vcp-310 exam retake

[artist-06]

Hi

I have recently taken vcp-310 exam and failed with %63. I did panic a bit and should have passed the exam, did stupid mistakes. Anyway I will retake the exam in 2 weeks time. I wonder the type of questions in my 2nd attempt. Does any one experience same questions or very similar ones?

For ex in VM eval test 5 questions, 2 of them appeared in my real exam. Initial scan of LUNs and max vmfs-3 volume size. It sounds like some questions are classic and everyone come across in the exam.

I did not use ESX before, attempted the course, setup an esx environment at work, took my exam afterwards all in 2 weeks. Maybe I was impatient! Some questions needed so much detailed knowledge which was mandotary for this exam. Why should I memorize all port numbers? Why do I need to know SSE3, default permissions etc? Could not I look to the manual when I needed or use the CPU compatibility tool?

I know there should not be any excuse. I am memorising everything now in the manuals.

Please advise me if you the questions are similar or not in the second attempt.

Thanks

[JDLangdon]

Some questions needed so much detailed knowledge which was mandotary

for this exam. Why should I memorize all port

numbers? Why do I need to know SSE3, default

permissions etc? Could not I look to the manual when

I needed or use the CPU compatibility tool?

Sure you can look in the manual but the whole purpose of the exam and certification is to prove that you know the product not that you know how to read the manuals.

Jason

[waynegrow]

I agree with Jason (as I believe most will on the forum). This is why I have not set for the exam yet. I do not have much experience with some of the new aspects of ESX, such as iSCSI. I have read the manuals, but based on the first exam, it will not be enough. I also like this because it does not "water down" the certification. To have it means you actually know something.

[artist-06]

Waynegrow I do not agree with you. I think questions water down the certification with unnecessary knowledge. That's my point. You said you did not have much experience about iscsi. I am a storage consultant so SAN and NAS are my most powerful subjects. Only question about iscsi I had in the exam was the port number it use. I knew it anyway but I do not think port number was the most important subject. I would like to see more clever questions with diagrams, ability to differentiate between iscsi, fibre luns and local datastores. Advantages of iscsi, comparing with fibre attached client, troubleshooting ISCSI etc.

My experience is if you brush up the pdf's you get a very high score even though you do not have much hands on experience. Only questions you will miss are VM resource troubleshooting.

I still wonder the type of questions in second take. I bet they are very similar.

[JDLangdon]

I still wonder the type of questions in second take.

I bet they are very similar.

Why wouldn't the questions be similar? Afterall, you are taking the same exam.

As for SAN, NAS, and iSCSI, these are spereate technologies used in conjunction with VMware products. Why would you expect VMware to ask indepth questions about off-topic technologies? I would assume that venders of these respecitve technologies would offer their own certification exams, I know LeftHand Networks does.

Saying that you should have been asked about troubleshooting SAN's on a VMware exam is the same as saying you should be asked questions about troubleshooting ESX on an SAN exam.

Jason

[grasshopper]

Still an impressive score for only 2 weeks of exposure! Best of luck on the second take.

[artist-06]

Jason,

>>>>Why wouldn't the questions be similar? Afterall, you are taking the same exam.

I think this topic is going into wrong direction. Maybe I need to be more specific about my question.

All I want to know is; experience of the exam second takers and how many questions were exactly! same appeared in the second take?

I think the questions pool is not large enough because lots of students came across the same questions which I read in this forum. For ex iscsi port no and number of luns during installation. I can easily expand my examples but do not want to publish the questions in the exam of course.

Thanks

Burak

[steve31783]

Study the server config and san config guide. Probably 70% of the questions on the test come out of these 2 pdf's. Don't be worried about how many questions will appear on your retake...assuming of course you actually want to know the material, and not just get the cert without knowing anything.

[Jwoods]

I took my exam during VMworld and was quite fresh to VI3 (worked with 2.5x for 2.5yrs). Plus[/b], there was a nice discount being offered for exams during VMworld! So I figured what the heck, with my 2.5x experience I'll wing it. Got a 68...such a tease :).

All I want to know is; experience of the exam second takers and how many

questions were exactly! same appeared in the second take?

I think approx. 65-75% of the questions were from the original. Just my viewpoint. However, the wording and the choices on some were different. It felt like there were tons more double-negative-type questions in the second exam. IMO, the most challenging portions were the HA/DRS questions. Challenging probably because I was new to those technologies.

My experience is if you brush up the pdf's you get a very high score even

though you do not have much hands on experience. Only questions you will

miss are VM resource troubleshooting.

I wouldn't say that. Granted VMware gets high scores for documentation, their pdf's aren't the Golden key to passing the exam. There's nothing like hands on experience with the product. Taking it for a test drive and breaking things is the best way to learn. My 2 pence...

[Michelle_Laveri]

Can I just say you should be very careful in discussion what questions are in the exam... I'm not a member of the VMware police, but we should be more careful in discussing the particulars of exam questions...[/i]

That aside. There is a very large pool questions - and with my general discussions with students I've seen very large differences in exam questions. Certainly, certain questions do come up - that's because VMware wants to know if you know your stuff. But no students exam is the same as the other.

