From: Darby Weaver (darbyweaver@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Feb 19 2008 - 06:38:57 ARST
The class started fairly promptly at or about 9:00am
as advertised.
8 students and since Narbik offers and actviely
encourages "FREE" repeats to his students, a couple of
these in use by some very well-seasoned students.
This class itself is about typical in terms of
students. 2 of us are guys who went to the lab 4
times already, 1 went 3 times, and at least 1 guy went
at least one time. And I think everyone else has not
gone yet.
2 guys are scheduled to go the lab on Monday
immediately following the end of the class. The rest
are sprinkled in mostly in the next 1-4 months or so
or may be unscheduled at this time (like me - I have
to re-take the written - my last 3 years expired).
Narbik starts the class by handing out like 5 fresh
and somewhat beefy binders labed Volume 1 - 5 and and
a new one that was kind of thin and felt a little
special. It was some of his newest work and it was
feature-rich with hands-on labs.
Narbik does not use any aids whatsoever, unless you
count the whiteboard. The guy knows his CLI and he
practices it by memory on the keyboard.
No mistakes, no misinterpretations or no this doesn't
work and I'm not sure why. Some of us have seen this
by others here and there. Not ole Narbik he is on
the ball.
If it is in his workbooks, he knows every keystroke.
If it's in the blueprint it looks like it is in there.
He takes the time to let you cover some labs and then
get right into it yet again.
He makes some amusing jokes here and there. He does
not have to repeat something got he lost his place
while competition-bashing. He's not about that. His
job is you, the student and everyone knows it and can
feel it.
Many of the students have been to other places,
Cert-Science, Heinz, NMC, NLI, IE, IPexpert, etc. All
seem pleased and pleasantly surprised by an instructor
who actually gets up in the front and instructs...
Oh and the hour... 9am to 9pm you have an instructor
and it appears the class is 5.5 days... yep... you fot
that right - DO NOT BOOK YOUR FLIGHT FOR FRIDAY - Make
it Saturday or even Sunday... You'll need it.
So... you get ~64 hours of instructor in the flesh and
another 15 hours of immediate availability or nearly
80 hours all in one week and...
for about 1/2 the price - only $2000.00 and with all
the throw-ins.
Now.. guys and gals - I've been to a few camps now and
I have to say I've only been more impressed with the
quality and creativity more and more each time.
I have to say this... the best bargain for the buck.
Now about Narbik - this is a first impression so... it
is the first time we've met and trust me we've been on
the same sides some times and minced words behind the
scenes a time or too as well over this or that.
The guy is funny, personable, and very engaging. Not
monotone, never boring and very very technically
interesting.
He was hit with a real world question concerning the
characteristics of SRR Queueing tonight and I swear I
thought he might falter.
But no, he caught his breath and gave a very concise
and precise technical explanation involving the
technology and why it did what it did the way it did.
Wham! He handled it so cool and with such ease you
would have thought he had written the RFC or designed
the Backplane or ASICs...
Very smooth, Mr Kocharians. My complimements.
He then went on and steered the class very smoothly
back on track like the disruption never happened.
The really cool thing is: He never looses his place.
He never repeats unless asked too (I had to ask a time
or two).
I've been to camps where I heard the same thing
repeated so many times it was etched in my skull, or
that the only thing I could remember was that no arp
frame had no earthly function and every other
instructor was an idiot for using it for so long in
the first place, etc.
You can say stand up and scream if you know what I
mean.
So we covered switching and though by now I consider
myself a pretty decent switching guy (I actually
scored 94% last lab attempt) he still found a way to
keep me interested in his expertly-crafted labs even
when I already knew the outcome of the commands.
He covered frame and I even had to make some fresh
notes on some of the aspects of frame-relay and you
gotta know, I do not often make new notes here at all.
Well... he brought up a poignant point about frame and
I suspect a often missed section that is probably the
single cause of my 94% versus 100% in Bridging and
Switching and I'll tell ya... it made sense to me.
