blocks or by building their own rack at home. Purchasing components and building a home rack is quite cost-efficient, especially for people who intend to log some serious lab hours. The only setback to this is that the home rack usually doesn’t have the same configurations as the ones used in the actual exam, but candidates can use that to their advantage and learn how to improvise. Rack rentals on the other hand, give you a more accurate representation of what to expect during the actual lab exam. The rentals can be quite expensive, though, as rack time is rented in 4-6 hour blocks and completing the ideal 1,000 hours of lab time can run the bill up quite high. There are some providers, however, that offer longer and more flexible time blocks, which makes this a good option for those who are balancing work and studying for the CCIE exams.

The better prepared you are for the CCIE lab exams, the better your results will be, no matter what topic they throw at you on exam day. Just make sure that you set aside ample time for CCIE practice labs and make the most out of your study and practice sessions in order to get a desirable outcome come testing day.