VC-DCA Open Book?

[saiello]

This may seem a silly question; however, I was reading something online the other day and it almost made it seem as if the VC.DCA was an open notes kind of test.

Is this correct?

Thanks you kindaly,

Steven

[vGuy]

Yes, you will have access to VMware pdfs. But I would suggest not to rely on them too much as you will not find time to go through the docs during the exam. Unless you know which pdf and which of it's section contains the answer you are looking for.

...hth!

[aravinds3107]

The Documents which are referred in the blueprint will be avilable during the exam. But I would suggest not to rely on that dut to the time limit on the exam.

[scott28tt]

Yes the vSphere documentation PDFs are available during the DCA exam, but you should plan not to use them as time is crucial in this 100% lab-based exam.

[jghartin]

I have passed the vcap4-dca and vcap5-dca. I can tell you that I did not have much time to look into pdfs. I am sure if you  are targeted in your search it could be helpful. However, I didn't get into the pdfs, mostly because I was too tight on time.

Cheers,

JGH

[AndreTheGiant]

Note that are only the PDF from the vSphere guides.

Not whitepaper or other specific docs.

[JAndrews42]

Note also that the documents are browsed and accssed via the Adobe Reader application.

[slaclair]

Time makes this not completely like an open book scenario, but yes you can lean on those PDF's and I have for a kick in the right direction in a pinch.

[elihuj]

Does anyone know if anything gets counted against you if you do refer to the PDF files? For example, if you forget how to mask a LUN and you refer to the documentation. Will that count against you? Or is it okay to periodically refer to them for commands.

[slaclair]

goose117 wrote:

Does anyone know if anything gets counted against you if you do refer to the PDF files? For example, if you forget how to mask a LUN and you refer to the documentation. Will that count against you? Or is it okay to periodically refer to them for commands.

It will not count against you.  They are there to be used (if you actually have the time to use them).

[crawfordm]

It does not count against you.  I used them a couple times when I took the exam.  It just chews up time.

[elihuj]

Thanks for the replies. While going through different scenarios in my lab, I find it hard to remember all of the different commands. Good to know that I can use the PDF's if needed!

[Mrhaana]

You will not get much time to look into PDFs..But if you want to take advantage of PDFs when in exam, spend much time to look into all PDFs and ensure you are familiar with what PDF has what kind of topics.

[scott28tt]

I agree that time will be a challenge if you have to use the PDFs to remind yourself more than once or twice - some people have memorised page numbers of certain PDFs prior to taking the exam where they expect they'll need that help...

Don't forget that most commands have syntax help that you can call on directly from the CLI - I used that a few times when doing my VCAP4-DCA - quicker than looking in a PDF...

[elihuj]

Thanks again guys. I've been using the advanced search to search all the PDF's at once.. I've found it helpful to remember specific search terms that will turn up the exact page that I need. I hope by the time I'm ready to take the exam I will not have to use the PDF's at all.

Great tip on the syntax help too Scott. I've been using that and it's very helpful. One of the things I'm having trouble with is say some of the PowerCLI commands. Remembering how to write a script to configure bulk licensing for example. It's difficult to commit all those variables to memory!

[virtualtech_wor]

Hi - Any idea, if there any updates on the below exam documentation PDFs list or still the same PDFs are available during the exam?

[crawfordm]

Best thing to do is download the latest blueprint and check the links in the blueprint - Two Available VCAP5-DCA Exams

[JPM300]

Looks about right,

I looked into this as well as I'm writing my DCA in 2 weeks or so.  However you will want to know as much as possible prior to going in and memorize the books / page numbers of the stuff your shacky on as I hear time is your greatest enemy in this exam so if you have to constantly flip through PDFs to find what your looking for you will quickly run out of time.

[JoshuaAndrewsVM]

Docs haven't changed for DCA510.  DCA550 also has access to pubs.vmware.com and kb.vmware.com