I came down with a cold a few days ago and have had a hard time studying, mostly due to lack of energy. I’m about 3/4 through the Coursera Learning how to Learn course and am finding it very helpful. Typically I will plow through reading and video material cover-to-cover and hope to recall bits and pieces whenever I need them. This technique has served me well in the past, but I know it won’t suffice for the CCIE. Once the course is completed, I’ll post a few useful tips that will transfer over to CCIE studies.
In line with the above thoughts, I’ve been running-in-place reviewing some Anki flashcards that someone else posted online. What I’m discovering is that these cards only reinforce what I already know, along with what I know I should be studying more. But the cards in themselves are NOT helping me learn what I don’t know. For instance, Performance Routing is something that I understand at a surface level only. Rather than beating flashcards into my head, I should be going over the Cisco config guides and reviewing others blogs to learn this technology at a deeper level. At any rate, that is something learned and I will adjust my study habits accordingly. My learning will slow until I get my hands on a server for labbing, which should really help make some of these ideas more concrete in my head.