I speak as someone who took 3 attempts on the ESX 2.x to get my instructor score and 1 attempt at the VI3 exam...

Generally, you will be suprised how your result should go up in the next exam - because after failing the first time - you should now have much better idea on what your weak spots are... study those, the mistake many students take in exams is in studying topics they are strong on - it tends give them a false confidence boost...

Regards

Mike

[artist-06]

Mike,

>>>>Can I just say you should be very careful in discussion what questions are in the exam... I'm not a member of the VMware police, but we should be more careful in discussing the particulars of exam questions...

I did not want to discuss the particular questions, only gave 2 examples which was in the 5 evaluation questions. Did not even publish the 2 example questions as it was. If this is violating some policies I am sorry I am new to this forum. (This is my first post)

I certainly agree with you about your recommendation because I know the level of questions to expect in the exam. I had some weak spots which I am concentrating more on those topics now.

Also I setup my test environment with single ESX host, Virtual Centre, plenty of VM's and resource pools.

I hope I will pass in my second take.

Thanks for the responses and criticism.

Regards,

Burak

[Michelle_Laveri]

Sure... no worries... no harm done...

Good luck with your retake - I'm sure you will pass on 2nd attempt.

Regards

Mike

[jhanekom]

When a colleague and I were at TSX this year, we had a very interesting chat to the lady in charge of testing in EMEA (unforunately I've forgotten her name.)

As Mike and others stated, there is quite a large pool of questions, so the ones you get will likely vary considerably from test to test.

Regarding watering down certifications through asking what's perceived to be simple questions: the lady informed us that while the tests are not "adaptive" (i.e. they don't change based on which questions you get right or wrong), they are "weighted" - i.e. difficult questions count more towards your final score than easier ones.

Also keep in mind that you cannot be certified as a VCP by simply writing the exam - you have[/b] to attend the 4-day course.

The test results are statistically analyzed almost on a weekly basis to determine how the results should be interpreted. She gave us one particularly interesting example: through whatever techniques they use (no, she didn't go into detail here!), they are able to pick out those that really know the material from those that don't. They then use this information and other techniques to figure out whether questions are of the correct type and difficulty.

For example, if most of those who seem to really know the material get the question wrong and those who don't get it right, they know there's a serious problem with the question! If most people get a question right, they know that it's too easy and remove it from the question set.

That diversion aside, I think VCP is still a very good baseline certification. I do get a feeling of a "watering down" of the certification in terms of technical content from the ESX 2.x days, so I can only hope that VMware will deliver on its promise of releasing an advanced certification (like they've been hinting for the last few years and promised again at TSX this year.)

[Michelle_Laveri]

I would have to agree with most of the statements here... there will be an archetects style certification - that was announced and promised at the TSX in Nice. As yet though we don't have a delivery date - I'd be happy for VMware to spend plenty of time getting this higher-level cert right - after all its for designers and solution builders who make business critical design decisions early in a virtualisation projects lifetime...

I'm still pressing for something in the middle-teir. Something like a VCP+ or VCP Advanced for hands-on guys like myself who now need to differentiate themselves from newly qualified VCPs... I would hope that as with the VCP cert, VMware would tie this to attendence of the Deploy, Secure and Analyse course which was recently released... If we agree that the training requirement keeps book-learners and high-school kids out of the certification thus preserving its status then perhaps its a good thing after all...

Regards

Mike

[PatRyan]

If there are enough changes from VI3 to the next version (as there was from 2x to 3), then just getting re-certified would be like having a VCP+

When I took the VCP3 exam I was first presented with a survey asking "I strogly agree, somewhat or dissagree" type questions about my abilities. I wonder if the survey response was used to tune the test?

[jhanekom]

I asked the test administrator that very question

Her response was no, they don't tune the test based on those answers, but they do use the results to gather information about how test takers perceive themselves and in order to compare that information with actual test results to inform choices on future questions.

[dconvery]

Another nice thing would be a performance- based exam, similar to the Novell stuff. In these you actually perform a task

Dave

[Michelle_Laveri]

Another nice thing would be a performance- based

exam, similar to the Novell stuff. In these you

actually perform a task

Dave

Yeah, I did one of those - and one like that for Citrix... boy that was a whole lot of fun...

I sometimes wonder would should be careful what we wish for when it comes to certification. I wouldn't like to spend more time preping for a certification than I would practising my skills in the real world....

Additionally, what I have noticed is people do start thinking of making certifications hard to get - usually, directly after[/i] passing multiple choice test. They never seem to suggest before[/i] they take the test... Strange that isn't it?

Regards

Mike

ps not a criticism of the above post just a general observation about certification generally...

[artist-06]

Hi guys

I have retaken my exam and passed with 86.

Thanks for the vmware community as I learnt a lot from this forum.

Cheers

Burak Uysal

[Michelle_Laveri]

Congratulations!

Regards

Mike