How to prepare a VMware Exam?

Hi everyone! This post will be focused on VMware exams how to check which ones are available, requirements, how to prepare and some other tips.

The following tips are the ones that were useful for me and I would appreciate if you can share your own experience in the comments section below.

You can go to this link to check all available exams https://www.vmware.com/education-services/certification.html

By the time of this post, there are 6 tracks alligned with different VMware products. Some of them are going to have certification and digital badges. There are 4 certification levels, VCTA, VCP, VCAP and VCDX. Keep in mind not all tracks include all the levels VCTA, VCP, VCAP and VCDX.

Once you’ve decided the track that you’re going to be evaluated on, you have to click on the selected track and then on the specific exam.

Once you click on the selected exam, you will be redirected to a web page where you will see the exam details like duration, number of questions, passing score and format.

Now that we know a few basics about the exams, we will step forward to the following tips.

Before the exam:

• Check the exam code and download the blueprint from the exams detail webpage.

• Check the blueprint sections and objectives. This is everything that you will need to cover before the exam. Start studying the objectives where you are sure that it’s a weak or unknown spot. That will give you more confidence that you will be ready because on strong spots you might need less time to study and if the exam date comes up close, you can give it your best shot.

• To prepare each objective/section you will have a list of reference documents to read and learn.

• Check the blueprint if there are any recommended courses because I have found some of them to be extremely useful (eg: VMware vSAN: Production Operations [V6.7])

• If you do not have a lab to do some tests or preparation you can use the VMware HOL Labs https://labs.hol.vmware.com

• If you are taking a VCAP Deploy exam for the first time I would recommend have a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JIX4n9vP0I

During the exam:

• If you do not know the answer, mark the question and keep going. At the end, you will have the oportunity to review the marked questions. Do not rush to skip it, but do not take too much time to decide, you have a limited time to do the exam.

• If you are taking a VCAP Deploy exam, check on the time frequently, time is your number one enemy. Think if the task is a long one (eg: feature enablement, component deployment, etc) and keep going with the next task after having the task running. Do not lose time waiting for it to finish.

• For all exams, if time has ended, the exam will be saved. I thinks that you will not lose points for the questions answered (I suppose, not sure 100%).

After the exam:

• If you passed it, congratulate yourself and start preparing for the next one.

• If you took a VCAP Deploy exam, relax because it might take 1 or 2 weeks to have the results because they are not shown immediately when finished. You will receive an email like the following.

• If you have failed it, check the score report so you can make focus at weak spots for the next time. It’s not the end of the world, a failure is an opportunity to learn more.