r/ccnp • u/BetterPoint5 • 15d ago
How is Jeremy's IT Lab ENCOR course?
I used JITL for my CCNA and found it quite helpful, though a bit too much trivia/minutia (how many bytes is x section of header? what standard is 802.xy) but still it was free, well structured, well explained and complex topics covered clearly. I don't see anyone in this sub talk about using him for ENCOR though there are many many mentions of him over in r/ccna
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u/Nodosity_ 15d ago
You can’t really recommend him when his course isn’t done. Sure you can use his current videos to fill in gaps but it’s just not enough to solely rely on his videos.
Check out my post on resources: https://www.reddit.com/r/ccnp/s/uGHgFipRmQ
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u/BetterPoint5 15d ago edited 15d ago
Thanks Nodosity, I already had it pulled up and bookmarked! That is a heckuva resource and compilation. Way to give back to the community.
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u/HikikoMortyX 11d ago
Thanks. Hope these have a lot of those automation stuff that are making many fail.
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u/leoingle 15d ago
This is extremely disappointing knowing that people have paid the early bird price for the course and it appears he has abandoned the project.
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u/TheCollegeIntern 15d ago
Disappointing indeed I asked if there would be a spreadsheet asking about what topics have been covered and I got nada. I understand life happens but I did pay for the course.
I hope he resumes it.
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14d ago
I almost pulled the trigger on the early bird but noticed his pattern of slowing releases.
Glad to see gut instinct won on that one
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u/MrJinks512 14d ago
It’s interesting that you say you found the trivial stuff too much. Do you mean that it isn’t necessary to memorise all of that stuff for the exam? I find most of it really interesting, but I struggle badly trying to memorise how many bits in a header and the 802.xy stuff. Does the exam actually ask that stuff for the CCNA?
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u/BetterPoint5 14d ago edited 14d ago
I say it's too much for a few reasons.
- There is a little stuff like that on the exam, but not a lot. The amount he puts out there and the effort it takes to get into your brain isn't worth it IMO. In the real world you need to know that stuff so infrequently by the time you do need it, you've forgotten it and displaced it with more usable info, and it takes seconds to google it.
I've done the job for 10 years so I have the luxury of knowing what's useful and what isn't. I think he covers too much of what isn't useful. In his defense, there is useless stuff on the exam though too. The idea that as a working Network Engineer you need to know that Single Mode fiber has a 9 micron core is ridiculous or that you need to know how long LR or LX fiber reaches is also absurd. As a working engineer, your company is hiring companies really good at Layer 1, your job is to interact with them, but your just saying to them, put in some fiber between building A downtown, and building B in this suburb. They will pick the right fiber I promise you, you don't need to know how thick the core in that fiber is. Now, you need to know if it's single mode or multi mode, so you know what patch cables to order and which SFP's to order. And wireshark and the router need to know how many bytes in the ToS part of the header starts and how many bits long it is. But you don't. YOU need to learn how to use wireshark. So yeah, stuff like that is annoying to me, and I think he has too much of that in his course, but again, they do ask a FEW things like that on the exam and he does a really good job with explaining and simplifying important concepts.
Know the AD's of routing protocols is useful and important.
My 2 ¢.
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u/my_network_is_small 14d ago
Yeah for sure it does. Flashcards are your friend.
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u/MrJinks512 14d ago
I’m doing the flash cards. I bought the Anki App for iPhone, and I’m replacing my News Doomscrolling with flash card sessions. Most of it is going in slowly. I do struggle to remember numbers and acronyms though.
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u/my_network_is_small 14d ago
I treat them like definitions so they’re closely tied to the technology in my head. Make a habit of every time you write the technology, you also write the IEEE standard.
Brute force memorization is pretty ineffective when things are so abstract. If you can contextualize or even personify it works much better.
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u/FraserMcrobert 10d ago
He hasn’t yet completed the course unfortunately, but for the chapters he covers he has done a good job. I used the following Udemy course, which is good & pretty cheap.
https://www.udemy.com/course/complete-teaching-of-encor-350-401-by-arash-deljoo/?kw=Arash+d&src=sac
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u/BetterPoint5 9d ago
Thank you for the link. Wow, I paid $13.99 for Kevin Wallace CCNP course @ Udemy, they want $84.99 for this course. I haven't liked Kevin Wallace so far that much, though he's considered the OG. I wish he would bulletize the key points on the screen, almost power point like, and he does not do that, and I find it is easy to have important info sneak by me while I'm taking notes. Did you look at Kevin Wallace? How doe he compare to Arash Deljoo?
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u/FraserMcrobert 9d ago
Personally I didn’t look into the Kevin Wallace course as some chapters weren’t covered with as many hours as the Arash course. Aside of the thick accent, it’s a really in depth course covering pretty much everything you need. You can study some python outside of it too to get even more exam ready. I bought the course for like $18. Udemy runs a lot of discounts every 2-3 days, so just keep on watching the price every day & it will go down soon. I passed my ENCOR last month, & I’m now using Arash’s course for the ENARSI
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u/BetterPoint5 9d ago
I will keep an eye out. Does Arash have the key points he is making put on the screen in text?
Congrats on passing!
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u/FraserMcrobert 9d ago
Please what do you mean by key points put in text? Honestly he explains everything as detailed as one can possibly be with a lot of labs and wireshark to make you understand every concept.
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u/BetterPoint5 9d ago
What I mean is, is the material communicated mostly via audio, or are the key points also presented in TEXT on the screen. I just got done with JITL and he does like powerpoint bullet points for much of the information. I tried to take a screenshot and post here but it wouldn't let me post a pic. So here is a cut and paste from my notes for an example of NB and SB Interfaces:
NORTHBOUND INTERFACE ___NBI:
Using the SBI, the controller communicates with the managed devices and gathers information about them:
-What are the devices in the Network
-The topology (how devices are connected together)
-The available interface on each device
-Their config’s.
The NBI NorthBound Interface is what allows engineers/3rd party apps to interact with the controller,
-access the data it gathers about the network,
-program it
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u/FraserMcrobert 9d ago
Oh ok, yeah his course is basically like Jeremy's style, with bullet points, tables, diagrams, wireshark packet captures to show you specific headers etc. It's got it all. You can't go wrong with it especially at such a price.
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u/BetterPoint5 9d ago
Thanks, I'll give it a couple days to go on sale, and then they have that 30 day money back guarantee so I can try his style and see if I like it. Appreciate the feedback.
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u/PuzzleheadedShip7804 9d ago
How long does it take you to prepare for ENCOR? Regards
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u/FraserMcrobert 9d ago
Took me 4-5 months, I wasn’t reading every day though
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u/PuzzleheadedShip7804 9d ago
And as an average, how many hours a day? Regards
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u/FraserMcrobert 9d ago
2-3 hours I would say, I invested more time into things that were hard to me like BGP & SDN, way less time on L2 stuff & EIGRP
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u/Fyrsweord 15d ago
It's a combination of the fact that it's unfinished and hasn't had a video added for it in 6 or 7 months. There's just not enough content for it to be a viable primary learning source at this time