Take DCA on the July 15TH quick questions

[JPM300]

Hey all,

I will be writing my DCA on the 15th and had some questions:

1.)  I have heard a lot of people state that the lab is slow / laggy/ or sometimes has issues on top of that every blog I read states time is your worse enemey on this test since you essentially have about 8min a question to finish all 26 questions in the time frame.  With that in mind I found this from the following blog: http://blog.marccrawford.com/vcap5-dca/

Use Adobe Advanced search to search for something in all pdf’s in a folder :  When you first start the test, open one of the PDFs and the go to Edit-> Advance Search. Choose All PDF Documents in: and then click the Browse for Location… option.   Navigate to the PDF folder containing the vSphere PDFs and click OK.  Enter your search term and click the Search button. This will allow you to quickly search through the whole set of PDFs with a single search. That being said, you still need to know specific terms for your search or you will end up with a lot of useless results. For example if you want to search for the advanced HA Admission Control settings, knowing that the settings begin with das. will result in targeted search hits. You can practice this technique before the test by downloading the PDFs and using Adobe’s Advanced Search against them.

Has anyone tested this on the exam and find it saves them time.  I have been memorizing the pages and chapters of the sections I feel I might have to look up so I can quickly flip to it if in a bind, however if this works well and isn't to taxing on the lab system I might give it a go

2.)  What section out of the blue print do you feel is hit the most, if this is breaking any NDA don't reply, just curious to what other peoples experiences have been.

3,)  For my Prep work for the Exam I have taken Jason Nash's Training course on Pluralsight.com formally Trainsignal, Ran through the blue print and lab'ed out everything I could, Ran through Chris Wahl's study sheet:  http://wahlnetwork.com/2012/07/02/the-vcap5-dca-study-sheet/

creating notes along the way, Ran through Paul's DCA prep guide VCAP5-DCA Objective 2.2 – Configure and maintain VLANs, PVLANs and VLAN settings | Adventures in a V..., watched every other video on the subjects I could and read any extra KB's on the topics.  I have been working with VMware since version 2.5 so I've been doing the daily stuff for some time now but worry about the stuff you don't do on a day-to-day basis or the 1 off stuff like port mirroring.  I have to drive 4 and 1/2 hours to the closest Person Vue Professional testing center so I really don't want to have to re-write this :smileysilly:  Is there anything else I have missed or I can do please let me know, however I'm almost at the point where I'm sick of studying :smileysilly:

Thanks for any advice you can give,

Cheers!

[crawfordm]

1)

Are you testing in US or outside US?  I heard people that say it is slow or laggy are testing from outside US.  I did not have any slow or laggy problems.

I did not memorize any page numbers, but I did memorize which pdf something was in.  But in the end it did not matter, because I just used the advanced search.  I would just practice the advance search a few times to see if things you are searching for come up.

2) Don't think I am allowed to say.  Also, you exam may be different than mine.

3) Have you tried Josh Andrews Test Track - VCAP Test Track (lab on a lap) | SOSTech

Good Luck,

Marc

[JPM300]

Hey crawfordm,

Thanks for the post.  Yeah I live in Canada but have to drive to the US to write the exam as its the closest location so I will be writing in the US.  Yeah I haven't seen that blog and it looks really great but I don't see the list of practice questions he talks about or a download for the lab?  is he just using Autolab?  As thats what I am already using for my lab.

Also does anyone know a link where someone has zipped up all the documentation for the DCA, I'm also writing the VDCA511 and not the 5.5, I opted out of the 5.5 as I was worried there might be NSX stuff in it, but I should of looked closer prior to scheduling :smileysilly:

let me know,

Thanks

[crawfordm]

Email Josh or send him a message on twitter and he can get you access to the test track.

[JoshuaAndrewsVM · Accepted solution]

NSX is not on the DCA550.

What documentation are you looking for?  The PDFs supplied during the exam?

I don't see a name associated with your profile, I assume you have contacted me about TT?

[JPM300]

Hey Josh, yeah I got in touch with ya and have things setup for Friday   Thanks again,

Yeah just the documentation on the Exam bundle.  I downloaded it all manually but wanted to make sure I got everything properly. 

[JoshuaAndrewsVM]

There is a ,jpg floating around and I think the list of docs also floating around on the communities here, you can also see it on TT where the same directory exists.

[JPM300]

Just an update for everyone,  I wrote my exam today and passed!!!! Thanks to everyone, everyones's blogs, training courses, and other study material I used to help me pass this.

Also a special thanks to johsuaAndrews as I would say his Test Track stuff is probably some of the best prep work you can do prior to taking the exam!

Also I followed the "Finishing the Exam tips" some other people posted, which is essentially:

-  Leave you lab in a working order

-  Start your Exam on time

-  Click Finish Exam just before you run out of time

and my exam was marked within 1-3 hours after finishing it.  I was traveling back home so I didn't have a chance to check my emails till I crossed the boarder and the email was waiting for me

Feedback on the exam process:
-  Not everything had DNS suffix so if a typical esxi01 didn't resolve you had to put the FQDN, not a big deal but thought I would mention it

-  It would be nice to have the vMA, and ESXi hosts saved into the Putty session that is available to you, not a HUGE thing by any stretch but would be nice seeing as time is your greatest enemy on this test and anything to save you a min here and there would be greatly appricated

-  I would LOVE to see 30min more time on this exam.  There was 3 questions 2 which I just didn't have time to fully work through, and 1 I KNEW how to do but ran out of time to complete or even attempt

Luckily I still passed!

Thanks again everyone, onto the DCD

[JoshuaAndrewsVM]

Congratulations!

[PedroPecci]

What is the test track you used? and How this has helped you?

regards!

[scott28tt]

The Test Track link is in the second post down in this discussion.

[JPM300]

JoshuaAndrews has setup a really good practice lab called TestTrack which he will setup and let you connect to, to practice.  I highly reccoemend it!  If you want to try it out you will need to touch base with him via, email, twitter, or on the forums to arrange it.

His practice lab got me in the right mind set for the exam and gave me a good oppertunity to practice many of the items I had studied on the blueprint.  I would also reccoemend going over the Test Simulator on VMwares website which shows you how the exam will look, feel, and how to jump around it prior to the test.  You want to waste as little time as possible figuring out the interface and get right into the questions.  Like everyone else has said, time will be your BIGGEST obsticle.

[Drewtumbo]

How long did you study for the exam?

[JPM300]

I studied for about a month and a half, however this was also due to the fact that I had issues getting the exam scheduled and had to travel to write it.  However depending on how much you do on a day-to-day basis that is on the blue print could probably reduce your study time required.  I'm typically the type of person that just buts his head down in the books and studies like mad prior to exams so everything is fresh in my mind for it, but I think a 2-4 weeks worth of study time for this one was about right.  Everyone is different however. 

[AlbertWT]

How much does the subscription cost for the JoshuaAndrew lab monthly ?

[JoshuaAndrewsVM]

access is 4-hours at a time.

There is no charge yet.