Absolutely.
Following is a review I posted on the CCIE lab list after I took the class:
-----------------------------
This past week I had the experience of participating in the Mentor
Technologies ECP1 class. Here is my report.
The course content should be pretty familiar to everyone here. It is build
around the book Bridges, Routers, and Switches for CCIE's, Second Edition.
The content has been updated to reflect recent changes, including some
voice, some IPSec, and the removal of a number of protocols now in the
twilight of their years.
Also, check out http://www.mentortech.com/learn/desc_ECP1.shtml for
content information.
The class is built around CCIE lab like racks, with equipment as specified
on CCO. There are two students per rack. There were ten students in my
class. I am not sure what the limit is, but based on the effort of the
instructor to spend time with each of us, I would guess that ten is the
practical limit.
Keep in mind that this class is NOT a brain dump. If you go into this
thinking this class will make you pass, you will be sorely disappointed. In
my mind, the class serves two purposes. A) reality check in terms of you
readiness. B) testing how much you really know and understand about the
topics covered.
That said, let me begin by saying that any class is only as good as the
instructor. I had the privilege and the pleasure of working with Val
Pavlichenko, co-author of the above mentioned book. I cannot say enough good
things about Val. He was right there with us into the late evening. He made
time to speak to each of us about our solutions. He demanded that we be able
to explain what we saw and why. And if we were wrong, he made sure that we
understood why we were wrong. This had to have been tough. East coast west
coast time differences must have really screwed with his body clock. But Val
was always there, always alert, always coaching us, challenging us to think
about issues, and to think about how to get the results called for in the
labs.
I am particularly grateful that Val agreed to offer an evaluation of my
current readiness. His assessment of my positives was accurate. His
assessment of my weaknesses was fair.
A number of the scenarios were deliberately designed to create problems. The
challenge was always to complete the work in a pressure environment and then
to understand the result. For example, one scenario called for an IPSec
tunnel connecting the two end networks with one routing protocol while
running the underlying network using a different protocol. The big
challenge - to explain why it didn't work. The troubleshooting section on
the last day was particularly fun, and one of the problems was clever to the
point of diabolical.
There is nothing like being in an environment with motivated people working
to attain a common goal. ECP1 is no exception. I met some good folks there,
including someone who will be taking her lab at the same time I take mine. I
believe I walked away from the experience with far more than I could ever
have hoped for, and some of this is due to the quality people with whom I
had the privilege of associating with for the week.
This experience is highly recommended as a part of one's preparation for the
CCIE lab. To repeat, it is NOT brain dump. It is a tune up. If you don't
know most of the stuff going in, you will not have time to learn it in this
class. You are there to practice methodology, to think, to evaluate.
Some tips:
1) bring your own laptop with CD drive so you can use the documentation CD
while you work. Although Mentor supplies a laptop with each pod, and
includes the ability to connect to CCO via the internet, you may want to
save the configs from the various exercises for review later.
2) don't bother weighing yourself down with a lot of extra reading
materials. You won't have time. Class truly does last from 8:30 am to
10:30-11:00 at night.
3) be prepared to be challenged. Be prepared to analyze and to explain your
analysis.
4) Be prepared for a great experience.
-------------
HTH
Chuck
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of
Tolanid
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2001 4:54 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: ECP for CCIE prep ?? [7:852]
Can someone please give me their feedback on the ECP-1 class for CCIE prep
from Mentortech ?? Would you recommend it if someone has already been
through the Caslow book (or most of it)??
If you took the lab after the class - did it help ?? Did it really tell you
your weak and strong points ??
Thanks in advance
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