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nimos001
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Failed VCP5-DV

Yes, this is yet another thread for me to vent out my frustration. I support a fairly large environment alone and feel I have a pretty strong grasp on things. I admit we don't use resource pools, iscsi, etc so I expected to have some trouble with those. That being said, I took the fast track course as required which was not cheap and in my own opinion does not prepare you for this exam. I found myself pointing things out to the instructor he had wrong etc a few times and he would make comments on how easy this exam would be and how it's nothing more than a memorization and recognition test. I took the vmware mock exam a few weeks prior to the course and scored an 88% on it so I figured things were looking good. Well, this morning I walked into the testing center and after the first 15 to 20 questions I knew I was in trouble. I think what made things worse is that I was frustrated that I thought some questions had multiple correct answers, it wasn't under after I was done on the review portion that I discovered that the exam on some questions didn't indicate multiple answers were needed. Now, with that out of the way I admit I did not look at the blueprint documents but knowing my environment I really didn't feel I was needing to look at it. I am now going to go through all of it before I attempt the test once more, but can't help but be frustrated as I really was underwhelmed with what that required class provided. I guess I am use to the MS exams where after the training you can easily walk into the exams and pass them. As for the score it was an embarrassing and ego crushing 245. :smileyshocked:

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I worked as a VCI for 6 years, and would never tell any student that the exam was easy or that the training was enough to prepare for it. I strongly believe that the blueprint is vital, and wish you the best of luck for your next attempt.


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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AndreTheGiant
Immortal
Immortal

The course itself IMHO it's not enough. You have to make more practice before and/or after it.

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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rconleythielcap
Contributor
Contributor

The vSphere 5 Fast Track was in no way comprehensive for the test and I don't believe it is designed to be.  I took the course, read both the Official VCP5 Cert Guide and Scott Lowe's Mastering vSphere 5, studied the blueprint, and still didn't pass the first time.  I reread Scott Lowe's book, purchased the Train Signal vSphere 5 course, and dedicated more time reading and rereading the blueprint.  I passed my second attempt.

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nimos001
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yea, I am about halfway done with Scott's book and am still going to go over the blueprint before I retake everything. I just wasn't expecting it to be as tough as it was or the answers as tricky as they were. I will be ready this next go around and will report back. Thanks

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timevisser
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

From taking many Cisco and Microsoft exams, I have never had a question that did not indicate multiple answers when they were looking for the one correct answer.   In other words, all questions were noted if multiple answers were required by choosing the 2 correct answers or choose the correct answers from below.  That last one makes you think that there are more when sometimes there is only one.  Are VMware exams the same as Cisco/Microsoft or are they as nimos001 indicated above?  Answering this question should not void your NDA.

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

My memory of VMware exams is the same as Microsoft exams, you'll see "choose two" at the end of the text of the question for example.

One other indication is the exam interface, it's radio buttons (round shape) when you need to provide a single answer, but check boxes (square) when multiple answers are required.


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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nimos001
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I do not recall the radio buttons being different on the exam. Let me clarify what I was trying to say in my original post. Yes, the questions for the most part had a "choose two" or "choose 3" after the question. I was saying that on a couple of my questions, that was missing. One of those occurrences was on the 4th or 5th question of my exam and it got me rattled to an extent because I started to question myself. At the end of the exam during the 'review' period it then warned me that I had not answered a few questions completely and it was at that time I realized they just had a 'bug' so to speak and had not indicated multiple answers were required. On my next attempt I will just attempt to click multiple answers to see if it warns me or not, that would be a good way to know right away if you are able to pick more than one answer.

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I understood what you meant, I just don't recall the text being missing when I've done any VMware exam and from memory you do see radio buttons or check boxes - you've taken the exam more recently than me so things may have changed...

I am still of the opinion that you should focus on the blueprint thoroughly prior to your next attempt - that's going to make the biggest single difference in you having success. I would also advise referring to the product documentation rather than any other text/book as the exam items are validated against the documentation.


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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nimos001
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I agree, thank you for your comments. I am also going to be going over the documents linked from the blueprint before my next attempt.

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weinstein5
Immortal
Immortal

Just throughing my two cents - when I was VCI and teaching I would always remind those students who had strong real world experience - that like most certification exams VMware is looking for what the 'VMware Way' is not what might be done in the real world  -

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praveshupadhyay
Contributor
Contributor

Hello Nimos,

The exams are not really tough but you need to be very clear with all your vmware basics covered under the training. The questions are damn confusing you always feel both the options are correct.

For next exams preparation, I would recommend you to get prepared with your training material and all the installation guides. Also would be great if you can practically see the options on GUI. that again gives a lots of confidence.

All the best...

Thanks and Regards

Pravesh Upadhyay

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nimos001
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I wanted to update the thread that I took the exam again this morning and passed with a 311. I am still kind of bummed with the low score but I guess it's expected as I did not go over the blueprint like I had planned. I did read through most of Scott Lowe's book which I believe helped me brush up on some features I do not use.

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