CCIE Study Material Review - Pro2Expert

I've been starting to catch up on some parts of my life that were put on hold while the CCIE studies were in full swing, so postings here will continue just rather sporadically.

A few weeks before I attempted my lab exam, Greg Chisholm (CCIE #29271) gave me a complimentary copy of his Pro2Expert CCIE study and strategy guide to review.  The main audience for this document is someone that has completed or near completion of their CCNP (the Pro) and is considering heading towards the CCIE (the Expert).  It is also tentatively pitched at those that have attempted the CCIE lab exam but have not come up trumps and are wanting to find an alternate focus.

While this document does have a reasonable amount of technical content, it's probably more focused on CCNPs that are wanting to look at an intermediate step before going all in for the depth of knowledge that will be required for face off for the lab exam, I guess the thinking here is that if this is either stuff you know like the back of your hand or at least doesn't overwhelm you, then maybe you're in a position to start developing your studies.

While the technical content was reasonable, to me personally and most likely those that have faced the expensive lunch already, what's there is rather shallow.  In each of the technical chapers, Greg includes a "--More--" section which provides more references to go into to grasp a more detailed understanding.

My favourite part of the document though was the writing style, it felt very conversational in style and personal because Greg was able to leverage his own experiences in sitting the lab exam multiple times, dealing with blueprint changes and finally getting over the line.  It was good to be able to read his story, draw some inspiration but more importantly gain some extra thoughts and clarification on workflow optimisations where if you start on these early on into your studies, you can more easily avoid fat-fingered mistakes when you are feeling pressure, some of these things may seem straightforward and obvious but in my own case I definitely picked up a few tips that I should have been aware of much earlier.

Early on in the document there is a section describing how to select components to build your own lab environment and do things such as connecting servers to test things like netflow, snmp, http etc which is adequate for self directed study, however I personally would have thought that there could be some value in including a selection on why you may select a CCIE workbook training vendor and what kind of features (e.g. community, reputation, topology size, errata on material etc.) may be used to help select the vendor and then help select what you may do for lab practice (build a lab, rent time on a lab, do simulation or some combination of the lot)  personally I think that this is something worth dwelling upon particularly if you coming from a CCNP looking at going for the CCIE because part of your study plan will be putting together a timetable of equipment/services and working out when and where you have to spend your money, whether this is sponsored by your employer or yourself you need to budget time and money.    Please note has Greg has told me this is an area he plans to address in a future iteration of the document.  I will endeavour to update this review once this occurs but if this topic is of interest - I suggest you get in contact with Greg directly

For those that have not faced the CCIE R&S Written Exam yet,  you will not currently see anything specific about this exam, however to be fair the CCIE R&S Version 4 Certification Guide is probably a better resource on facing this exam.  Greg did mention that he plans to provide a write up on the written exam once he recertifies his CCIE as he prefers to be more specific than give generalised tips on something he faced quite some time back.

Pro2Expert arrives on a a watermarked PDF that is just over 560 pages in length.  I didn't attempt to print it out, however it did work fine on my Amazon Kindle.  The document does not touch every aspect on the CCIE R&S Blueprint.

The introductory price for Greg's Pro2Expert document is $US90 and may increase at a later date.  I received my copy for free in exchange for providing this review, Greg was more than happy for me to review the document in any way that I wanted and in areas I thought may need further development he took those thoughts into serious consideration.

Final thoughts:  In comparison to most of CCIE related study material which tends to focus directly on the technical side of things which of course is extremely important - this guide's greatest strengths to me at least is the human side and the workflow aspects.  If you are considering going for the CCIE, this guide may be a worthwhile investment before on embarking on a long, tentatively expensive but educational journey.  If you have faced the lab on multiple occasions and are at your wits end on where to go further and don't think the problems you are facing are technical in nature, perhaps you can draw inspiration from Greg's words but at this point in time I'm unsure that this will be what's needed to give you that extra push.