Can I Query My VCP4 Exam ?

[fergieman]

Hello

Like some people I was completely thrown by the VCP4 exam I did a few months back. I studied with the help of the exam blueprint , vcp4 books (even a vcp study guide from Pearson Vue)- and going on every mock exam / online exams I was up for passing. I knew all the configuration maximums/mins etc. But when I got the exam , I found the questions to be extemely difficult. After about 3 questions I was wondering if I was doing the VCP 4 advanced or expert exams. Is there away for me to query my exam (not the result !) but the questions just in case there was a technical blip ?

Cheers....

[weinstein5]

There is only on VCP 4 exam (VCP 410) and likewise a single VCP exam (VCP 510) - Pearson Vue will only give you the exam you paid for. I believe what you experienced is what most people find, even those experience VMware users, the VCP exam is quite intensive and comprehensive on the material i covers.

[scott28tt]

I doubt there was a technical blip, there is only a single VCP exam for each vSphere version, so you will have taken VCP410. The pool of items in the exam covers every element of the exam blueprint, you are asked 85 questions from the entire pool.

There are few if any practice questions that are fully representative of those in the real exam, and I doubt you will have seen that many "maximums" questions.

Scott.

[EV_Simon]

I sat my VCP exam on the 23rd of December, I had spent a few months studying for the exam after I attended my ICM course but then work just went insanely busy and I found I simply didn't have the time to do as much study as I wanted, I needed to book my exam before the end of 2011 due to a 70% discount voucher so had to do a lot of revision over the 2 days I had between booking the exam and sitting it.

Like you I had taken various tests (the excellent but pink Si Long exams) as well as reading various books but when I sat down to do the exam I suddenly found myself wondering if it was such a good idea to do the exam with such little up-to-date prep, I had read all of the SAN\NAS papers, the Config Maximums, I have even started to blog about various parts of the BluePrint.

Luckily for me the prep I had done was just enough for me to pass the exam (closer to 300 than 400 ) but I can say that it was a fair exam. The bit of advice I always get is that the ICM course is simply not enough to pass the exam and it's right, to be honest with anyone wanting to take the exam you are really going to have to be working with the product either in a production environment or in home lab environment, simply reading the book doesn't do it justice.

Good luck next time around and remember that the Config Maximums don't play as large a role in the VCP4 exam as they did with previous exams, you're going to need to download the various VMware papers and have an understanding of other VMware technology offerings (you don't need to know in-depth details about them, just what they are and where they fit in).

[firestartah]

Hi

As stated by everyone else above the exam is tough and is meant to make sure that the people who pass it are at a certain level to maintain the credibility of the the certification. VMware have also made the exam based more on your understanding of the technologies and how they work and don't work in certain scenarios rather than just repeating things you read in a book a few days before as the exam is aimed at people who have been working with vSphere 4 in your instance for a number of years on in depth for at least six months to a year. As Simon stated the ICM course isn't the only thing you need to study and is the reasons i study a number of different resources in an attempt to cover everything. One example for the VCP5 and the ICM lack of cover is that Distributed vSwtiches and Auto deploy aren't covered yet are massive parts of the blueprint and thereby the exam.

I did a few postings on the resources i used for my VCP4 if you want to get an idea of the spread i believe you need to cover to pass here: http://thesaffageek.co.uk/2009/12/02/vcp4-learning-resources/ http://thesaffageek.co.uk/2009/12/02/vcp4-learning-resources-part-2/

As well as my VCP5 page of resources i used to pass http://thesaffageek.co.uk/vcp5/

Good luck in your next attempt

Gregg

[moodraman]

Interestingly enough... I took the VCP410 about 4 months ago and did not make it... so I studied hard since then and took it again today... and I actually did worse this time around!!!

I know everyone says that VMware doesn't manipulate these exams, and your questions basically come from a pool and it's random.  But I will say, I'd agree, the questions I got this time around were much harder.  I studied Scott Lowe's book, Exam Prep book.

Almost feel like they're making sure no one comes along hurries up to get their 410 so they can pass the 510 w/ out paying for their classes.

I scheduled the 410 again for next week, but man, after that beating I just took, might just be a waste of $225... I'm going to pass it now just out of principle!!!

[EV_Simon]

And there's your mistake, dumps. You do realise that if you did pass your exam now VMware are well within their rights to remove the certification away from you? Not only that but if you have registered your work address they could even go after the guy you mention in the post as well?

VMware constantly fight a battle against people who dump their exams (not just the exam takers but also the companies selling the dumps), not only that but they do regularly change the questions because of brain dumps and it's also another reason why VMware require people to sit certified training before giving anyone the certification of VCP (you can take the exam before sitting a class but you need to have sat a class and passed the exam to be granted the VCP certification).

Yes the exam is hard but what would you prefer, someone who actually took the time and effort to sit and pass the exam based on hardwork and study or someone who just grabbed a dump, memorised the answers and cheated their way through the exam?

Both VMware and Microsoft (as I hold certifications from both) certainly expect those people taking the exams to be doing so to prove their abilities, thats one of the reasons why MS put the simulations in their 73-640, it was a way to prove you had actually had hands on experience with the OS and why VMware require you to have attended one of the required courses.

Please just study properly and don't cheat yourself.

