Failed VCP5

[maestromasada]

Have failed VCP5-DV today miserably, 279 score being as you all know 300 a pass... not good enough after being studying on a row for quite a few days.

Read the Bill Fergurson official guide VCP5 up and down, digesting all the errors in literacy that this book has, got the transcender VPC5 exam for doing tests months ago, my virtual lab with 3 hosts and 12 VMs, lots of hours put into it, starting the lab from scratch, destroying it and set it all up again, supporting also a vSphere environment at work and yet, failed the exam with such a poor score

After being done the first 5 questions I knew I was doom, so thick the questions, facing situations that were not advertised on the book or anywhere and yet where on the exam, They made me doubt, and my doubts just make everything fall apart and I loose track.

Obviously, I wasn't fully prepared otherwise would have passed, but found the test certainty treacherous, so future exam-takers be aware. Not sure what to do now, maybe bin all my VCP ambitions and focus on update my MSCE to 2012, maybe.

Message was edited to remove violations of VCP5-DCV agreement.

[weinstein5]

Welcome to the Community - Sorry to hear you did not pass - 279 is not that bad of a score - two things I see that in my opinion are wrong with your prep -

1. I do not see that you reviewed the VCP Blueprint - this document provides you as to what can be covered in the exam -
2. The use of test prep software like Test King - not only they are some what unethical on their generation of their questions but when I have reviewed them I find I high percentage to be incorrect -

Now that you have seen the questions I would spend time with the blueprint and take the test again -

[maestromasada]

Thank you weinstein5, that's a really good advise, and actually you're very right, I sort of neglected the blue print, only had a read once! I thought all the test and the VCP official book will take care of it...

[weinstein5]

no it does and you learned the hard way - if you look at the advise from those of us who are multiple VCP and Certified we all start with the Blueprint -

[muddin]

Sorry for your fail but i think this will lead you a better exam in next chance.     

Thanks

[scott28tt]

I echo the comments so far about the blueprint, and TestKing...

Best of luck for your next attempt.

[newtovirtualiza]

Sorry to hear you did not pass.  However, so what, you are not the first and not the last.  By knowing what is wrong in the Bill Ferguson books clearly shows that you understand that portion.  I have taken many many many exams over my career, 26+ years from Cisco to Microsoft to ....  The one thing I have learned over this time is, you learn more by failing more than you ever do by passing.  What do I mean, if you fail an exam you study more, if you pass you quit studying and move on to other interests.  The ones that continue to study because it helps them with all aspects of what they do and more than what they even care to dream about.  So you did not pass, but you did get a lot of questions correct.  Here is my approach to all of these type of exams.

1.  Read the guidelines of what can be covered.  For VMware, read the blue print, read every link from that blue print.

2.  Practice with your lab...

3.  From your initial exam attempt, write down everything you say on the exam.  If VMware provides you with areas and your score, pay attention to the lowest scores and work from there.  Study that material.  Ask questions, challenge people with their answers and hope that they will continue to explain.  (this forum may not be the best for the later.  If it goes past the basics, or too basic, seems like questions go on without answers.

4.  Find someone at VMware to become your mentor.  Not only mentor for this exam but mentor for what you currently do, where you want to go and understanding of where VMware is going. 

5.  Stay positive, your score was not 60, it was 279, so you are close.  Hang in there, work to improve and things in the end will work out.

[maestromasada]

Ah! This community is so gret, thanks for your support and advise, feels like being lifted after falling while riding a bike! I appreciate your note @newtovirtualisation that you learn more by failing than by passing, so true, and thank you for sharing your experiences with me, value them.

Have to say that before the exam the ‘only’ paper I ever printed from Vmware was the configuration maximums, for the blueprint I read the topics and such but did not really pay much attention to the sublinks, and omg, there are hundreds of pages if you combine all of it together, meaning in reality that the blueprint is a thoroughly extensive document and not just a brief objective overview which I quickly neglected.

I wish I had come across one of these videos before, for example, the subject for this link is for a different exam but the emphasis on preparation for the blueprint is clear: http://vmwarecertificationvideos.com/MGy/desktop-certifications-part-2-desktop-exam-prep/ Love the tip about create your own questions! That's really challenging

[pelleasdaphnis]

I had basically the same experience as the OP, even the same exact score. Have Ferguson's book, attended the Fast Track course (at a considerable cost, even though I'm a VMware partner), and took every online exam I possibly could (including VMware's and the software included with the book). I think both of those exams are doing a considerable disservice to students because those questions in no way resemble the ones I encountered on the exam. I thought I was prepared because all practice tests I took showed me scoring in the 90% range, but when I saw the exam before me, questions were completely different and many were just absurd. I was very disappointed in my performance on this exam, but understand from others that the blueprint should really be the study guide (even though Ferguson and the course instructor mention at several points they are "strictly following the exam blueprint").

I will go back and read all the documentation linked to from this blueprint, but I want to know are there any other study or practice test materials out there that more accurately resemble *actual* VCP exam questions? And I swear, if I see another question railing on the point of CPU affinity I'm going to scream! Why is this mentioned so much? This has virtually *no* practical application whatsoever, so I really fail to see why VMware insists on asking so many questions about it.

[scott28tt]

I've said numerous times before that the key resources needed are:

1. The blueprint - to guide

2. The documentation - to read

3. The software - to play

The mock exam and other practice tests you can find online (Simon Long's for example) can get you used to the interface and also being quizzed, but obviously they can't be a duplicate of the actual questions. Books have some value, but as the exam items are developed against the blueprint and verified against the documentation they should really be the start point for anyone.

Best of luck for next time!

[maestromasada]

Happy to confirm I passed the VCP5 exam last week, five months after heavy revision. Ey! a clear
understanding of the blue print document is fundamental, reading and reading,
apart from the hours of hours of practice that I did on my test lab, without
obviously affecting the production environment.

Is not much for the piece of paper that is more valuable to
me, but what counts is the good amount of awesome knowledge I’ve gained in the
learning process towards the certification 😉

[vmroyale]

Congratulations!

[a_p_]

Congratulations!

André

[aravinds3107]

Congratulations!!