IPExpert CCIE Training Company Visit

EMAN

I have really been on the road a lot lately and just a day before departing on my vacation in Orlando, I was returning from San Jose. When I mention San Jose you might jump to the conclusion that maybe John Chambers had accepted my email invitation to meet. But no, instead I was there on my first CCIE Training company visit. I spent two days observing and chatting with everyone I could and this included trainers, students and the VP of IPexpert Matt Brooks. While I was there I was looking for information about the company I could use in my training company survey I am doing for the CCIE Flyer.

What I discovered was pretty cool it seems I started out with a real powerhouse in the CCIE training arena. IPexpert was just listed on the INC. Top 5,000 at #1,514 and at #20 for training companies and has since appeared on this year’s list at #1,137 or number 13 among education companies nationwide. Wow seems they must be doing something right. My focus was how they are doing as a training company though, so on my visit I spoke with students, trainers and checked out the place. I saw that the voice class was full with sixteen students attending while in the next room Routing and Switching CCIE lab preparation was underway with eight students.

Cost

CCIE End to End Programs
For less than $10,000 there are comprehensive blended learning options that come with IPexpert’s entire self-study product line, 200 hours of online rack rental, and finally 2 weeks of instructor lead training. The entire package contains components such as several volumes of lab workbooks, audio and video instructor lead lectures and demonstrations for the lab.

Program includes all this for less than $10,000
• Self-Study (Blended Learning Solution)
•       Workbook / Proctor Guide Volume 1 ($399 alone)
•       Workbook / Proctor Guide Volume 2 ($399 alone)
•       Workbook / Proctor Guide Volume 3 with hi-def video tutorials ($699 alone)
•       Video on Demand Lectures ($999 alone)
•       Audio Lecture on Demand ($599 alone)
• 200 hours of rack access (costs $1245)
• Classroom training (costs $10,000-11,000 alone)

Quality of trainer(s)

• Vik Malhi has personally been directly responsible for helping nearly 100 CCIE Voice engineers reach their dreams of certification. Going by Cisco’s published statistics, that is about 10% of all Voice CCIEs. He has accomplished a lot with his single CCIE certification.
• Jared Scrivener has passed all three of his CCIEs (R&S, Security, SP) on the first attempt, each using IPexpert products and courses exclusively to prepare for the labs. Now, in just 6 months as an IPexpert instructor, he has garnered outstanding reviews from students.
• Mark Snow (Dual CCIE – Voice and Security) and has spent the past 3 years creating and delivering the IPexpert CCIE Voice materials and courses. After adding the Security track, he overhauled that product line.
• Tyson Scott (Dual CCIE – R&S and Security) came to IPexpert from Cisco 2 years ago. He developed the automated lab grading engine deployed at ProctorLabs.com brand, teaches the courses and maintains the products.

Accessibility of trainer(s)

IPexpert students have access to and support from their instructors and their peers through two of IPexpert’s free outlets:
• OnlineStudyList.com is IPexpert’s email list serv, which has grown to rival several of the GroupStudy.com lists.
• CertificationTalk.com is IPexpert’s online forums.

Quality of training material

• The training materials in the blended learning package are impressive to say the least. With programs for R&S, Voice, Security and Service Provider, IPexpert has tons of material, recently updated and kept updated as time goes on.

Rack equipment

Through the Proctor Labs brand, IPexpert offers:
• 24 CCIE R&S racks
• 24 CCIE Voice racks
• 16 CCIE Security racks
• 25 CCIE Service Provider racks

Food

IPexpert students are provided catered food each day, which I think was pretty tasty!

Training philosophy

• End-to-End Blended Learning approach allows every individual to pick and choose the training components that they need, or to buy one discounted all-inclusive program.
• IPexpert teaches you in a way that you actually become an expert in the technologies. Passing the lab exam comes naturally at that point.

Location

• Headquartered in China, MI
• San Jose, CA (negotiated rate of $89/night at nearby hotel)
• Columbus, OH (negotiated rate of $89/night at nearby hotel)

Retake policy
IPexpert’s “Until You Pass!” Risk-Free Guarantee:
This is what they have posted, “The IPexpert “Until You Pass!” Risk-Free Guarantee ensures that your training investment lasts until you pass the CCIE Lab. All IPexpert products and course purchases are covered by our commitment to you and your success.”

Student-teacher ratio
IPexpert’s courses range from 5 students up to 14. Matt told me that they believe the ideal class size is determined by the success rate of their training and feedback from actual customers. The students I spoke with thought the size of the voice class was good.

Pass rate
This is a tough criterion to track and make a judgment from at the CCIE level, for several reasons:

1. Vendors cannot actually conduct the CCIE lab exam, as they can with the lower-level courses. Many CCIE candidates put off taking the exam at all, whether from constant fear, procrastination, life changes (work, family, goals, etc).
2. A popular lab exam strategy is to build into the training budget several attempts at the exam ($1400 each). Many candidates take a stab at the exam with no intention on being able to pass the first time around. They just want to get a feel for the real thing, learn how to interact with the proctor, etc.
3. Also, Cisco does not publish the pass rate for CCIE lab exams.

I have decided to share my experience with IPexpert with my readers and will tell you that I do recommend them. They are ideal for those looking for a polished and well run company to help you achieve your goal of becoming a CCIE. In the US I have been researching the various companies and have found that for purely CCIE training in the USA they hit the mark for quality and success.

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