Passed VCP510

...this afternoon. This was my second attempt at it. I missed out on the first one by 10 points, bettered it this time by over 100 points and got a 407. The testing centre was unusually quiet which the proctor attributed to the afternoon slot. Here's my review:

1. Straightforward exam mostly, either you know it or you dont.

2. Read the questions very carefully. Just one different word changes the answer. Example, you are connected to vCenter or to the host. Either you are connected via DCUI or via SSH. Take note of the word - any. This changes the answer too. Bloody VMware trip want to trip you at every opportunity.

3. Both my attempts focused on storage, networking and virtual machines. This is fair enough, an admin will spend most of their time on them.

4. Time management. Manage your time well, dont dwell on a question. Mark it for review and come back to it if you have time. I managed my time much better during this attempt. I had more than a few minutes left over.

5. Make sure you go over everything even if it's something you do every day. Such as building a VM, know all the options available. Know what's available where, which tabs do what and which two hyperlinks do the same thing. Pay attention to all the charts and figures you see. For example, (this wasnt on my exam, so no NDA violation) know how why the Storage Views tab aint available, why Hardware Acceleration is showing up as unsupported, which Scheduled tasks can be configured for a host. Stuff like this, something I just glossed over in my first attempt.

They REALLY expect you to know how to use the product.

Resources I used:

1. Read the Scott Lowe book three times over. Primary resource and a very good one at that. I supplemented it with stuff in the next point.

2. Read all the guides available from VMware, read the storage, vm administration and networking guides twice cover to cover. Read innumerable whitepapers, blogs and websites (yellow-bricks.com and longwhiteclouds.com were especially useful). The VMware guides helped reinforce what I learnt from Scott Lowe's book. Must read, IMO.

3. Did the practice exams on Simon Long's site and mwpreston.net. Simon's questions were on the easier side, the ones on mwpreston.net were very close to the real thing. Believe it or not, there were a 2-3 questions word for word!! Preston's study guide was especially useful over the last few days and his practice questions were very close to the real thing, like I just said. The guy's a vExpert.

What's next for me? Onwards and upwards to the VCAP-DCA. Even if I dont end up getting the cert, the knowledge gained would surely be invaluable. But I must stray a little from the path to the DCA and get myself the EMCISA cert first.

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Comments

ChooseLife

Congrats on this achievement! Well done!

Nice write-up on your experience, too

dave330i

Congratulations. Great score.

meadIT

Congrats!

blargoe

Excellent... congrats!

QHalo

Nice job man. Beer:30

cyberguypr

Congrats and thanks for the review.

whatthehell

Congratz!!

Essendon

Thanks gents! The decent score is due to the fact that I was better prepared this time around, the questions seemed easier and I had 8-10 repeated questions (from last time that is).

undomiel

Congrats! You definitely earned that one. Good luck and enjoy your VCAP studies!

jamesp1983

Congrats! Great score.

mitch179

Congrats from a fellow Aussie

Just wondering how long you took to prepare for this exam? Do you work with vSphere day to day? I have the exam coming up in a month, I really want to pass it first time round so it looks like I'll be a recluse for the next month

Essendon

mitch179 wrote: »

Congrats from a fellow Aussie

Just wondering how long you took to prepare for this exam? Do you work with vSphere day to day? I have the exam coming up in a month, I really want to pass it first time round so it looks like I'll be a recluse for the next month

Hey no worries mate.

I took about 2 months to prepare for this, of which the last 20 days constituted the real, hard yards. My weaker area was storage and it stung when I went in for my first attempt. I had multiple storage-related questions of which I had no clue. To make up for the lack of storage experience, I read the storage and networking guides from vmware 3 times each to hammer it home, and of course I labbed the hell out of it too.

I work with vSphere day-to-day but not to the extent to be able to help much on exam. Most of my prep was self study.

Read my review again if you have to, read those guides and do the practice exams on mwpreston.net (helpful). Good luck mate!

mitch179

Thanks mate, I'll definitely work through those guides you've suggested. I have scott lowes book and Sybex VCP5 study guide that I'm working through now, I might push the exam back a little just to be safe.

from all the reviews of this exam being a bit of a monster I'm starting to get a bit intimidated haha

jibbajabba

It really is only a monster if you start from scratch ..

Good luck !

_Marauder

Congratulations!

Psoasman

Congrats on your pass!

cgrimaldo

Congrats!

Dakinggamer87

Congrats on pass!!

jasonboche

Congratulations and nice job! You killed it!

Devilry

Congrats on the pass! and good luck on the DCA

jasonboche

Congratulations on the pass! re: time management, the VCAP exams get more difficult so be aware if you plan on VCAP next.

Essendon

Thanks Jason, I'll keep that in mind. I've been reading up blogs of folks who've taken the VCAP exams and they cant stress enough the importance of time management.