Hmm,, Just passed the TSHOOT exam recently and looking forward to the CCIE(R&S) Lab

Gotta cover up the knowledge gap between the NP and the IE, even more so after cisco removed some important topics from the NP curriculum

Planning to start with ATC from the INE and study technologies individually

Techs to study are

1) BGP
2) MPLS VPN
3) QOS
4) SECURITY
5) IPV6
6) NTP
7) NETWORK SERVICES

i hope that by the time iam done studying these technologies, i will be at least on the knowledge base for the CCIE and the real prep can start from there
CCIE has different stages( especially for fresh NPs)

1) NP --> IE: This is the transition stage and a great deal of info is needed here. Very important so as not to create knowledge gaps.

2) Basic IE: solidifying the info learnt from transition stage. Going to the more advanced stuff, labing for specific techs

3) Core IE: merging info from different individual techs to better understand their interaction with each other. Full scale labs at this point more emphasis is on understanding how different technologies interact with each other

4) Advanced IE: technology interaction now should be fully understood and full scale labs should be completed within 7 - 8 hours

5) Ready for the Lab: at this point, labs should be completed flawlessly in 5 - 7 hours.

The above are just my views on how CCIE prep should be

Which of these categories do you belong to. I highly suggest being at level 5 before attempting the lab

Thanks for reading.
Please feel very free to post any comments/ suggestion/ modifications etc..

REGARDS,
SEYI.