Having time to digest a the materials from either a few to mostly all but
not quite all of the vendors in the market from different years, this means
the older ARS and Mentors Labs materials through to the most currently
available programs of study.
A lot of the older programs of study - had little flaws here and there or a
topic or two that might not have been fully developed, explained, or maybe
it's just hindsight beint 20/20 and the features today may not have been
available back then - no, in some cases some of the answers or explanations
are not right, and would have caused undue lost points in at least a few
cases.
Now with that said, even some of our favorite vendors make mistakes even if
only with typos or second-language english mistakes which can be a little
distracting.
The problems with the NMC approach are these:
1. There was a lack of a "intro-intermediate" level material
available. This was missing. Let's assume with the VOD, this has been
covered. However the IGP VOD offered at around the $500.00 mark is
incomplete and leads the student to believe there is more to come. There is
not.
2. The 1st assessment exam which carried over into day 2 for about 2 or 3
hours, typically identified many weak areas that many students of NMC-1
had. However these issues would have had to be completely resolved in the
2-3 hour overview period, or those students would be struggling for the
remainder of the 2.5 days of more advanced instruction on BGP, IPv6, QoS,
Multicast, and IP SLA, before getting their feeling hurt on day 5 with only
about 1/2 day to take an exam that would usually leave a student feeling a
little overwhlemed. Some of these issues covered in this material is either
freely available in the Public Library on the site or in the Private
Library. A well-informed student would do well to use both prior to a
class. A student would be reminded to cover the lower tier topics from the
material in the Tech Library.
This experience will likely be the new CRS-1 course to be offered by Cisco.
Some of the topics may change a bit for example: expect to see Switching
covered in more detail.
The Tech Library is the wealth of knowledge of these courses. This means if
you read the Tech Library before coming to a class. You have pretty much
been to class. You will hear the instructors pretty much recite the Tech
Library to you.
So to sum up the new CRS-1 Course in a nutshell:
1. It will cost $5000 - $20000
2. It will regurtitate the material available on the Tech Library.
3. The CRS-1 class will not cover IGPs, nor will it cover in depth outside
of an direct examples from the given exams, the little things linke
prefix-lists, offset-lists, distribute-lists, as-path lists, etc.
4. The labs typically do not use 3 BB routers. So all the filtering you may
need to be familiar with and issues with backbones are largely left to the
students imagination.
On a positive note:
1. You will learn a strategy. The Golden Moment is a registed trademark, it
is listed in the dictionary, and has a copyright symbol too.
2. You will learn to draw a colored coded switch diagram.
3. You will learn more redistribution than is fair for any exam. It is a
trademark.
4. You will learn what the Golden Moment is. Another trademark.
So if you were on a budget and wanted this quality education but cannot
afford at least the $10,000.00 to now $20,000.00 it might cost you to attain
this level of knowledge consider the following:
1. InternetworkExpert and IPExpert both have very well developed end to end
programs of study that do cover the basics, that do have very well developed
video on demand, and that do have practice mock exams, and many rack
providers support their layout. Expect a complete price for this luxury to
be at about $7,000 - $10,000 list - ask for the 3rd world discount.
2. NLI and CertScience have already offered a program for about $10,000 each
that is extended for about 6 months, includes class time and remote study
options and have rack time built in or available for use.
3. There are other alternatives to preparing for the CCIE Certification:
Consider 1-1 training with CyscoExpert for 1 or more weeks at about $4500
per week. Heinz Ulm for for about $8000 for 3 weeks and $2750 for 1 week of
mock labs.
4. Global Knowledge offers Bass Consulting Consultants about 2 weeks of
instruction for about a total of $10,000.
5. Narbik Kocharians offers a week repeatable Class till you Pass for $2000,
which is the lowest cost and possibly the best bargain by far.
If you really need the CRS-1 or NMC-1 or ECP-1 experience and are on a
budget do this:
1. Go to netmasterclass.com and download the pdfs from their site. This is
30+ percent of the 2.5 days of material covered in the total of 5 days of
course instruction.
2. Purchase the Tech Library for $149.00 this is about 150% of the material
covered in the 2.5 days of instruction you receive during class.
3. Buy at least 2 graded labs from NMC labs at $500.00 for two graded labs.
Now you will have aachieved what is in this course of study offered by NMC
and soon to be offered by Cisco.
4. Almost forgot you'll need a copy of Bridges Routers and Switches authored
by the authors to ensure you get understand how to achieve the Golden
Moment.
