RE: which workbook?

From: Richard Dumoulin (richard.dumoulin@vanco.es)
Date: Fri May 21 2004 - 17:50:18 GMT-3

I do only have the companion guide and boy it is excellent !!

-----Original Message-----
From: Jan K [mailto:jan_k@verizon.net]
Sent: viernes, 21 de mayo de 2004 22:42
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: Re: which workbook?

I'm seeing all this talk about NMC, IPExpert and IE, but how about Network
Learning (ccbootcamp.com)? They were probably one of the first ones out
there with a workbook a few years ago. Is the latest version (12.2) still
any good? How does it compare to the other three?

Thanks. 

-- 
Jan

From: "Tim Last" <packtmon@yahoo.com>

> Danny,
>
> I tend to agree with you as far as usually getting what you pay for.
However, in this case, I think that common adage isn't true.
>
> I don't have first hand experience with the NMC workbook but about a 
> month
ago, when I was considering which workbook to get, I spoke to a buddy of
mine (who is now a ccie after about 5 attempts) and asked him about the NMC
workbook which he had purchased.
>
> (BTW, I had bought the IPExpert workbook and wasn't happy with that 
> for
several reasons.  They were full of mistakes, they didn't include a Solution
Guide, and their support was almost non-existent)
>
> He told me he was disappointed with the NMC workbook for 2 primary
reasons:
>
> a)  They had far too many mistakes and compared to the real lab
>
> b)  They seemed to have an unrealistic focus on weird and convoluted
redistribution problems.
>
> So, I got the IE workbook and it's fantastic.  Based on my own 
> experience
taking the real lab, IE's practice labs are very comparable in the level of
difficulty of the real lab and the type of problems one can expect to see,
Their Solution Guide is a work of ART, and there are very few errors of any
sort.  So far, I've only come across a few minor typo's  but nothing that
like the errors that were in the IPExpert workbook which had busloads of
logic errors.
>
> In addition, IE's support site actually provides support.  If you take 
> a
look at it, you'll see how often Brian McGahan (and sometimes Brian Dennis)
has responded to questions with answers that actually answer people's
questions.
>
> Then, if you consider how much you'll learn compared to how much you 
> have
to invest, $200, I think it's the best deal available today by far.
>
> Again, I can't say anything about NMC from personal experience, but 
> having
suffered through the lack of support from IPExpert and the huge volumes of
errors in their workbook, I can tell you, those 2 problems combined make for
a horrorable experience.  Remember that when someone is trying to figure
stuff out and trying to master this technology, when there's a logic
problem, it's hard as hell to know, at first, if the problem is a result of
not understanding the technology or how the commands actually work or
because there are inconsistancies between the task you're trying to do and
the solution.
>
> Then, if you add the fact that IPExpert doesn't provide decent 
> support,
the result is that you end up wasting huge amounts of time and not learning
the material and understanding what the networking problems are and what you
need to do to solve them.
>
> Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth.
>
> Tim

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