No he did not break the NDA and by now after 4
attempts I'd know.
He does use some eloquent and simple techniques and
explanations to make things easier.
He offered me to come to his class with him for better
than a year now and I finally got the opportunity and
I swear had I went when he first took an interest in
me... I'd have been a CCIE by now, I'm pretty sure of
it.
There are just so many things and his labs are just so
damn practical, they make everything just fall into
place.
The idea he offers his students another seat is really
cool too...
Now, I'm not sure but I did not here a LIMIT on his
offer although one would expect to be reasonable and I
think there may be a condition or two with regard to
lab materials (he updates them frequently - as
evidenced by the fact that the lab workbook was
changed a bit from the guy who had already been to his
class before) So... he does update them...
I've been to at least one vendor whose class I went to
that the workbooks were very similar to the class
materials I had from their class that was about 6-7
years apart. Yep... And I was told that the cost was
full price to go again...
Let's see... so I paid full price for the entire
program and I have to pay full price to see what is at
least some of the same stuff... Hey maybe is business
is tough for some.
Not for Mr. Narbik. He's got a pretty full schedule
of people it seems and he always is willing to make
room for one more...
Well some might say by what about intructor to student
ratio...
:)
Well... I'd have to remind you that Narbik's latest
workbooks, so far are fully documented, commented, and
they match what your rack will give you, line for
line. The man did his homework.
I've heard "Make No Assumptions".
Well some might give the students that a similar line
and "A-S-S-U-M-E" a student knows the "basics" and
only worry about the harder topics.
Not Narbik. No really!!! Not Narbik.
He starts with the OSI and appears to working through
it quite thoroughly...
Let me say this and if you get nothing else: GET
THIS!!!
NARBIK does not ASSUME anything from his students - He
does something new... He TEACHES his student. Yep,
old-fashioned concept and he does it so well.
For a guy like me who loves to write and take notes
and even get explained concepts one by one in no
particular rush... Narbik does this and by my opinion
does it very well. He does it with ease and he
actually conveys the material to you.
I remember once going over Cat QoS with one vendor
some time back and thinking man they know this stuff
inside out. I left the class twice and still - I did
not know it inside out - perhaps my own failing, but
I did not really get it.
4 labs - and out of say ~40 points, maybe 5 or 6...
Nope I did not get it. So maybe I'm a rock or
something. But I did not really leave with the
ability to perform the operation confidently.
So... for the past two years I've cringed when it
comes to Cat QoS...
I think Narbik brought a candle this evening and I
compared it to two of my site's real world
configurations and it just seemed to make sense.
More on this later after Narik covers the rest of
things.
I also recall taking classes with multiple instructors
present and somehow leaving feeling like I did not
quite the attention I was requesting.
Yep... True. Maybe the instructor's felt I was not
quite ready at the time and kind of ignored me and my
feeble questions for others who were more prepared and
more ready for the exam.
Anyway - I paid the same fee as the others... or I
think I did... Yep - I got the receipts.
So.. how does Narbik do it? Well with 8 students... 8
to 1 ratio... I can tell you that not a single
question went unheard or unanswered and Narbik took
them all and worked them out.
One student was have ing difficulty (real the sounds
of it) and Narbik took the time to handle it while not
missing a heartbeat and so it largely went unnoticed
by the rest of the students.
As an instructor, I can tell you - he knows how to
engage and how to work a room.
He does not spend time grading labs or making labs or
taking emails or phone calls. He is a professional
and he is at work to help his students.
Narbik does just that.
I had two close friends who were unable to make this
trip at the last minute and Narbik did all he could to
accomodate them but alas they were unable to get here
this time.
They are new to this and while I am dying to see what
comes next, they'll be looking for my thoughts and
recommendations and while I have been to others, I'm
liking what I see so much that... I'm really really
thinking that if they make it to this class, they
simply may not need to do what I've done.
Especially not when you see how many people are
passing like flies due to the simple straight-forward
approach Narbik is using.
