VCP510 Exam Really makes me MAD!!! Failed twice now!

[Animal17]

I have been a VMware Customer since 2003. Took my VCP 2 that year, then followed up with VCPs 3 & 4 when they were released. I was one of the 1st VCP's, my VCP # 1825. I run a large Virtualization Project for a fortune 100 company. I am an inside Virtualization Consultant/SME for my organization. I think I know the product very well and have a strong storage and networking background and know how those infrastructures integrate with VSphere. I use/manage/configure vSS/vDS, DRS, Storage DRS, EVC, HA, etc. I use vCenter Link mode. Have experience with VSRM setups. Responsible for overseeing alot of vCenters/ESXi hosts, etc. across the country as our enterprise is very geographically dispersed. I focused my career on Virtualization and come from a Systems Architect background, and it has provided a comfortable living for me to say the least. I've been to 6 VMworlds. I love VMware. BUT... I HATE THE LATEST VCP510 EXAM!!!! I barely studied for the VCP4 and passed it.

I took the vSphere 5.1 Optimize & Scale class, which I have to say, I really enjoyed that class and learned some new things by taking it. It qualified me to take the VCP510. I tried to get myself into exam mode and took the instructors advice and paid for VCP5 practice exam questions on the https://www.vsphereresourcekit.com/practice-exams/ website. There are 1000's of questions on there from the 7 major topics. I haven't used AutoDeploy, so I read up on it and I tried to strengthen my skills in areas that I lack, such as iSCSI connectivity, because I deploy Fiber Channel connectivity in all of my environments. And I focused on NFS, which we don't use much of, etc...

So Anyways, I took my 1st attempt at the VCP 510 almost a month ago, and failed with a 273! I was really upset then. I was glad no one was in the room when I was taking it, because I was dropping some 4 letter words along the way with frustration about some of the questions. I was really hit hard with Auto Deploy, iSCSI / CHAP related questions...my weak areas! There were some STUPID permission related questions, stuff that you would never do in the real world. So I understood failing it as I didn't feel to good about it when the exam expired, and I seen FAILED! It was the 1st cert test I ever failed, and I've taken CompTia, CCNA, and MCSE certs.

So, I tried hard to redeem myself...I studied my tail off for the last 3 weeks, reading, and reading and studying...took a different approach, then running through a bunch of mock test questions, to ensure I knew the content well. I studied Forbes Guthrie's http://www.vreference.com/vsphere-5-notes/ and vReference cards very thoroughly! I really enjoyed his notes and reference card. It really encapsulates everything the vSphere Environments entails and is a good snapshot to reference, in my opinion. I focused on reading this time instead of just going through questions and subconsciously memorizing them. I just wanted to feel like I knew all the content in all areas very well.

I went into the testing center a few hours ago, feeling confident. I know I'm VCP worthy, now just pass this stupid exam, so I can prove it, not only to myself, but to my peers and people that look up to me within my organization. WELL!!! I finished the exam 12 minutes early, and I think I fell victim to the #1 test theory in my opinion, go with your gut, 1st answer that comes to mind stick with it. I took my extra time to review some of my flagged questions and talked myself into changing some answers. STUPID!!! It's easy to talk yourself into the wrong answer, I probably did. Either way. When the time elapsed and the screen popped up and said FAILED, again!!! I WAS REALLY MAD. Sorry for this lengthy post, but I am using this as an avenue to vent! I know there was a question that left a word out of one of the answers. So I had to go on assumption that I think they mean "this". I forget exactly what it was now, but there were some flaws. It seemed like there were some vague questions, with even more vague answers. This was one frustrating exam. I am going to take it again, in 7 days and continue to read, and read, and study, and take practice exams, etc...I know the exam blueprint, I know alot of this stuff already, but I guess it's just the luck of the draw on what kind of question pool you receive when the exam begins. I heard from our Vmware Rep that there's a almost a 70% failure rate on this exam, I don't know if true or not. And there are something like 9000 questions that the question pool consists of and you get 85 of them. Hard to say if this is true or not. I know some people that I mentored and provided knowledge transfer to, that took this exam 1st time and passed. I'm envious of their question pool! And embarrassed that I may have to admit to them that I failed, not once, but twice now. Anyways, I'm interested to hear your take and experience you may interested to share regarding the VCP510 exam. Thanks, Cheers! Going to have a drink now!

