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!

[Animal17]

By the way...I improved on the score the 2nd time. I got a 285. I know I'm almost there, but C'MON MAN!!!

[scott28tt]

Sorry to hear you've had a bad experience.

I would agree entirely with your point in relation to going with your gut feeing.

My experience and my understanding is that most people pass first time, and I would be surprised if the pool contained anything close to 9000 questions!

Experienced people can sometimes struggle with exams as you learn what you need to know to do your job, which unfortunately can be different from the level of detail that the exam can test you on.

I'm not sure personally what else to suggest to you, other than get hands-on with the things you haven't done before and to focus on the objectives in the exam blueprint...

Best of luck.

[scott28tt]

My opinion is that suggesting to use sites such as pass4sure/testking is bad advice.

I wouldn't trust a braindump. All the ones I've seen have contained plenty of errors and wrong answers, and VMware do update the items in the exam on an ongoing basis.

[weinstein5]

I second Scott's assessment of those brain dumps - wrong information and poorly worded questions.

With that being said I have heard that measure is now authorized by VMware to provide practice exams of course at a fee - Scott I do not know if you can confirm this or not.

[JoshuaAndrewsVM]

http://www.measureup.com/News/MeasureUp_Official_VMware_Practice_Test.aspx

[MannTech]

The pass mark on that test is an exact 70% - is that set differently to the actual pass mark which is set on a sliding scale? Or is the actual pass mark 70% on the real exam?

[JoshuaAndrewsVM]

% to pass is not publicized

http://sostechblog.com/2014/02/13/300-out-of-500-what-is-a-passing-score/

[Mrhaana]

Hi, Did you pass your exam now or studying for next try?

[drexciya]

What people don't mention often, is that the way the questions and formulated are formulated, which is different from other vendors. In my opinion VMware uses lots of tricky/misleading questions and answers. Mentioning valid features, which are not relevant for that specific question, or something that sounds plausible, but is in fact nonsense (but very believable!). It's not just about technical knowledge, but there's quite some reading comprehension involved. That is what I would recommend practice exams for.

Even if you know your way around the vSphere products, you have to be able to correctly interpret what the question is actually about. This sounds easy, but really isn't as clear cut as you'd expect. Another thing, that can be detrimental to people who know a lot, is the fact that some questions are slightly vague. You'd expect (a lot) more information in such scenarios in real life environments. The unfortunate thing is, if you offer more information, you give away the answer. This is a tricky balance when creating exam questions. Also thinking too much ("over-thinking") is a dangerous thing to do as well.

[vAnimal]

Drexciy, very well said. I think that's what happened. I fell into the trap of getting tricked by vague questions. Yes, I ended up passing on my 3rd attempt. This time I used practice exams, but from the ONLY OFFICIAL VMware endorsed practice website. http://www.measureup.com/ This helped me on this go around. The thing that was frusterating though is that I passed VCP 2, 3, & 4 on the 1st attempt.

[richard612]

An inaccurate braindump with incorrect answers is better than most of the study material out there.  It's more finely targeted, and a candidate can brush up their skills by researching every answer.

Half the VCP test will leave you scratching your head wondering why anyone would need to know this stuff in the real world (the TCP port for CIM Server?  Come on, if my host is going behind a port filter don't you think I'm going to check the relevant kb article first?  Because we're not idiots).  A big chunk of the test requires assumptions, another chunk will get you in trouble for making assumptions.

Good luck,

A Not-Amused VCP Candidate

[Grim192]

I found the questions rather ambiguous, so even if you know the material inside out, if you don't understand the questions you'll struggle.

The brain dumps may help with understanding the questions and the type of answers they want but id definately as part of your studying research the answers.

[richard612]

Don't forget the questions that ask where certain options in the vSphere client are located.  If you have a photographic memory, you'll ace them.  The rest of us have to invent mnemonics to try to remember where certain options and features are located; features that when/if we need them, we can find them easily enough.  Because we're not idiots.

[Michael_Rudloff]

richard612 wrote:

Don't forget the questions that ask where certain options in the vSphere client are located.  If you have a photographic memory, you'll ace them.  .

It got a lot better though. I don't remember a question like that in my VCP510, but in 310 I had questions like what colour the CDP Icon has ..

I think the reasoning was to be make sure you have worked with the product, rather than just read all the PDFs. I also had a LOT of stupid maximums questions in 310 - which you now barely see in 510 unless it is related to some required troubleshooting.

[richard612]

They still exist; they're just wrapped up in fake scenarios.  If you boil down some of the questions into "what knowledge to I actually need to have in order to answer this question" in a number of cases there's a config maximum involved.

That said, after passing the VCP510 I looked at a braindump to compare.  The actual test was, IMHO, of higher quality.  About 20% of the Q's in the dump were ambiguous or misleading and another 20% involved some arcane piece of knowledge that few would ever need to know.  In my real exam it was about 5% and 10% respectively.  Either the dump was made up out of thin air or else VMware improved the test. 

[richard612]

I've also seen complaints from 1-2 years ago about spelling, grammar, and punctuation in the live VCP-510.  Mine was perfect.

[MannTech]

Well that's 2 fails for me now too... I was singing the praises of the MeasureUp mock exams but it appears not worth it now, I was consistently getting >80% on "non-repeating" questions mode following lots of study  which is an easy pass but I can't get anywhere near that on the real exam so that makes the MeasureUp mocks worthless IMHO. So how do I move forward now? The amount of microscopic detail the exam covers in such a wide product range is amazing, whatever I learn it depends on what questions I get on the day. Unless you wrote vSphere of course the you'll know it. Some of the questions are more a test of English skills than technical - then when I pass it's not valid forever anymore? I can't say it's encouraging me to go through this process every 2 years and have to pay for a £2,000 course then 3+ exams - the day I decide not to continue then all of the previous money and effort is for nothing, gah. Considering once you have attained it you don't "actually" get anything, it's not like it guarantees you a job so why does it expire?

Frustrating but try try try again...then in 2 years.. try try try again...

[richard612]

I found a UK-based provider offering the ICM course via the Internet for about £800.  Stanly.edu is doing it for around $200 US but there's a waiting list and it takes some 5-6 weeks to finish.  To my knowledge you do not need to be US-based to use Stanly.

VMware really needs to split the VCP into two exams.  I agree with you that it covers too much material.  I was joking with a friend that the MCSE and VCP are both five exam certifications; the MCSE is five different exams and the VCP is the same exam failed four times.

[MannTech]

Thanks, that made me feel much better " I was joking with a friend that the MCSE and VCP are both five exam certifications; the MCSE is five different exams and the VCP is the same exam failed four times."

There is a post further up that says (to paraphrase) "most people pass first time" - that made me feel like giving up! I'm not dim, just bad at exams...