VMware Edu & Cert Community
iBrokeIT
Contributor
Contributor

Pearson Vue fails to deliver my VCAP-DCA

I was scheduled to take this exam at the Pearson Professional Center in Bloomington MN at their Corporate Headquarters at 8:00am. 

Started the exam which felt terribly slow, like 10 seconds to refresh the RDC screen after closing the "Edit Settings" on a VM.  Then 10 minutes in, I experienced a complete RDC time out from the lab environment.  It came back after a minute, worked for 3 minutes then disconnected again. 

I notified the Pearson Vue staff and they contacted the Pearson Vue VMware program coordinator as well as VMware.   They advised the local staff to reset the exam and start it on another computer with a little extra time, same result - time out/disconnects again after another 7 mins.

At this point I was beyond frustrated and in no mental state to successfully complete this exam.  The local staff were of no help, gave me a number to call and shoo'ed me out the door.  I called the number and they said an investigation would take 3-5 business days.  They would offer to reschedule the exam if their investigation agreed with the local staff's assessment that there was technical difficulties but they would not compensate me for taking off of work.

The wonderful thing is that I have until Aug 31st to recertify which I am doubtful they will have a date before then given the availability when I tried to schedule the first time.

This experience as completely soured my opinion of Pearson's ability to deliver VMware VCAP exams.

If you are thinking about taking this exam - DON'T DO IT.

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5 Replies
npadmani
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

don't give up on it completely. Technical issues can happen, doesn't mean they last forever.

I had similar experience, in February this year, went to exam centre in the morning. Faced similar issues like you explained, same pearsonvue centre, same day afternoon. Managed to complete exam successfully.

Narendra Padmani VCIX6-DCV | VCIX7-CMA | VCI | TOGAF 9 Certified
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Krenztor
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I ran into issues as well when I took the exam.  It was definitely slower and less responsive than you want it to be.  I also got disconnected entirely once for a few seconds and that scared the crap out of me!  I wish for a professional exam like this that they would provide a better environment to work.  I'm sure it is hard to do since they can't setup a physical environment at every site.  Unfortunately this might be the best setup both Pearson Vue and VMware can come up with.  Not ideal but I guess most of the time it is a good enough environment to complete the test.

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crispyire
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It has been a regular complaint about the VCAP-DCA exam. Many of the vExperts and bloggers who have written on the subject mention the slowness/latency. When I did mine last March, moving through the environment was like going through molasses/treacle, so I speak from experience too!

The Pearson Vue staff did managed to get extra time added onto my exam time but very much like you, the frustration got to me what is already a stressful experience.

I urge you to take it again... Now you know what you are getting yourself into, you know the pitfalls and you can get pass next time. I will take my own advice soon but family has taken a priority more recently.

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Ijelekhai
Contributor
Contributor

Hi there, sorry to hear the service you've received was not as we expected. To assist you quickly, please contact us at testinginfo@pearson.com, quoting your incident number if you have been given one, candidate ID and contact details and one of my colleagues will be happy to assist. 

Alternatively, please send us a Private Message on Facebook on.fb.me/1EFz21K or a Direct Message on Twitter bit.ly/1LwciHA with your candidate ID, contact details and incident number if you have one.  Regards, Kevin.

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jedijeff
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

This happened to me as well my first time with VCAP5-DCA. I complained after I failed, and VMware investigated and gave me a voucher for a free shot at it again which I passed. VMware education is actually pretty understanding on the matter. I agree that I think VMware should hold pearson to having better equipment or connections, though who knows where the problem lies. I do remember working on some shitty 15inch CRT--yes CRT at my testing center. Trying to keep like 5 windows open on a 15in CRT made me want to throw it out the window. I think professional live exams at Pearson should have much better equipment to work on. I mean they don't have to replace all their labs,,,even just one workstation reserved for live exams from any vendor seems reasonable.

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