Keiran Shelden It’s been almost 2 months since I last did a blog post, and for that time I have been flat out reading and labbing getting ready for my VCP6 Foundation and Datacenter Virtualization exams. These we both the BETA Exams that ran from 1st April right through to today, 27th May. As I am currently not a VCP holder but I have sat the 5.x course with a registered organisation, I am eligible to sit both exams that a new future VCP would take and only need to sit the What’s New Exam.
I feel I should do a little review here as there was no opportunity to do a review of the exam (which is what I thought the whole point of the BETA’s were for – not just to see if they opened up and moved on to the next question).
The Foundation Exam.
it was a good morning, I followed Travis Wood’s advise and had a big breakfast as I had a 9am booking. The plan was to get it over an done with. Everything went smoothly registering myself at the test center and getting my photo taken, etc. I sat down at my test station ready and straight away I am presented with an NDA – At this point it all seems normal, and the next section I was expecting to see the quick survey that I have encounted on every other exam I have done, unfortunately, this was not the case and I was immediately in the exam, no way I had time to do my 10 second breathing. The exam went quite smoothly and covered a lot of topics, this was good as they were simple enough to not scare you off, but they were tough enough that you were challenged and gave you an idea what you would need to brush up on before the DCV. There were quite a few grammatical errors, but these were looked past and I hope I answered them correctly. I suspect it is the same exam for which ever track you take that requires the Foundation exam. There were 100 questions in 120 minutes, much better than the 135 questions in 120 minutes that were in the 5.5 exams, you didn’t feel as rushed, but you still felt you needed to keep the pace at approximately 1 minutes per question.
The DataCenter Virtualization Exam.
This exam seems to be causing confusion for some people, and I believe it is due to adding the Foundation exam. I found that this exam I took today focused heavily on 3 topics, all of which were quite in-depth, but the topics were ones that I rarely touch, and I don’t think many administrators would touch on a day to day basis either. That aside, the level of questions were definitely raised up a level. I took a little longer on some questions to fully understand them, I was still keeping at approximately 1 question per minute, but some were quicker than others. I don’t feel too confident this time due to how heavily focused this exam was and not as broad as I thought it should be for a Datacenter exam. There was a lack of new things but some was covered – this gives me the thought that there are many more questions to come, but these are the ones so far.
After both exams, I felt like there should have been a little review quiz at the end to give feedback, but unfortunately there wasn’t.
At the end of the day, I put in a lot of study time, ran through practice quizes with Manny, Tom and Michael, all of whom I am grateful for their time. I read at night, and read on the train to and from work. I built my lab a few times and lab on items and even utilised the Hands-on-Labs.
Study Resources
Mastering VMware vSphere 6 – Nick Marshall
Official Blueprint Documentation
Blueprint
vBrownBags vSphere 6 Series
VMware Hands-On-Labs
Many vSphere 6 blogs
As I wait for my result (that can be anywhere up to 6 – 8 weeks) I will start on my VCIX path, although the blueprint has not been released yet, I will be reading through Scott Lowe/Forbes Guthrie vSphere Design guide and running through the VCAP-DCA/DCD blueprints to start getting up to speed.
Whether you pass or fail, the best outcome is that you move forward.
Thank you, if you have any questions please ask.
Keiran.
