CCIE Reading

[Road2CCIE]

Hi folks,

A quick question for those of you who already got their CCIE or are on the way to do it. How many times do you read a book? I mean, let's take for example EIGRP: how many times did you read Routing TCP/IP's EIGRP section? Or any other topic related book?

I am asking this because for me personally it takes about 3 to 4 reads in order to remember all of the details. Is that normal or is just me being burned out and exhausted?

10x.

[bigevilbeard]

@Road2CCIE not sure this will help here, as it’s not really a specific answer. I’ve been around the IE and Cisco cert community for a while, and seen many folks ask this. What is mostly said is “we all learn at a different pace and through various methods”, there some who will get this locked in the first read, others might take a couple of passes. Some take notes, other flash cards or just pure hands on labs. Of this doesn’t go in first time, second or even third that’s ok, you might want to look at your studying methods and try a couple different things when you get stuck grasping a big concept like EIGRP.

Remember that learning takes time and effort. Don't get discouraged if you don't see results immediately, keep working hard and eventually you will achieve your goals.

Best of luck!

[paul driver]

Hello
You can do all the reading in the world but unless your some kind of savant you definitely need to lab things up, get use to cli, debugs,captures etc...enrol on training courses like INE or Narbiks mircronics and good luck with your ccie journey 

[Joseph W. Doherty]

I had an engineering professor who suggested reading our text book 3 times.  He proposed on first reading, some information fell into "I already know that", some was "I understand this new info" and some was "I don't understand it at all".  On second reading, info in the last groups move down a level.  On third reading, all info moves to first group.

BTW, you allow about a day between readings, too.

So, given his advice, 3 or 4 readings wouldn't be unusual.

[Road2CCIE]

Thank you all for your answers. I really appreciate it.

[David Ruess]

I see some of these posts saying 3-4 times is about right and that everyone has their own pace...meanwhile I am over here on my 6th read and doing labs alongside it. The CCIE is a LOT of information. I want to say that close to the end of my studies before I took my exam (and failed) I was doing some flash cards and as soon as I set it down I couldn't remember what I had just looked at and I realized that my brain could not mentally hold any more information at that time. I was at max capacity. After a week or so and after my exam I could take some time to process all the information that I had been learning to store it in more long term memory. 

There is not right answer, just make sure you're absorbing the knowledge whether you read it multiple times, labbing up the technologies, or adjusting your study methods.

-David