Narbik Bootcamp

kalebksp

I decided to jump start my CCIE studies by attending Narbik's 12 day bootcamp in Burbank, CA. I did most of the workbook Narbik gives you before the class but other than that I haven't studied or done much labbing lately. I was a bit worried that I'd be too rusty to get the most out of it, but the great thing about Narbik's bootcamps is that you can retake them for free, so I decided to go for it.

There are 7 students in this class, which Narbik says is one of the smallest he's taught. Turns out that most of the guys are pretty much in the same boat as I am, starting out their studies with the bootcamp. It's day two today. Yesterday we started out with an eight hour mock lab. Amazingly I scored 100%, though this mock lab is generally considered pretty easy from what I've read. Still, it's a nice confidence booster.

I'm writing this while my classmates are finishing up frame relay labs so not a lot of detail. It's far too early to give the class a thumbs up but so far I like Narbik and his teaching style. Time to get back to learnin'.

ITdude

Cool....Have fun and keep us posted..

kalebksp

Finished up day three today. BGP and MPLS, I've forgotten a lot since I did the CCIP, but it's slowly coming back. I'm behind on the labs because I was so exhausted yesterday that I didn't do any after class. It's alright though, I'll catch up over the weekend.

Tomorrow is the really long day; QoS until 6pm then the second 8 hour mock lab. One of the guys who has attended before said that last time they didn't leave til 5am. This lab is supposed to be much harder and includes the troubleshooting section. I don't expect to do as well.

So far I've been very pleased with the class, the pacing is good. The Advanced CCIE workbooks are very good and pretty much what you'd expect out of a workbook. The Bootcamp workbook is pretty intense, full of tricky very non-real world problems. most of the Most of the time I read the questions and have no idea how I'm supposed to accomplish the task.

The 12 Day "End to End" bootcamp is a the regular 5 day bootcamp plus a week of IPv6, security, and a bunch of troubleshooting labs. So if you have any questions about the 12 day or the week long bootcamp I can try to answer them.

Time to eat then get back to labs.

amb1s1

I know this was long time. Did you pass the ccie? I'm planning to take this bootcamp. Do you recommend it? Thanks

davidspirovalentine

@amb1s1 - I have heard it is the best bootcamp around. I will be attending it in Sydney in November...

down77

davidspirovalentine wrote: »

@amb1s1 - I have heard it is the best bootcamp around. I will be attending it in Sydney in November...

I would say that's up for argument. I have a colleague who attended a Narbik camp this year and felt it wasn't as great as it should have been. I would say that any of the major bootcamp vendors will be phenomenal with the proper amount of prep work.

kalebksp

Bit of a late reply but due to my workload and ever additional responsibilities I never even did the written. I do recommend the bootcamp but I would probably do the 5 day if I were to go again, the 12 day was tiring.

At this point I'm considering the Voice or Data Center tracks rather than R&S. If I can finagle access to the equipment it will definitely be DC since it's more interesting to me than voice (not to say I don't like voice though) and I have more real world experience with the tech.

rakem

davidspirovalentine wrote: »

@amb1s1 - I have heard it is the best bootcamp around. I will be attending it in Sydney in November...

There is a Sydney version?

Do you have details?