VCAP6-NV Passed

I took and passed the exam yesterday, this was attempt 2, I could have passed on attempt 1, but I just made too many mistakes, I actually forgot to circle back on a few things and I honestly think I failed the first attempt by one objective or at the most two, lesson learned. The exam is 3 hours and I think 21 or 23 questions, 3 hours seems like a lot, but for these VCAPs, it just isn't. Overall I thought the exam was fair, very tough, but fair. Like everyone who takes VCAP I did NOT get to complete all items, just not enough time. The latency and resolution are still a pain, but overall manageable.

It seems the delivery partner for VCAP has changed so you take it now at any Pearson partner centers instead of Pearson branded centers. The lab interface is very similar to the HOL now.

There is a guide on specific exam restrictions you should absolutely go out and read. For example, you can't use backspace, CTRL-C, or CTRL-V, now the CTRL-C is a huge one, because you wont be able to free your mouse from a VM console, I will say that you can get through the exam without using the VM console, because I did it. But I would hate to forget that and then be in a really bad spot inside the live exam.

Overall the objectives map very well to the exam, but you really need to know the technology to translate the requirements in the questions in actual configurations.

The absolute key to passing the exam is hands on, I used the VMware HOL exclusively to practice hands on, even though I have a work lab, the HOL is better for resetting and restarting things. I probably spent at least 80 hours doing hands on to get ready, and I still could have been better prepared.

As far as training materials, I have been fortunate enough to take the NSX 6.2 ICM course last year, and the NSX troubleshooting course this year. I have also used the NSX admin guide, design guide, CLI guide, and API guide. That said, I realize I am talking about VCAP here, but the official VCP6-NV study guide seems to be the best overall resource for learning NSX I've found so far. I've also had to augment all of this with blog posts to deep dive in to certain things, NSX is still an emerging technology and unfortunately the documentation does not answer all your questions.

I received a score of 275 the first time around and 400 the second time around, again, dumb mistakes the first time. Interestingly, the score hit my mailbox at about 45 minutes on the nose both times, so that was nice.

Tips.

1. Spend 5-10 minutes scanning through all the questions to get an idea of the tasks that are in the exam, some need to be completed in order some don't. Make note of which ones don't need pre-work and when you hit a point in the exam where you're waiting on something, go hit a lower hanging question.

2. Don't panic, it's easy to panic if you spend too much time on a question.

3. Read every question very very carefully and multiple times if needed.

4. There is a basic topology map that lays out what the existing topologies are when the lab kit is first deployed, take a minute and look it over, then make sure you read the first page or two of the lab manual that shows you how to easily refer back to that topology map, you will need to reference it in the future. Personally getting the lay of the land was difficult for me.

5. Do tons of hands on HOL, work through the lab guides in the HOL, but also get off lab guide some and test your theories out. This exam is no joke.