Good afternoon! Yesterday I took and thankfully passed, the Veeam VMCE-ADO exam. As I’ve done with other exams, including the VMCE last year, I thought I’d do a write-up of my experience and share my opinions of the exam prep process, all within Veeam’s NDA. Also at the end of this write-up, you’ll find a link to a Study Guide I created. Feel free to use it to help you with your studies. All I ask is you give credit to the author if you disseminate it to friends/colleagues, or do a blog or post on social media. One note about my Guide, it may seem incomplete because it looks like information is left out of Sections 3, 5, & 7. That was done on purpose. Sections 5 & 7 deal with in-class design segments so there isn’t much there needed for the Guide, and Section 3 is a sort of “prep” for the design segments (there is some relevant parts to Section 3 though, and is included in the Guide).
PREP
In total, it took me a good 6-7 weeks of study prep, reviewing the VMCE-ADO Handbook and Slides multiple times over… too many times to count to be honest. When I first go through the study material, I create an outline (i.e. Study Guide) to help me retain the material. To enhance my retention, I add bold text, color, screenshots, and organized tables of data I believe will be beneficial for the exam. After I go through the study material & my notes several times, I’ll find and take a legitimate practice exam to test my knowledge and help me then focus on my weak points. I found a great practice exam on Bart Pellegrino‘s website, which can be found here. A point I always make regarding practice exams – do NOT memorize the practice test questions/answers. They are NOT on the exam. What they do provide is a good gauge to show you what areas you need to focus more attention on in your studies. Don’t focus on the questions per se, but rather the “points” being asked. For example, if a practice test question references limitations but only has a few limitations listed, try to recall all limitations, not just the ones required for the practice question, then check your recollection against the Handbook. Make sense? I also created some practice questions, and will work with Rasmus Haslund to see about posting them here on his site, so stay tuned!
COURSE
As with the VMCE, this exam requires a course before you can actually call yourself a “Veeam Architect”. With Veeam offering the ADO course at half price at VeeamON, I jumped at the opportunity (well, my org allowed me to). And, as it so happens, I had Bart as my instructor. Personally, I really enjoyed the course overall. There could be some tweaks here & there (some I already shared with the training team), but overall I thought it was well put together & laid out. My favorite part of the course were the 2 design segments. I thought it was highly beneficial the 2nd segment built on the 1st to invoke confidence.
EXAM
The exam itself is 40 questions long, and you have 70 minutes to complete it. As I’m sure you’ve experienced with other exams, this one had mainly multiple choice questions, requiring one or several answers. I think it took me just over 30 minutes my first pass answering all 40 questions. I then had plenty of time to do a full review. Obviously, I cannot share what specifically is on the exam. All I will say is study, pay attention to details, and you should be able to achieve a passing score, which is 70% (85% for trainers). And, as this is an ‘Advanced’ exam, it shouldn’t surprise you that you should focus on details.
SUMMARY
Overall, I really enjoyed the study/learning process of this ADO journey. I look forward to building on my learning and explore other technologies Veeam has to offer. All the best in your studies!
STUDY GUIDE
Veeam VMCE-ADO Study Guide