Congrats @Geoff Burke time for me to catch up to you.  This will push me.

Congratulations @Geoff Burke .

This is on my agenda for this year, too.

Congratulations on passing the VMCE 2020 exam! Well done! Super proud that the practice exams helped you, how did you find the video walkthroughs of the questions?

I thought the videos were fantastic. The way you went through and at times said “rubbish” was a much milder format than some of my reactions to the “obvious lead one astray” questions . Joking aside the methodology was a help too, slowly reading the questions then pausing is essential and contrary to what I used to do, i.e. impatient blast through them which meant possibly stepping on land mines like the good old “not” word somewhere in the middle of a sentence. 

This format was excellent because the inner conversation that you did in the videos is exactly what people do so this was much more helpful than the standard written guides.

Thanks Again Rasmus!

This was kind of hanging over me. I decided to try and push during lockdown and before the summer good weather (hopefully), so that I can just lie on my paddle board on the lake instead of “stay at home study” .

@Geoff Burke Congratulations 

Congratulations Goeff! I've also have mixed experiences with Pearson; it's not always as easy as in a test center.

I would also say that the exam is fair but it still requires extensive learning and hands-on experience. 

yes it was mixed to say the least..

Yeah the exam had its moments. I always judge by how many answers I change during the review. Mind you compared to a CNCF exam not as nerve wracking, like moments when you copy and paste a yaml file and boom the indentation explodes.. CKA, CKS and CKAD allow you to look at the documentation but they are all command line practical and you simply would never finish in 2 hours unless you know where to look and what it does. That is why when you copy and paste a huge yaml file and it blows up.. you see your time ticking away… :)

Hi Geoff,

Indeed. The VEEAM exams like VMCE and VMCA are a perfect example how it should be done!

I use Veeam almost every day, but even then it’s unlikely to pass the exams without studying. When you study very well but have less practice experience in using Veeam the chance is also very small to pass. A combination of practice experience and studying very well will give you the chance to pass the exams. For the VMCA exams, the level of exams is even higher than VMCE.

I passed a while ago VMCE 9.5 and VMCA 1.0 and not long ago VMCE 2020 and a lot of studying is absolutely necessary!

The videos of Haslund are splendid !!! This gives you a very good idea of how the exam could be. If you struggle with those, don’t bother taking the exam and keep studying and practicing the best backup product!

@ Haslund : keep on making those videos, they are great!

regards

Nico

Still need to write mine, been using Veeam a few years, took the course, and after doing a few practice tests it was pretty eye opening it isn’t an easy exam. 

Congrats Geoff! And I can concur on the difficulty level of the exam. I was part of the pilot group in Feb 2020 to help “modernize” the VMCE course. At the end of the training, Veeam provided us a free exam. If we passed..we were VMCE 2020. If no pass, have to re-attempt. I did not pass..by 1pt. And I’ve been using Veeam a better part of a decade. I overthought a few questions I should’ve gotten correct. Regardless, I retook the exam a month later and was successful (only passed by 1pt). 

Also agree @haslund  practice exams are great. And, the video explanations are just fantastic as well. For those who’ve yet to take the exam, even if you’ve used Veeam for a while, I recommend really getting to know the product...including VeeamONE. All the best to those who are looking to take the exam soon.

I'm glad that I've already passed my exam or else I would feel very insecure now after reading that you've failed your first try @coolsport00

The goal is, do not underestimate all content and get experience in all subjects.

Exactly!  

If, like me, you are struggling with your VMCE studies, @haslund posted some great advice for a reddit user over here .. https://www.reddit.com/r/Veeam/comments/nhuu3y/lack_of_good_vmce_training_resources/
 

Important note: Keep in mind, even someone who works with Veeam professionally every day does not use all features on both Hyper-V and vSphere. Focusing on the small gaps of features you use every day is good, but really digging into the features you rarely or never use is probably the most important (tape? Veeam ONE? SureBackup? Virtual labs?)

Once you know your weak areas, make sure you look at the official exam specification document here: https://img.veeam.com/vmce/docs/VASCM10-Exam-Study-Guide.pdf (always go to www.veeam.com/vmce for the most recent revision).

When using an exam specification document, some advice can be handy on how to approach it. Obviously, there is no single source of truth on the best approach; however, I personally use the traffic light approach:

• Red: I can’t explain how this works and I don’t know how to do it in a lab

• Yellow: I can explain how this works, but I don’t know how to do it in a lab

• Green: I can explain how this works and I know how to do it in a lab

For more how to prepare for the exam tips, I apologize for the shameless self-promotion; but take a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arBRgpIua-4&list=PLUzaaV7RJxb14gOfUxgYTDxVRDo8S7BPn&index=1

Once you feel you have a green light on all exam objectives, go back to the practice exams again on https://rasmushaslund.com/vmce-practice-exam/#vmce-practice-exam - keep in mind there are three options including the official ProPartner practice exam.

My site has two different unofficial practice exams, one including the video walkthroughs - the other one does not. Try to brute force it, figure out which is correct - but more importantly why? and why are the other answers incorrect? Simply finding the correct answer on a practice exam is not overly useful - that question will never appear on the real exam.

The key is the knowledge gained from understanding why is one answer correct and why are the others incorrect because this knowledge can be applied to lots of other questions including those on the official exam.

Others pointed this out; however, it is worth reiterating it: Review the product release notes (https://www.veeam.com/veeam_backup_10_0_release_notes_rn.pdf) and What's New document (https://www.veeam.com/veeam_backup_10_0_whats_new_wn.pdf). Why? Often people have used Veeam for a long time and how something works can be changed or limitations been removed.

Congrats… I thinkto schedule my upgrade exam in august or september. 

Thank you for the links !

Great feedback folks,

I think the leitmotif here is to approach the exam with caution. I remember passing the VMCA exam not long after NOLA. They let us take it right after the course there and we all failed… it was very very tricky. It scared the heck out of me so I memorized the textbook, created a test exam, 150 flash cards and then passed with a good mark despite having no idea whether I had passed or not until the final pop up. I was told later that some “mean Veeam” engineer would make the questions harder each time too many people got it right, don’t know how true that was but… it sure felt like it.

Anyways too make a long story short I now take every exam very seriously and throw out any hubris about past accomplishments . It is too easy to get lax.

I do think though that if you put in an honest effort you will be alright. The challenge for us all is working a full time job and then playing the eternal student in the evenings and on weekends.

Good Luck everyone!!

Congrats @Geoff Burke Keep it up !

Probably this is not trrue

@Guillermo B If what my mate Craig shared is not true, provide a statement and resources for your opinion as to why.

Cheers.