[Michael_Rudloff]

mcrdr85 wrote:

"The beauty with VMware exams is that they are built on experience."

Errrr wrong... I've failed the vcp550 test twice now 272 and 277 and experience has nothing to do with it.  Its all random dumb luck of the questions that are drawn.  I've been administering VMware environments for 4 years now.  Architected, upgraded, installed, and troubleshot 4.x to 5.5 for my own company as well as consulted for others.  I have read Scott Lowe's book and Bill Ferguson's book both twice front to back as well as Jason Langers VCP5 study guide.  I have taken the peasonIT study guide multiple times, the vmware practice exam multiple times, simon longs blog multiple times, and the measureup exams.  I have never failed a test my entire life let alone twice.  I will be taking the test one more time.  If that results in failure, I have no problem taking my business else where.  I am vendor agnostic and have no problem converting my datacenters to hyper-v cause dare i say it.... I'm certified to do so!

Other people do pass the exam though. In fact, I was working with VMware for years and my first VCP  - VCP310 was the toughest one yet.

I  failed VCP210 myself (never bothered retaking myself) and passed every VCP since VCP310, it got a heck of a lot easier.

The way the exams were designed back in the day were a lot more designed for admins who work with the product on daily basis.

I can't remember much about the VCP210, but I do remember the VCP310 being silly at parts. You didn't just have to know all Minimum / Maximum values, but also things like "What colour has the CDP icon next to a standard switch" ... Unless you knew the official documentation set inside and out (not even sure it was mentioned in there) - the only way to pass the exam was to work with vSphere (well ESX then), on daily basis for a few years.

I can understand the frustration when you fail an exam, especially when you fail it twice and never had to go through this, but again, it puts value on a VCP. If the exam would be easy to pass like the Microsoft ones, where a LOT of people use dumps anyway, then it would simply lose value - since everyone would have it.

When it comes to job applications you would have to fight for interviews with people who can barely spell VCP but have it and you, who has God knows how many years of experience.

A lot of people passing these exams (almost too many :smileysilly:) - so it IS possible to pass it. I suppose all you can do is think at what kind of questions you had to think more than usual. If you were able to fly through all questions and failed, then maybe you need to take your time and read the questions multiple times to understand the subtle differences in answers.

Sometimes a "not" or "doesn't" compared to a "do" can change the whole outcome ....

For example

Which feature does / doesn't a standard switch have

1. Private VLAN

2. VLAN

If it is "does" - it is VLAN, if it is "doesn't" - it is Private VLAN

What is the purpose for you to go for the exam if you don't mind me asking ?

"If that results in failure, I have no problem taking my business else where."

That sounds a bit like you are trying to pass the exam for the sake of it, not because it helps you in your career ..

[mcrdr85]

I'm not going to get rid of being of vmware... im just being sarcastic.  I've used Hyper-V, implemented Hyper-v but I would never ever choose Hyper-V over VMware. 

I know how to slow down and read the questions.  I have taken plenty of cisco exams.

And the matter of fact is I am taking the exam for my career.  Not for the fun of it or cause my job is forcing me too or so it just looks pretty on my resume.  I love vmware and virtualization.  I regularly attend vmugs and any webinars or presentation on vmware so I can soak up any knowledge I can.  I am a Systems Admin now and I'm trying to get to a point in my career where I just work with just vmware (not multiple systems like i do now), become vmware admin or architect getting my vcap and then being a vexpert or vcdx.  So I'm not just passing it for the sake of it.  I will take it however many times i have to to pass. 

