From: darbyweaver@yahoo.com
Date: Sun Mar 25 2007 - 04:58:19 ART
OK
LOL - I read the other posts... Personally, I had
fallen quite ill and was not able to respond to each
as I usually would have.
Here's the facts of the matter:
1. H U is a man, simple flesh and blood.
2. He asks that you come to his class prepared to do
the tasks that you have come to do. He will teach you
since that is the ultimate goal, but remember he does
have a reputation to uphold.
3. He breaks you down as you realize where you are
truthfully with regard to your skills. He then builds
you up. He creates an "Espirit de Corp" that I have
not seen since hanging out with the MARDET back in my
Navy days. His students are loyal. They come as
clients and leave as friends.
4. He gives you tasks that are both doable and
obtainable. He simply asks that you do them or at
least try. He does not care for "apathy" and is
clearly posted. He brings all the most recommended
book and asks that you use them. He teaches his
students to embrace the UNIVERCD and if a student is
caught using the ? to continue, he will likely ask him
"Why?"?
5. He is honest with his students. He will give his
students the wealth of his experience. This is what
you are coming to his camp for in the first place.
6. I've seen many questions on GS about what to ask
the proctor. The students of H U are drilled
every single day on not only what to ask, but when to
ask, and why to ask. They are taught to make an
impression on the proctor that they did not come to
take the lab exam, but instead that they are fully
prepared for the lab exam and they simply came to the
Cisco facility to collect their digits.
7. The students leave empowered, they understand the
nature of the lab exam. They know what to expect and
do not expect a free lunch (it is $1250.00) and they
are fully prepared to sit down at their pod and work
for 8 hours straight non-stop and get the job done.
8. The students are taught if the lab looks too easy
or if it is completed early to look for what is wrong
with the picture. Every lab has a challenge, have
they identified the challenge in their lab. They are
taught to use show and debug commands to verify their
work to 100% completion with verification.
9. The student is taught strategy and to make no
assumptions. In other camps, one may "told" to make
no assumptions; H U takes this a step further and
demonstrates at every single opportunity what
assumptions can be made and what questions are the
correct questions to ask. The student is taught
strategy and a careful strategy involves rigorous
hands-on lab time followed by solving complex network
configurations that H U or one of his "MINI-ME's"
have concocted for each student. Yes, I am telling you
that he studies you as you progress through his labs,
and he customizes the labs you are presented each day
in a methodical fashion of helping each student not
only realize his weaknesses, but also learning from
them and even turning them into strengths. Be
prepared he does not neglect what you thought were
your strengths either.
10. In comparison to other training that I have
attended, I would say this is the "MOST" personal
training I have yet to attend. It is very customized
and it is very unique. I did only attend the 5-Day
Mock Lab that includes 4 individual Mock Labs and a
sealed container with a 5th Mock Lab. However, due to
what I have seen, I am now going to pursue the 3-Week
option as well. I did speak to two student from the
3-Week Bootcamp and both were favorable impressed (not
very suprising as they were both "Survivors"). One
was the bloody red-eyed class mate to my left, I had
mentioned in an earlier post.
11. The Lab exam is ultimately a test of reading
comprehension and time management tied to your ability
to perform the tasks correctly as presented given
whatever limitations are in effect. H U teaches
each of these principles. He teaches you to use the
tools you have available in the lab. He teaches you
the ?, the UNIVERCD, and he teaches you how to
leverage the Proctor - perhaps the most underutilized
tool in our toolkits. His tasks force you to embrace
the UNIVERCD and sometimes you will cling to the ? for
help. But unlike others vendors who may tell you
these tools are important to your success and the
final outcome of your lab results, H U explains to
you EXACTLY why and EXACTLY how to use each of these
tools to your best advantage. Your lab preparation is
not a game to H U, he takes it seriously and he
intends that you pass the lab exam by knowing any and
all obstacles that might impair your chances for
success. He wants you to use what you have and this
does include hard work and hard study, but it also
includes the Proctor, the UNIVERCD, and even the
humble ?.
12. In terms of costs the H U Bootcamp is
extremely competitive. The hotel rate is only $63.00
per night and includes all of the amenities (I have
paid up to $175.00 per night to be close to other
training facilities). I know the various training
companies do not control what hotels cost, but H U
is a negotiator and figured that he would be booking
the hotels for a lot of nights and so he bargained and
saved a lot for his students.
In terms of costs: $2800 per week of training or
$8000.00 for 3-Weeks of training. Shop around and
you'll quickly find the cost to be competitive with
other vendors. His week of mock labs retail for
$2800.00.
He offered a 20% discount to some students this year.
Again it made it even more affordable.
-----------------------------------------
My overall impression was quite favorable. He is a
humble man who only has one mission and that is to
prepare CCIE Candidates to take the CCIE Lab and be
prepared to pass it. Apparently he does this well.
He will ask you questions. He will engage you. He
will ask you to explain yourself, even if you are
right, you must still know why...
If you consider this painful or torture then it is
what it is. However, consider this: his students,
time after time, remain motivated to work heavy into
the night and into the morning each and every day and
each and every class to try to complete the tasks they
have been assigned. His students forego sleep as a
rule. They are so intent into whatever he is
teaching; whatever he has assigned them; and whatever
he has asked them to do. He has an uncanny undeniable
ability to simply motivate his students to go one step
further and each student just does whatever is
expected.
Also consider this: His students respect his work, he
is one of the lowest numbers CCIE instructors (CCIE
#1561) and has been teaching for 10 years or so and
yet not a scrap of his labs can be found anywhere from
one end of the net to the other. It would not make a
difference in any event since his labs are somewhat
customized per student.
He works hard and this is not to say that any of the
other vendors do not work equally hard, because we all
know they do. This is more to say what he does
differently than others and apparently it works for
him.
This "Mock Lab Summary" is not meant to detract from
anyone least of all any of those who have made their
own life's work helping us all to earn our CCIE's.
This is simply to shed a little light on what is the
mystery of a H U Bootcamp experience.
FYI - Apparently he is a workaholic and enjoys it, but
do not expect him to reply immediately to any emails -
he only checks them twice per day and after a 4-Week
series of classes he may be out of town for a couple
of days.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sun Apr 01 2007 - 06:35:52 ART