VCP5

Well, they finally let the cat out of the bag!  A couple of months ago now, I took a day trip down to Martin, Tennessee to sit the VCP5 Beta exam.

After a few trials and tribulations getting there (remember all the flooding in the midwest earlier this year?), and them more challenges once I got to the testing facility (one of the other testing software packages didn’t much get along with the Pearson packages), I finally got to sit the exam.  I made it to the facility on time, but with the system problems, it was another 30-45 minutes of waiting before I could actually participate in the exam.

And _wow_ it was long!  And challenging!  This isn’t your father’s VCP exam, assuming most of the questions make it to the final product.  This exam was all about understanding – the product, it’s use cases, everything.  This new generation of VCP will be the sharpest yet (and I think that’s saying something – we’ve had some great exams over the years), and VMware is doing a great job of keeping the value of the VCP at a premium level.

The VCP5 is not a data-regurgitation exam, not can it be explicitly taught.  VMware still has the Install, Configure, Manage requirement if you hold no VCP.  But the class is not going to teach you the exam, just like it’s been since I got into this VMware thing in 2006.  It will, however, provide you with a good foundation with which to start.

If you’re a current VCP4, you can sit the exam with no class requirement until February 29, 2012.

Oh, and I”m writing all this because I finally got my VCP5 exam results.  I passed!  That makes the whole trip to Tennessee and all its trials worth it!