[maleitch]

Which feature does / doesn't a standard switch have

1. Private VLAN

2. VLAN

If it is "does" - it is VLAN, if it is "doesn't" - it is Private VLAN

What is the purpose for you to go for the exam if you don't mind me asking ?

"If that results in failure, I have no problem taking my business else where."

That sounds a bit like you are trying to pass the exam for the sake of it, not because it helps you in your career ..

If only the questions were that reasonable.

Let me turn your question around on you.  Is the purpose of the exam to reflect real-world working knowledge of the product or study-guide knowledge?

[Michael_Rudloff]

maleitch wrote:

Which feature does / doesn't a standard switch have

1. Private VLAN

2. VLAN

If it is "does" - it is VLAN, if it is "doesn't" - it is Private VLAN

What is the purpose for you to go for the exam if you don't mind me asking ?

"If that results in failure, I have no problem taking my business else where."

That sounds a bit like you are trying to pass the exam for the sake of it, not because it helps you in your career ..

If only the questions were that reasonable.

Let me turn your question around on you.  Is the purpose of the exam to reflect real-world working knowledge of the product or study-guide knowledge?

From the Blueprint

"The VMware Certified Professional 5 – Data Center Virtualization (VCP5-DCV) Exam tests candidates on their

skills and abilities installing, configuring and administering a VMware vSphere® 5 environment. Successful

candidates demonstrate mastery of these skills and abilities."

Mastery cannot be achieved by only Real-World working knowledge or study-guide knowledge I don't think. I believe you need both really.

In my experience a lot of VMware Engineers / Analysts / Admins work maybe in VMware environments on daily basis - gathering real-world working knowledge, but most of the times the environments are already there. They might be able to fix / troubleshoot issues on daily basis, perfectly, but maybe know the actual implementation only from books.

Again from the blueprint:

A candidate for the VCP-DCV certification has approximately six months experience working with a vSphere

implementation. They are typically infrastructure personnel who are capable of installing and configuring ESXi

hosts and can use VMware vCenter™ Server to monitor, manage, troubleshoot and administer virtual

machines. The successful candidate will most likely have additional industry-recognized general IT

certifications or the equivalent experience (typically 2-5 years)

The gaps need to be filled by using study-guides and labbing .. A lot of it. The way I always approach VMware exams is using the Blueprint as a cookbook and I just make sure I tick off all the ingredients in my shopping basket.

Six months of implementation experience - is a lot .. We are not talking about throwing a CD into a physical host, build a cluster and be done with it - there is a lot more to it. Not all the features required in the blueprint are actually done in the real-world. But again, this is where your labbing comes into place. Reading blogs and so on.

I am not saying you aren't doing it already as it is. But A lot of times I talk to people who fail have maybe setup a cluster once or twice and learned the rest from books. That just doesn't do it unfortuantely.

The Blueprint shows 7 Objectives and over 200 !! tasks / knowledge points you need to know. I doubt you can read that by yourself without labbing and I doubt you can lab all of it without reading....

I am coming originally from a Windows environment and have about 32 exams under my belt and the only exam I ever failed was Networking Infrastructure for 2003 as part of the MCSE 2003. VCPs ? Are the only ones I feel challanged by.

Gosh, I was able to pass 510 without studying and even I know that I need to lab a LOT if I want to stand a chance of passing 610 without failing first time.

[JohnMeyer18]

I took the VCPC510 for vCloud Director 5.1 and I got a 300 to pass exactly.  Lowest score you can get and pass.  It knocked me for a loop.  I thought it would be 55 questions and it was 135 with only 110 minutes to answer.  Half of them had nothing to do with vCloud.  Thy were higher level vSphere, storage, and networking questions.  I was not prepared for that.

[JoshuaAndrewsVM]

The blue print lists how many questions are on the exam and what topics are covered.

Did you review that?

[alancamilohp]

I also failed twice, and most frustrating is that although I scored 260 out of 300, the examination score report stated that I missed questions in 23 sections. I ´ll try again, but this is really hard to understand what are exactly the point that I need to improve.