Re: REVIEW: Narbik's 2.0 CIERS-1 Bootcamp class

This is best thing about Narbik.. he is 1-to-1... although i never bought
any thing from him.

On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 12:23 PM, karim jamali <karim.jamali_at_gmail.com>wrote:

> Thanks a lot Nate for this feedback!
>
> You know people who attend Narbik's bootcamp always say amazing stuff about
> his teaching! One day I will attend and check this magic thing with the
> whiteboard:P..One more thing I really like about Narbik is that still I
> haven't bought any product from Narbik,and everytime I ask him a question
> he
> answers me fully..
>
> Regards,
>
> On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 7:59 AM, Nate Lee <natetlee_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Just finished up the last day of Narbik s CIERS-1 boot camp and wanted to
> > do
> > a write up on it while the experience was still fresh in my mind. Sorry
> if
> > I get a bit long winded, I hope some of you who may be looking into his
> > class find this to be helpful.
> >
> > I had been looking for a Routing and Switching boot camp to attend in
> order
> > to polish my skills and help prepare me for my lab date coming up in
> March.
> > With no dearth of choices, I looked online for reviews and asked
> questions
> > in forums to other candidates who have attended various vendor s
> > classes. After
> > narrowing it down to Internetwork Expert and Narbik s boot camp, I
> > eventually settled on Narbik s because he was going to be having one in
> > Minneapolis and I could forego the travel costs. This didn t work out as
> > there was not enough demand in MN so the class was cancelled. Although
> > they
> > offered me a refund, I was impressed with the personal attention I had
> > received from Narbik on the mock labs I was working on so I decided to
> > stick
> > with his class. The fact that his class was costs around 50% less when
> you
> > figure in the workbooks certainly didn t hurt either. When you are
> paying
> > out of your own pocket, every little bit helps J They sent out the new
> > workbooks he has been producing which I found to be extremely well
> > designed
> > and thought out. I also purchased the IE Volume I workbook but prefer
> the
> > formatting and explanations of Narbik s so I have been focusing on them
> up
> > to now. Each lab is setup perfectly to illustrate a particular
> technology
> > from many different angles. The workbooks contain very thorough
> > explanations and verifications each step along the way and focus on
> > individual technologies one lab at a time.
> >
> > Enough with the prologue, onto the class ..
> >
> > I arrived in Glendale via the Burbank airport the day before class and
> > after
> > waiting an hour for the hotel shuttle to appear, made it to the Hilton
> > where
> > he holds the classes. The hotel is in a very nice part of town and the
> > rate
> > was decent enough for a nice hotel ($129/night). I grabbed a bite to eat
> > and went to bed early to get a jump start on the next day. Word to the
> > wise
> > skip the $10 optional add on breakfast buffet - the food there is
> > terrible. I can t believe people normally pay $20 for that when there
> are
> > some decent alternatives within a block of the hotel.
> >
> > Narbik showed up promptly at 9 and introduced himself to us. He seemed
> > like
> > a nice guy, very outgoing and friendly. He got unpacked and readied his
> > infamous whiteboards and markers. By now I m sure that everyone has
> heard
> > the following: He doesn t use slides and uses only a whiteboard, he
> teaches
> > and doesn t lecture, he has a different philosophy than other instructors
> > towards teaching and he knows all the commands by heart. I d read it
> > before
> > in other people s write ups of his class but didn t really care if he
> used
> > a
> > whiteboard or not, I was here to learn IOS, and couldn t have really
> cared
> > less as to whether or not he drew on a board, in fact, it almost sounded
> > gimmicky to me.
> >
> > After the introductions, he gave us an overview of what we were going to
> be
> > studying and then went right at it. It took about 15 minutes for my
> > preconception of what makes for a good learning experience to be
> completely
> > blown away. The guy is born to teach. He is concise and articulates
> > complex ideas in such a way that ensures everyone understands the
> problems
> > and all the possible solutions within each blueprint topic. Not only do
> > you
> > hear what tactics to use, but where and why you would or would not use
> each
> > option. He really draws you into the class and makes you excited to
> learn;