[moodraman]

So... how do company's like "GuarenteedPass.com" offer these services???  Is it illegal?  If so, crap! I won't be using those for my studying for next time, Though they should be happy to know it didn't work...  I think the exam is hard enough you can't study from dumps... I don't know how anyone could make it based solely off that.

Now on to what I've been doing... (which contrary to the previous posters suggestion that I simply studied dumps, was not the case)

I've read Scott Lowe's book & the Exam Cram book.  I"ve been practicing anything I"ve read in our DEV environment.  I worked through the Blue Print... but there is so much info in the blue print it's hard to figure out where to concentrate.

I don't know if I just pulled a hard set or what... I think if I had the same set of questinos i got my frist time around I would have deffinately passed as I felt really confident on many of the subject matter covered the first time through my exam.

I think one of my issues is that we're now running in a 4.1/5.0 environment.  And many of the questions I encountered are about 3.5 to 4.0 upgrades, and differences between 3.5 and 4.0.  But honestly, I've never even seen 3.5 as I got into VM after we'd moved off of it.  I know the basic concepts I could get out of the books and blue print, but this hasn't been enough.

I'm all ears for a strategy moving forward for taking the exam.  I will be registering to take it again in 8 days (waiting the 7 days between taking).

[moodraman]

And I will say to his post...

I completely agree... I want someone who has learned the material, it angers me when I hear about people passing any exam by simply studying questions... and frankly, my studying strategy (even though I haven't passed yet) has taught me a great deal.

I guess that's why I'm so dumb-founded today... I really do know my stuff, I've always struggled with cert. tests, but I don't struggle with Administration of our Enterprise Level VM environment... I just didn't feel the questions I got on my test today were good at determining my knowledge level for VMware... but again... hopefully next time around I do better.

I'm going to go through this for next week

http://thesaffageek.co.uk/2009/12/02/vcp4-learning-resources/

http://thesaffageek.co.uk/2009/12/02/vcp4-learning-resources-part-2/

and build myself a 3.5 server and upgrade it to 4.1 for practice since so many questions were centered around that.

Stay tuned for updates!

[scott28tt]

Dumps are not a great way of preparing, you have no guarantees that any items in them are either in the real exam or whether they're accurate.

The Exam Cram book is not the best resource either, I've read it cover to cover and there are mistakes in it. I can't comment on the Scott Lowe book as I've never read it, many people say it's an excellent book but I doubt it would give the level of detail that the exam goes into.

The best resources to me are the blueprint and the documentation - those are the only two items that the team at VMware use to create and validate all the items in the exam.

I do have a number of VCP4 posts on my blog which I hope will be of use to you: http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com

Always make sure you are in the right frame of mind and have a good exam technique too, put things in your favour as much as you can, focus hard on the question being asked, don't get tricked by the possible answers.

Scott.

[EV_Simon]

Yes, they are illegal if they are using questions taken directly from the exam (which is what dumping is about), ideally you need to have a look at Simon Long's website where he has some example questions, these aren't taken directly from the exam but instead try to get you to think about all of the subject matter.

As far as what you can do better?

Have a home based lab, ideal would be if you could have a couple of servers dedicated to running ESX\ESXi but if you can't then have a look at VMware Workstation 8 which allows you to run ESXi within it, as long as you have a powerful enough workstation (loads of ram, decent CPU) then you can run a couple of servers as well as shared storage so that you can play with HA\DRS and get a decent understanding of the concepts and actually learn about the product (work labs are great but if you do it in your own home then the only person who get's into trouble if you break it is you). Additionally you can trial the products for 60 days at a time, at the end of that period re-install and start again (ESX and vCenter server products). If you can't afford VMware Workstation then give VMware Player a try, I don't know about Player 4 but certainly Player 3 allowed you to run ESXi on it.

As far as questions for the exam go, it's not a case of giving someone hard questions because they failed a previous exam, it's usually a case of you didn't know the subject matter, listen I am not having a go here, I know how hard the exam was (I honestly didn't think I would pass but am glad I did) but there are loads of books\ pdf's \ white papers out there that can help you, have a look at my blog post here (http://www.everything-virtual.com/?p=658) where it gives you some idea of what to read and where to get it from.

[moodraman]

Thanks guys... I don't take it personally, well, I do, but I know it's meant with good intentions

I have a home lab setup where I do testing and studying, I'm no vExpert, but I'm not beginner either. I've VERY familiar with DRS/HA... VERY!  and if that's what the test covered I would be certified now.

I tell people who are thinking about taking it that I  didn't pass and they're not only shocked but discouraged from taking it  themselves then...

"Man if he can't pass it, no way that I  can."   And these are other administrators who've been through the VM courses.

As I said though, there were a lot of questions that hit me wrong... luck of the draw I guess... I don't want to go into too many details as I think I've already broken enough rules here, but as the original poster stated, there seem to be way less of the basic questions everyone warned me to study and way more granular questions about random functions in the suites.

It was discouraging, that's for sure... I'm going to start from the beginning of the Blueprint, and I guess concentrate on the far out pieces, which would also be my recommendation for anyone looking to do it soon, ignore all prep's, books, blueprint only and don't skimp on the random stuff, learn it too.

THANKS EVERYONE!