Recommendation for a DCA testing centre in the UK .. specifically ..

[Michael_Rudloff]

Either London / Welwyn Garden City / Cambridgeshire areas.

I really don't want to go through the stress of hitting a testing centre with shocking connectivity / PCs etc. so would love to hear from our English people here if someone has good experience (or bad for that matter) with certain centres.

Thanks.

[AndreTheGiant]

Usually VCAP testing centers are selected to provide also good equipments.

Note that are only a subsystem of all VUE testing centers.

[Michael_Rudloff]

But if that is the case, then why are there so many complaints about the lab performance?

Sent from Samsung Mobile

[bugblatterbeast]

I did VCAP5-DCA just this week in a Central London VUE center and parts of the lab were pretty grim and frustrating to work with (e.g. laggy and slow on the screen refresh).  You would expect a central London testing centre to have pretty quick connectivity but it felt laggy to me.  I did the VCAP4-DCA in the same test centre and that was much better.

This time, though, they had new wide screens which was nice!

Just for the record I am not putting any potential pass/failure down to the good/bad performance of the lab

[vHaridas]

Can't vmware define standards for testing center local system configuration and network bandwidth? So that candidate think about exam rather thinking about test center.

Haridas

Haridas

[Michael_Rudloff]

Or have options to go directly to VMware if there is an office in town.

I am sure it'd be inconvinient for most, but it would be great to have the option.

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[scott28tt]

VMware do not run testing centres in their offices - I doubt this would ever happen.

To answer your original question, I used to work for Global Knowledge - I took my VCAP4-DCA in their Wokingham office and didn't have any problems, and colleagues of mine didn't have problems when they did their exams in their London office.

Regardless of where in the world you take the exam you're accessing a lab in the US, and before anyone asks there simply isn't enough scale for VMware to regionalise the labs.

[scott28tt]

PearsonVUE have an upper tier of testing centres which they call "Select", the hardware and bandwidth at these centres have to meet higher minimum standards - I don't know if it's still the case but originally you could only take a VCAP exam at a "Select" centre for exactly this reason.

[Michael_Rudloff]

I know they don't. Just saying it would be nice for higher certifications. Paying so much money for an exam just to sit on a PC with horrible connection and performance seems unfair considering the time required to prepare.

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[admin]

Pearson VUE will add time to lab exams that have lag on them.  Have the test administrator contact VSS (VUE Support Services) to add time if you're experiencing lag.

The equipment is not as much the problem as the internet connection.  The connections are tested by VUE at the point of installation of the test driver, but a wide variety of things can vary network bandwidth, especially at non-pearson-owned test centers.