Time Management in the CCIE R&S Exam - Part 1 of 3

The new CCIE Version 4.X exam of R&S certainly causes the need for extreme Time Management strategy practices. In other words, without a rock-solid Time Management approach for each of the three lab sections - you fail! This three part blog series will examine Time Management strategies for each exam section - in order.

The first exam section you face is the Core Knowledge section. This section consists of four, short-answer style questions. You are not permitted to use the DOC-CD during this section, but you may use the scratch paper provided by the proctor. You could also ask the proctor clarifying question(s) in this section, but they are highly likely to be more evasive than usual during Core Knowledge.

From a Time Management perspective in this section, you actually have more time than you need! Isn't that strange for a CCIE exam section! You are given a total of 30 minutes for the 4 short-answer questions.

Now here is the trick...you must resist the temptation to RUSH through these four questions in order to gain time in the Configuration section. Yes, it is true that if you finish the questions in 4 minutes, you will gain 26 minutes in your Configuration section, but realize that if you rush and FAIL this section, you have FAILED the entire exam. The fact that you gained 26 minutes for the Configuration section did absolutely nothing for you.In fact - it hurt you!

I train my students to basically ignore the clock in this section. Your job is to read the questions very carefully and carefully input your response. Before submitting, go back and read the question and your answer carefully one more time. Then, click Finish. If you end up with 15 or 20 minutes of extra time for the Configuration section, great, bonus. But the main point is clear, you must pass the section!

I hope you will join me in Part 2 where we look at the most critical section for a Time Management strategy - Troubleshooting!