VCAP-DCD Tips and Exam Experience
September 13, 2011 
Sean Crookston 
This morning I successfully completed the VCAP-DCD exam and although I read about 30 people’s reviews on the exam, I was definitely not prepared for the questions that were asked, or rather I should say they were a bit different then I was expecting. Additionally this morning I wasn’t quite as focused as I would have liked to have been.
Without going into things that violate NDA ,I will say that certain things people recommended to focus on or complained about related to the beta were not mentioned or barely relevant. Additionally the drag and drop questions and the thoroughness of each question is something to be aware of. For me the most difficult thing to swallow was that many questions are multiple selections, and the questions are very thorough so at times it was hard to know for certain if I completely comprehended the scenario and successfully chose the right answers.
The best thing you can do to prepare for the exam is follow the blueprint and have experience analyzing environments and doing designs. Many have said the Design Workshop was great preparation for the exam and while I feel that course was great, there is not a correlation to any of the content of the course and the exam itself.Overall this makes for a difficult, but worthwhile credential to achieve.
Overall if you think you are ready, book the exam and go take it. If you do not think you ready then you probably need some more time/experience before you attempt this one.
Now on to contemplating the VCDX…
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uh… i was under the impression you had already passed. well, congrats either way!! it was a tough one for sure. the questions were very long indeed.
Congratulations Sean. I took the exam Sat 9/10 and did not pass. I was ill prepared for the multiple answer, multiple choice questions. I felt that the drag and drop questions were easier to determine the answer. My real disappointment was in the diagram questions. The engine performed exactly as expected, the Demo on the VMware website is spot on. The problem was trying to figure out “exactly” what it was they wanted me to represent in the diagrams….. Show the relationship from 1 connection to another. It seemed unclear though I felt I understood all the elements required to display. Sorry I cannot show any examples of what I mean, pass or not, you cannot mention the actual questions themselves. I did leave with a better sense of what to focus on for my next attempt. You can’t “kinda” know the load balancing rules or “think” you know which multipath setting goes with what requirement. You have to really understand “how” things work so that when challenged you can determine the best answer. They have done a good job of making the questions very hard to guess at the right answer.
Congrats! Thought I would tell you here so I can keep up the status quo of public apathy in the office
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