Took the VCAP5-DCA today

C

Child of Wonder

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Doozy of a test. The time limit was the worst part.

I'm confident I successfully completed more than half the tasks and partially completed all but 4 of the others. But I won't find out if I passed for 3 weeks.

Anyone else take it? Thoughts?
 
Haven't gotten around to doing the VCAP5-DCA (going to go for the VCAP5-DCD first), but I remember when I got my VCAP4-DCA.

Managing your time, I found was definitely the hardest part about the exam. The questions themselves weren't too difficult, but the remote session itself I found was painfully slow. I remember at times having to wait a good 10 seconds the screen to refresh. Because of the slow speed of the session, I found while you had access to the documentation, that it was useless. I tried to use it once early in the exam... Never opened it again, was a waste of time.

Did they fix the way the tasks/questions are presented in the VCAP5-DCA? In 4 there was no easy way to jump between tasks/questions. You were stuck going through each and every question, which was horrible due to the slow speed of the remote session.

The hardest part, now that you’re done the exam, is waiting for the results. :p
 
Chilly said:
Haven't gotten around to doing the VCAP5-DCA (going to go for the VCAP5-DCD first), but I remember when I got my VCAP4-DCA.

Managing your time, I found was definitely the hardest part about the exam. The questions themselves weren't too difficult, but the remote session itself I found was painfully slow. I remember at times having to wait a good 10 seconds the screen to refresh. Because of the slow speed of the session, I found while you had access to the documentation, that it was useless. I tried to use it once early in the exam... Never opened it again, was a waste of time.

Did they fix the way the tasks/questions are presented in the VCAP5-DCA? In 4 there was no easy way to jump between tasks/questions. You were stuck going through each and every question, which was horrible due to the slow speed of the remote session.

The hardest part, now that you’re done the exam, is waiting for the results. :p
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Yes, the remote session was painfully slow. In fact, some of the questions I left unfinished were because I couldn't quite remember a syntax or knew I had to jump between a few windows and the time commitment wouldn't be worth it.

No, you still only have "Back" and "Next." It was painful going back from question 26 to 1 to finish it!

Yes, waiting isn't fun especially when I don't have a good feel on whether or not I passed. I didn't feel that the questions were especially difficult (there were only a handful that I wasn't 100% sure what to do) but the sacrifices I had to make for the sake of time is what could prevent me from passing.

However, considering the scores range from 100-500 and 300 is passing, I'm hoping I passed and don't have to take it again (at least until the VCAP6).
 
Are you able to talk about what is requested of you for the test? I was considering taking it.
 
Don't hold your breath on 15 days. People that took it at VMworld are still waiting for results.
 
I'm going to take it this month probably. I have been studying a lot, but its a pretty open ended blueprint in a lot of ways. I really wonder if they will ask you to do some of the more obscure things or not.

How much command line stuff was there? Thats the stuff I'm focusing on, and what I call 'race' tests to do common things in the vSphere Client -- trying to get to the point I'm out running my display. Its hard to do that on my lan tho lol. If it is slow, I don't want to have to stop and think at all about what to do next for common stuff.
 
defuseme2k said:
I'm going to take it this month probably. I have been studying a lot, but its a pretty open ended blueprint in a lot of ways. I really wonder if they will ask you to do some of the more obscure things or not.

How much command line stuff was there? Thats the stuff I'm focusing on, and what I call 'race' tests to do common things in the vSphere Client -- trying to get to the point I'm out running my display. Its hard to do that on my lan tho lol. If it is slow, I don't want to have to stop and think at all about what to do next for common stuff.
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Yes, be ready for obscure stuff.

The blueprint mentions command line a good deal (VMA, esxcli, PowerCLI) so I would expect to see it on the test.
 
defuseme2k said:
I'm going to take it this month probably. I have been studying a lot, but its a pretty open ended blueprint in a lot of ways. I really wonder if they will ask you to do some of the more obscure things or not.

How much command line stuff was there? Thats the stuff I'm focusing on, and what I call 'race' tests to do common things in the vSphere Client -- trying to get to the point I'm out running my display. Its hard to do that on my lan tho lol. If it is slow, I don't want to have to stop and think at all about what to do next for common stuff.
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You have objectives and the test doesn't care how you go about completing them. Just remember via the blueprint there may be objectives that you must do via vCLI that you couldn't do via the UI or PowerCLI (i.e. tagging an SSD drive), and things that you can only do with PowerCLI (i.e. Image Builder, Auto Deploy, etc).
 
itrsteve said:
Excellent stuff! Now hurry up and get your VCDX design in before vSphere 6 comes out :)
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I'm going to take the VCAP5-DCD before the end of this year and may give the VCDX a shot at VMworld 2013. We'll see how prepared I feel a few months out.
 
Child of Wonder said:
I'm going to take the VCAP5-DCD before the end of this year and may give the VCDX a shot at VMworld 2013. We'll see how prepared I feel a few months out.
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On a side note, you got your results pretty quick compared to most. I know there was a lot of complaints that got brought to light yesterday and magically a bunch of DCA's got scored. Unfortunate that happens with a $400 exam, but great that they're actively listening.
 
itrsteve said:
On a side note, you got your results pretty quick compared to most. I know there was a lot of complaints that got brought to light yesterday and magically a bunch of DCA's got scored. Unfortunate that happens with a $400 exam, but great that they're actively listening.
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That is good they're listening. It was 17 business days for me. I wasn't even expecting it last night. While I was talking to my son my wife came walking into my office with her laptop and says "congratulations, VCAP." I was shocked. lol
 
Child of Wonder said:
Haven't gotten it yet, just the letter with my score saying that I passed.

Will update once I have the VCAP #.
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I'm curious if the DCA numbers are going to be all f'd up too. I know the DCD5 guys that didn't upgrade from 4 all have numbers in the 2000's and I don't think the DCD4's even broke 600.
 
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