I sat and passed the 3.5 hour VCAP6-NV exam today, and wanted to document my experience in the exam. As anyone preparing for the exam knows, its a 3.5 hour lab exam, roughly using what VMware refers too as its HOL (Hands on Lab) platform. Overall let me say this....after YEARS of taking Cisco exams and being utterly frustrated with their trickery, and general douchebaggery, this VMware exam was extremely refreshing! The blueprint was SPOT ON, the questions were pretty straightforward, and the topology was not so confusing that it took away from the technologies that you were to be tested on. Overall...testing-wise, VMware gets a *gold star* for actually testing us on the technology!
Lab Experience:
I tested at my local Pearson Vue, and this one (its a high school), has a decent internet connection and nice equipment (not CRT's). I, unlike a lot of overseas folks, did not experience too much lag. You definitely are contending for screen real-estate, and if there is one thing I think DOES take away from the testing, its that. Right off the bat I had to reboot my control VM, as the desktop didn't show up. After the reboot I was off to the races. I tried floating the desktop box, and positioning stuff 'just so,' but no other screen resolution looked good, so I stuck with the default of 1024x768, and simply adjusted my browser down to 75% magnification. Even with this setting, it was still utterly frustrating to say the least. The manual tab (with the instructions) was huge, and ALWAYS took up about half my screen. So I had to read, an then minimize the manual in order to work on the desktop. This was the most frustrating aspect of it all.
Exam:
Like I mentioned, the exam is very doable. All of the technology is on the blueprint, and the questions are not out of line. There is some integrated troubleshooting, and some things that require you to actually think like an engineer (like with naming your own objects, etc...), but for the most part you just build out the lab! You get a certain number of questions, and I'm not sure if I am able to disclose how many, but more than likely you won't finish all of them. I think I left like 6 on the table when all was said and done. Some questions are super short and easy, and other are long and more complex. I wouldn't recommend cherry-picking tasks, as a lot of the work seems to build upon one of the earlier tasks (though you can go back and work on old problems). I feel like if I had not gotten hung up on 1 or 2 of them, that I might have been able to almost finish....but maybe not...if only I had/had multiple monitors to do all this on, I may have!
Results:
VMware actually was really quick with the results. I think I had them about an hour and a half after leaving the test center. The exam, when you run out of time, ends quite abruptly back to a login screen....so don't be jaded when you don't see results right away. They send you an email with a PDF score report.
Lab Experience:
I tested at my local Pearson Vue, and this one (its a high school), has a decent internet connection and nice equipment (not CRT's). I, unlike a lot of overseas folks, did not experience too much lag. You definitely are contending for screen real-estate, and if there is one thing I think DOES take away from the testing, its that. Right off the bat I had to reboot my control VM, as the desktop didn't show up. After the reboot I was off to the races. I tried floating the desktop box, and positioning stuff 'just so,' but no other screen resolution looked good, so I stuck with the default of 1024x768, and simply adjusted my browser down to 75% magnification. Even with this setting, it was still utterly frustrating to say the least. The manual tab (with the instructions) was huge, and ALWAYS took up about half my screen. So I had to read, an then minimize the manual in order to work on the desktop. This was the most frustrating aspect of it all.
Exam:
Like I mentioned, the exam is very doable. All of the technology is on the blueprint, and the questions are not out of line. There is some integrated troubleshooting, and some things that require you to actually think like an engineer (like with naming your own objects, etc...), but for the most part you just build out the lab! You get a certain number of questions, and I'm not sure if I am able to disclose how many, but more than likely you won't finish all of them. I think I left like 6 on the table when all was said and done. Some questions are super short and easy, and other are long and more complex. I wouldn't recommend cherry-picking tasks, as a lot of the work seems to build upon one of the earlier tasks (though you can go back and work on old problems). I feel like if I had not gotten hung up on 1 or 2 of them, that I might have been able to almost finish....but maybe not...if only I had/had multiple monitors to do all this on, I may have!
Results:
VMware actually was really quick with the results. I think I had them about an hour and a half after leaving the test center. The exam, when you run out of time, ends quite abruptly back to a login screen....so don't be jaded when you don't see results right away. They send you an email with a PDF score report.
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