Passed VCAP5-DCD!

Essendon

Yep, it's done and dusted!

Stoked? Yes! Relieved? Very!!

For those who dont remember or havent followed along, this was my 3rd attempt at this brutal beast of an exam. Like Dave said in another thread, this is a speed reading and comprehension test. You have to be quick. I was very quick off the blocks, I was at question 30 after the first hour. I only had 1 Visio-esque question upto this point, which I believe I had correctly answered. With my confidence up, I was able to race through the multiple choice questions. Got to the end with about 30 seconds to spare. And strangely (albeit thankfully!) the score showed up instantly. When I failed the first two tries, the score takes a while to pop up as if the computer was commiserating!

What did I do differently this time? I ensured I spent more time on the Visio-esque questions because they carry more weight. 6 questions again, only 1 repeated from last time and one from the 1st time. But they were the easier ones. The other 4 were new.

How did I prepare differently? This time I focused more on the not-so-everyday bits such as RPO/RTO (DR type stuff, I mean), Metrocluster solutions, HA/DRS/StorageDRS/vMotion etc from a management perspective. I looked at the exam differently, is what I am getting at. Read more whitepapers this time, more best practices guides (some questions wanted a best practice solution - so read all those guides), more P2V related blogs/whitepapers.

I ended up with a 321, which I'll take very happily. I was confident pressing the Finish button and expected a slightly higher score, but who cares? I dont, for sure! Heading out for a few drinks to celebrate.

Thanks to TE and its members - you guys made this possible with the encouragement and motivation when I failed twice before. I didnt take the first 2 tries failures, they were just stumbling blocks. Passing this time just made it sweeter!

Ivanjam

@Essendon - congrats, man - you finally got that beast tamed! Good luck on your next endeavor