I am officially a VMware Certified Associate  in Data Center Virtualization (VCA-DCV)!

Last week I attended the VMware vSphere: Optimize and Scale (5.1) class at New Horizons and after hearing from a few of the attendees that the exam was a cinch if you worked with VMware and you sat through the online VMware Data Center Virtualization Fundamentals e-learning course, you could pass the VMware Certified Associate (VCA) exam with no problem. After watching the video, reading the exam blueprint, VMware vSphere Basics guide, and taking the practice exam twice, I was ready to schedule.

There is no class prerequisite to take the VCA like the VCP5 and such!

The test is administered by Pearsons Vue and you must request authorization from VMware first to schedule your exam.  There is a PDF that outlines the exam registration procedure in great detail. Once you’re registered, signed up with Pearsons and pay for your exam ($120) you’re ready to go. There are tons of discount codes out there that will either give you a 50% discount or maybe even a freebie. Check the VCA forums and see which one works.

The test was 50 questions, 75 minutes long and for but a few questions, they come straight from the e-learning course. My advice, read the question, re-read it and focus on the sentence in the middle that gives you the most clues about what the answer may be. Did I say READ the question?  To pass, you need to score a 300. The scale is 100-500 and I got a 420.

My next stop is to study for the VMware Certified Professional 5 – Data Center Virtualization (VCP5-DCV) exam. To obtain this one, you must have taken qualifying coursework prior to obtaining your certification. In the meantime, I’ll take the VMware Certified Associate – Cloud (VCA-Cloud) & VMware Certified Associate – Workforce Mobility (VCA-WM) as well.

I’ll post my training plan and will let you know of my progress. Good luck to you if you’re on the path to becoming VMware certified.