Product Review: IPexpert 5 Day Bootcamp

Hey guys, Joe here typing at you all from my hotel room in San Jose,
California! Itbs been a GREAT week out here at IPexpert bootcamp. Aside from
losing my job recently, and being worried out of my mind, this has been a
really good end to my first attempt preperation.

I decided to take the class after I got a fairly decent tax refund this year,
mainly to review right before my exam, get a different perspective on some
things I was struggling with late, and get a real CCIE instructorbs opinions
on if I was breadyb for the beast. I had no idea what to really expect,
and I have to say I have been thoroughly impresssed by the overall quality of
the program, and the instructor (Jared Scrivener)

I landed in San Jose late Sunday night (about 10:00 PM PST). By the time I got
my luggage, found a shuttle to the car rental, waited in line, got my car,
found and checked into my hotel, it was about midnight or so (3:00 AM EST so I
had a little jetlag). I got right to bed so I could start off the week on the
right foot.

I was so grateful I did my hotel research, and that as a result the Holiday
Inn I am at ended up being about 1 mile from the IPexpert facility out here. I
managed to find no less than 2 Starbuckbs on the way there! I had no idea
what to expect going inb&who would my classmates be? Would Jared Srivener
live up to his reputation? How would the course turn out?

I walked into the IPexpert buildingb&after bumbling around like an idiot with
one of my fellow students, we managed to find the right room (somehow or
another we both ended up on the 5th floor, and IPexpert is on the ground floor
hehe). When we walked into the room, Jared Srivener was busy handing out the
class material and getting situatedb&pretty soon it was decided to move over
to a more spacious room so we could get more comfortable. We all worked
together to move all the 7960 IP phones out of the bigger and nicer room to
accomodate the 11 of us students. After everybody got comfortable Jared shared
with us his personal story, which was quite inspiring for me personally. Then,
we went around the room and introduced ourselvesb&what our experience was,
how many times if any we had taken the lab, what we wanted out of the class,
etc.

I think sometime around 10:30 we started into material. Each student was given
a very nice looking binder that contained the class slides for the entire
week. It has a nice IPexpert cover on it, room for notes, and is generally
very well put together. I tried to follow along in the slides through the
different technologies. Day 1 we covered what you would expect, catalyst
switching, bridging, STP, catalyst macros, VLANs, VTP, etherchannels, as well
as some more advanced features.

As far as the instructor, Jared Scrivener was definitely on his game, and
firing on all cylinders. He has a confidence about him, that definitely shows
in the way that he teaches, and explains things. He was always more than happy
to slow down and review something again, or answer any questions from the
students. The nice thing was, that we all quickly found out we had a bgood
classb with lots of participation from many of the studentsb&that meant
more overall fun, some good laughs, and a much better environment.

The majority of the class was more at the beginning end of their studiesb&a
few guys there had attempted the lab before. Ibd say about 1/3 of the class
was pretty much just starting out, 1/3 in the middle, and 1/3 pretty damn well
prepared. It became apparent to me pretty quickly through the first day, that
I was more on the prepared side, which was a nice confidence booster. By the
end of day 2 I really decided to sort of shut the hell up, because I was
bthat guyb answering the majority of the questions. That is nice, and
makes you feel a bit more confident for an upcoming lab, but at the end of the
day, I want everybody to get as much as possible out of a lab experience and
actually learn.

As far as the layout of the class, Jared usually covered 2 or 3 large topics,
then let us grab a 5 or 10 minute break. I found that method really useful,
because after so much technical stuff, you really do just need to grab a
breath of fresh air and clear your head. We went solid every day from 9:00 AM
until about noon, then took our lunch break. IPexpert had a hot lunch waiting
for us everyday in the kitchen area. Additionally, their office fridge was
stocked full of soda, bottled water, and juice. We also had coffee available
to brew up any time we wanted. All this stuff was really nice, and all
included in the bootcamp. It was really nice to be able to go grab a pop or a
water or coffee part way through the day. Jared usually lectured on the
technologies until about 5:00. At that point, he handed out our lab work for
the day.

Another awesome thing about this camp, is that each student was assigned their
own personal rack of Proctor Labs gear. If you have ever worked with Proctor
Labs gear, you know it is the latest and greatest stuffb& 3800, 2800, 3560,
3550 b&the works. We were all given our pod# , login, and password the first
morning. The other great thing is that the pods are accessible from anywhere
with an internet connection. Many of the students did lab work at the facility
as well as in their hotel rooms, which was nice. Basically, what they did is
break up one full scale 8 hour mock lab into 4 days, giving you the material
you covered for that day for your lab work. Each day at the end of the lecture
you would get a lab booklet with questions and solutions. We were also
provided awesome network diagrams, laminated and everything.

The first 2 days I was smoking the material pretty damn wellb&I was feeling
good. It was mostly review but good review for sure. More practice can never
hurt. Day 2 and 3 we covered all the IGPs, BGP, IP services, Multicast, and
Security. Today (day 4) we hit up the rest of security, IPv6, and QoS.

Day 5 is strictly a full 8 hour mock lab experience. Today Jared gave us our
lab booklets. This sucker is THICK : ) One of the guys in the class was taking
it for the 2nd time and will be soon going for his 3rd lab attempt. He
basically said that if you can get more than a 30 on this mock lab, go take
the real deal and you will pass : ) Jared concurred that only 1 student EVER
had passed this lab, and that it even kicked his ass when he was a student
hehe. With that being said, I was fully ready to get my ass handed to me
Friday. Ibve read over the full lab twice, and I have to sayb&Ibm
confident : ) It is definitely challenging, but I think I have a chance of
passing it! Only time will tellb&.

The week sure has gone by quicklyb&all in all, it has been a great
experience, and a very well run bootcamp from IPexpert. I couldnbt recommend
it more for anybody out there. If you are wondering if it is worth it, it
isb&every penny. You are dealing firsthand with a guy that has THREE CCIEbs
, teaching you in a small group, in depth for an entire weekb&available for
questions, or to clear things up you misunderstood. Additionally, I made alot
of great contacts this week. Inevitably, when you are in a class for the CCIE
you are surrounded by a lot of smart people. I plan on staying in touch with
some of the guys I met this week for sure! Jared also demonstrated to me right
away that he actually cares about your personal success. He isnbt just there
spouting off factsb&he wants to hear from his students, and he wants to help
you as much as he can. You can tell that not only does he have a passion for
the technology (obviously) but a passion for teaching it as well. That in
itself is valuable.

Jared seems to have faith in meb&and thinks I am ready to have a go at the
beast that is the CCIE lab. Hearing that from a guy like Jared certainly is
nice, and gives me some confidence going in. I am still fully prepared to fail
though. Only time will tell! In a little over a week I will either be CCIE
#24xxx or I will be demoralized and getting back on the horse : )

P.S. If you are reading this and you were one of my classmates, shoot me a
line, Ibd love to hear from you guys, and good luck in all your preperation!

- Joe

"He not busy being born is busy dying" -- Dylan

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Received on Sat May 02 2009 - 01:31:07 ART