> > never once during the week did I feel bored in class, he really kept the
> > wheels in your head turning the whole time.
> >
> > When it comes to the whiteboard, like I previously stated, it certainly
> > wasn t a selling point for me, but after seeing him in action with it, I
> m
> > not looking forward to the next slide driven training I m sure I will
> > eventually have to attend. Got a what if question about the current
> > topology being discussed? BAM! Within 3 seconds, he has redrawn it to
> > illustrate and answer to your question as well as explain the all
> important
> > why? behind the answer. This is something you simply don t get with
> > PowerPoint decks and really enhanced his ability to go into detail and
> > clarify questions from the class. The whiteboard may not sound like
> much,
> > but in his hands it was an invaluable tool to convey ideas in a far more
> > interactive and dynamic fashion than I was used to. The class was about
> > 60/40 lecture to lab time which I found to be a good balance that allowed
> > me
> > to take in a bunch of information and then work on some labs to let it
> all
> > soak in before jumping into the next topic.
> >
> > I m sure most CCIE boot camp instructors can rattle off tons of commands
> > like they were singing the alphabet. They wouldn t be very qualified if
> > they couldn t. Narbik has that down pat, but on top of that, he really
> > raised the bar for what I perceive a great teacher to be. Narbik takes
> > each
> > topic, breaks it down into well thought out, logically arranged parcels
> and
> > explains it in an understandable manner without having to resort to
> dumbing
> > the material down. On top of that, the entire week the guy never once
> > looked at a slide or opened his laptop to pull up a router or switch. He
> > did it all on the white board. From his head. Every single topic. It
> > didn t hit me what a difficult task this would be to pull off in an
> > effective manner until the second day when I realized that runs the
> entire
> > class without any sort of written syllabus in front of him. Somehow he
> > manages to do this freeform thing while still keeping the class very
> > structured. You never thought he was rambling or meandering when he
> spoke,
> > it was always very to the point. It just seemed like second nature for
> him
> > to be teaching the material. He really knows every command, every
> option,
> > and every flag in every header inside and out. More than once during the
> > week he started writing out the potential values of a header field or the
> > results of an obscure show command and everyone in the class just stared
> > with a look of disbelief that he was doing it all from memory. You would
> > check it on your laptop and sure as shit he had it nailed spot on every
> > time. He isn t rattling them off just to show off his knowledge either;
> it
> > is always integrated into the class in a way that the theory and the
> > configuration flow together as a single idea. You never felt like you
> were
> > being overwhelmed by a vast array of archaic commands because he always
> > showed the practical use for them.
> >
> > The final thing that stood out to me as we were leaving on the last day
> was
> > that he made sure that we all knew that he considered the class to be the
> > beginning of an ongoing relationship until we get our numbers and
> reassured
> > everyone that he was just an email away if we had problems with the labs
> in
> > the workbooks. The guy even gave *everyone* in the class his cell phone
> > number on the first day in case there were issues while we were doing
> labs
> > outside the classroom time during the week. I can certainly say that I
> > have
> > never had an instructor do that before.
> >
> > Overall, I walked away feeling like a much stronger candidate that got
> much
> > more than my money s worth out of the class. I feel focused, re-energized
> > and even excited to hit the books and labs regardless of whatever new
> > foreboding news passes through groupstudy regarding V4. I plan to study
> > hard until March and then re-sit the class he is doing outside of San
> Jose
> > (no charge of course) the week of my lab to re-blast my brain with all
> the
> > knowledge I can before I hit the real deal.
> >
> > The worst part of the class is that it is in sunny southern California.
> I
> > now have to head back to a well below freezing Minneapolis. Good study
> > weather though, right?
> >
> >
> >
> > Nate
> >
> >
> > Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> KJ
>
>
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Received on Sun Dec 06 2009 - 12:41:35 ART