FEATURED STUDENT

I have been asked to write a few words about my experience here at Koenig on one of their boot camps. I am studying the regular track CCNP course here in Delhi , so here goes.

Koenig I had never heard of Koenig until I opened up my favorite search engine typed in a few key words for training in India and Koenig came to the top. Having never heard of them (which didn't surprise me) I fired off an email about the CCNP course to see what reply I got back and if the company was real (after all the prices of the boot camps seem to good to be true). I was relieved to get a speedy and helpful reply back from Sandeep the center manager, and after that emails continued to fire back and forth over the next mont . Sandeep was able to answer all my questions and was fast on the replies which was reassuring. But was this company real? Once arriving in India things happened just like I was told in my

emails from Sandeep where a chap would meet me at the airport, give me a welcome pack with some spending money and drop me off at the hotel. I would recommend that you get here a couple of days in advance of your course so that you can get over the jet lag.

Getting to Koenig is simple, just catch the taxi at 9am and they drop you off at Koenig where I was relieved to find out that the company did exist after all.

The facilities at Koenig are fine/basic, maybe not what you get back home but there is nothing to complain about really. The building isn't the best by a long shot.

The food whilst you are at the training is brought in from local restaurants. You get a wide selection to choose from, Chinese, Pizza, McDonalds, Indian…and whatever else you want except beef.

The general staff at Koenig cant do enough to help with any problems you have (I didn't have any) and for general advice about India .

India/Delhi Having never been before and not having much time to research the country it was a fairly unknown quantity.

The first experience was the airport, and took a while to get through customs and then meeting the Koenig reprehensive. After that you have journey through the traffic to the hotel and turns out to be an experience in itself. I am still not sure how the traffic works here in India and I have been here for over a month. It is organized chaos but it seems to work…to some degree. Back in the UK if someone used their horns as much as they do here it would be mass road rage, but here the horn is the most essential item on the vehicle and used at every opportunity. I also suggest you close your eyes when approaching a roundabout as there doesn't seem to be such a thing as give way.

For transport around Delhi it is pretty cheap and remember to haggle as the taxi and rickshaws will try to rip you off.

For food in India there is a wide range including all the big franchise restaurants you find back in the UK . I stayed well clear of the street stalls selling food next to the public urinals!!! As this is Delhi you will get a bad belly, although a few people did manage to evade it. You soon get over it and only last 24 hours or so. It's not a big issue.

Evening entertainment is rather limited unless you go to one of the shopping complexes where you can find some late bars or nightclubs. Some of the 5 star hotels also have nightclubs and if you get time I suggest you check out the Orange Lounge, as it was one of the better ones we found.

I don't think there is such a thing as health and safety here, I could be wrong but when you see their electrical wiring and state of the roads you will see why.

There seems to be quite a few festivals during October and November so if you want to experience a festival then Diwali seems to be one of the biggest.

Most Indian people can speak some English and you can get by without to many problems. People are also in general very friendly and welcoming and once again I haven't had any problems.

The weather at this time of the year is still quite warm and is like the summer back in the UK . Not bad for winter! So bringing some shorts along would have been a good idea!

Course

I had a couple of instructors for my CCNP as one had to go to Goa to teach. Both of my instructors had excellent English and whilst having an Indian accent there was never any issue with being able to understand them. At times they would say something wrong or the pronunciation was slightly off. It just means you can correct them and have a laugh about it.

The course itself is fast paced and requires about 4 or so hours work in the evenings to keep up and to go over practice questions. You do get days factored in for revision before the exams which was essential for me and you do get a day off each week. However I found that day off was either used for recovering from a hangover, studying, or both.

During the course we used a range of material to study from, including some CBT material. We used the labs equipment extensively during the course, which gave real hands on experience. I have read different things about Koenig in different forums on the Internet but I can vouch that I have had some excellent training here.

I opted for the regular track, which was still fast paced but manageable. If you are thinking about fast track then make sure you really know what you are doing and are well prepared. My class consisted of me and one other student, which I think is the general class size, unlike other training where you are in a class of 10 or 20 students.

There is an option to have the course material mailed to you in advance, which I did, but I never got the time to read it! In hindsight reading the material in advance would of made my studying easier, so if you get the chance read it.

Accommodation

I stayed in one of the basic hotels in Delhi . The hotel was basic but fine and similar to a 2/3 star in the UK . It had everything needed: fridge, TV, shower, desk for studying and air conditioning. TV is quite good out here with HBO and Star Movies. You get some good films to distract you away from your studies! The basic accommodation also has broadband Internet access, which is fairly quick unless one of the other Koenig students is downloading and hogging all the bandwidth. The internet is a bonus as you can keep in contact with back home cheaply whereas in the 4 and 5 star hotels you have to buy internet time in blocks that have to be used in one go and it rarely works (so I have been told).

The food in the hotel that I stayed was as good as you would get in most restaurants around the area so eating in the hotel was not a problem. I stayed in Pals In which served vegetarian and non-vegetarian food but the Rangoli hotels only server vegetarian. I think from the looks the Rangoli Park hotel it is the nicest hotel out of the bunch and I could of moved if I had wanted but the staff were very good at Pals In and we had a faster internet connection!

Most people seem to stay in the basic accommodation and I would have no issues with coming back and staying there.

Conclusion

If I had the option I would of stayed over here longer to do some real sight seeing and I would of did another course as well.

Would I come back?

For sure and I plan to. Would I recommend? Already have. It is a great place to come and study and to have a holiday at the same time.