I was met by a friend from GS and he asked me:
Did Narbik's or the Brian's materials violate the NDA?
He had gotten a little confused by one of me earlier
references to the word "materials" and I had to
clarify... Nope it is simply "GOOD STUFF".
Well, Steve (an instructor himself - not CCIE) had
already met Narbik and was impressed and so... yep
he's already booked in next month's class in Pasadena.
A couple of others are too as is one of my class-mates
for a repeat even before he started this one...
One thing Narbik does and he says this at the start of
his classes - "I'll give you an honest assessment at
the end of the class where you are and what you need
to do to get to where you might need to be to pass the
lab".
Most of us are taking practice labs to find this out.
Narbik is a seasoned instructor who has about 30 years
experience or so... He knows when he sees a someone
who can and who cannot pass.
Some instructors are not so candid with their
students. No not all are. Sorry if you thought they
were or if they were not quite as candid with you as
you thought they should be.
Narbik says he will tell each student where they are
and I already heard this in person from a former
student from a previous class. no need to doubt it.
Forgive my typos... it's just me.
I guess I have to put on my flame-shield.
Oh yes and for the person who asked me whether or not
I thought Narbik uses alias GS accounts to talk up his
class...
At first it almost sounded like it, even to me. And I
admit I was skeptical.
Well, I'm sitting in class with a some of the people
who commented on behalf of Narbik.
I've met some others in town so far or have spoken
over the phone or email and I made it a point to do
so...
Nope... if he's doing it, he's fooling me.
Now - anyone curious about the 60% of first time
passers from Narbik's classes, look up the one's who
post here on GS, the numbers jive and are unique.
The class is real and really good. I'm glad I made
it.
Even one of my other friends who told me I might find
it basic and not as much to my liking was a bit
mistaken.
I'm really impressed at how easily Narbik is breaking
things down so wonderfully.
He said he works hard on his materials to constantly
improve them and it shows. God it shows.
I used to think the only way to get good QA was using
the CheckIT engine.
Not so...
I was expecting typos and other errors - not so or at
least not yet.
Many of the most prominent vendors here have great
materials that are marred by inconsistencies and
errors that some of us bang our heads over.
If you get a chance take a chance and get over to:
micronicstraining.com and take a look at the demo pdfs
and do yourself a favor and get a copy of these
workbooks if you cannot get to the class for whatever
reason.
Seriously, they are really good. They are step by
step.
The biggest thing I have seen so far is the issue
where Narbik used 12.2.40 or 12.2.44 code on his
switches and I used 12.2.25.EED and some output is a
bit different.
Otherwise... WoW!!!
I was honestly thinking none of the vendors could make
an error free workbook.
Well... it's nice to see one that is doing it so far.
But I've got a couple of thousand pages to go before I
can be 100% sure.
But to say I'm smiling from ear to ear over this is an
understatement.
Recall Soup to Nuts and it's little mistakes... not
these workbooks.
-----------------------------------
So far day one is a perfect 100 for what a CCIE
Bootcamp should be.
About 60-70% labs and about 30-40% lecture for about
12 hours with a small lunch break at the restaurant
literally across the street.
And if anyone is counting, the hours add up to more
hands-on than mostly anyone's other classes with an
instructor in the class with "FEET ON THE GROUND".
Oh yes - one last thing... He does not leave you to
sink or swim like some of may have felt in some
classes... doing some labs. He is there in the jungle
side by side and accessible at all times.
I think that is how all classes are supposed to be.
Sadly a few of know this is not always the case.
Keep it up Narbik! Great job!
- Drinks and Snacks are available so students for free
like most other classes.
- Parking seems to be ample.
- Facility staff are very friendly and polite.
Not a single thing to complain about yet.
If this sounds like my best review yet - there is a
reason. I'm pretty impressed so far.
Later it is 12:38pm and as I said class does come
early.
Later
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Mar 01 2008 - 16:54:49 ARST