Folks who have cleared VCAP-DCD first time

[encrypturlyf]

I thought I could start this thread to find out how many folks did clear their VCAP-DCD (vSphere 4 or 5) the first time they took. I cleared my VCAP5-DCD exam on 19 Nov, 2013.

[vfk]

...and how would this information be helpful to you or anyone else for that?  I am just trying to understand your reasons for posting this.

[encrypturlyf]

Thanks for asking. I was able to clear this exam with only 1.5 years of design experience. I have been either an implementer or a SysAdmin for most of my experience. I have seen some claims that you need a good amount of design experience is required for folks to clear this exam. I wanted to let folks know that its not the number of years of experience which matter, but how technical a person can be in a given point in time.

[VRBitman]

I cleared VCA-level exams two months ago, I am now working on VCP550 (I need to schedule my exam) and I hope to complete the VCAP certifications by the end of the year.

Arun, I think you bring up an interesting point, and I hope to be on your list soon. It really does not matter how many years of experience you have, and I'm really happy that VMware has no requirements of this nature.

If you have ambition, passion, willpower and push hard.. one can achieve his/her goals faster than hes/she might think!

[virtualinstall]

I think it's good for morale to see the flip side of people passing this exam first time and the fact that's acheivable.  Recent posts have highlighted a high failure rate and a few questions regarding the exam valididty, so this question balances out expectations.  I have read many blog posts with people passing first time.

[encrypturlyf]

It's all about the prep and understanding the requirements of the exam. You cannot master all the concepts in VMware with DCD, although knowing them & applying them when required makes the difference in preparation.

[rdowling2]

I've just cleared mine on the first attempt. That's despite losing 20 minutes half way through when the PC crashed just when I'd finished doing a visio style question, and the camera system watching the exam area had frozen, so after having my hand up for what seemed like an eternity I had to bang on the wall to get attention! And even with that, I finished with over an hour remaining. Score was 371.

I actually didn't think it was that bad, there were a few things in the scenarios which were a little vague - mostly it would tell you to put connectors between certain things, but some it didn't and it left me wondering whether I should or shouldn't.

Some of the drag and drops were hard, it was those I found the most difficult, especially when you could drop the same thing into multiple options.

But in my view, not as hard as the VCAP-DCA exams.

[encrypturlyf]

Well, I took the exam 2 times on the same day as the exam crashed during the first attempt after I had completed 67 questions.