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NPM quesitons on the SAM exam?

I just took my exam and failed it. I was completely prepared for SAM related activities as that is what i have been doing in my day to day work duties for a year now. HOWEVER why would i be asked 6-10 NPM related questions. i had no clue on them and almost 100% chance got all of them wrong. On the exam Study list it make NO mention of NPM. so i figured i wouldn't have to read into OTHER PRODUCTS when i'm taking an exam on Server and Application Monitoring. 

When i got to the results page it showed half categories for NPM and half of SAM. WHY WASN'T this listed on the Exam page. This felt like a freaking bait and switch, as well as a waste of 200$ USD. can someone please explain why SolarWinds wouldn't include a blurb saying.... "Hey by the way, you need to know NPM as well to take the SAM Cert."

  • Hey D.H.WA,

    We do have a few Orion Platform (Core) questions in the exams as it pertains to both SAM and NPM. I am currently looking into why it stated NPM though. 

    Can you email certification@solarwinds.com so that we can correspond with you directly?

    Thanks,

    Nanette

  • I just took the NPM exam and I didn't do that well.  I am not sure where the questions came from but it did not seam to come from any of the study material.  I am very disappointed, the test seamed to focus on selling its integration with Network Insight for F5 and Palo Alto.  You would think there would be more questions on how Solarwinds connected with Cisco devices.  That is if they were trying to sell their external vendor connections.  There were 75 questions, I assumed there would be more NPM functionality oriented questions.  Regardless the study materials were not helpful for me.  

  •  Sending an email to you guys now. Thank you for taking a look into this.

  • I'm new to Solarwinds about 5 months now using it on daily task. I'm planning to take the NPM exam sometime this ber months. Does the study guide covers everything or do I have to review SAM as well? Thank you

  • I agree with you. I just took the NPM exam and felt like it did not cover anything of what I studied. I passed but not happily. Mostly Cisco, Netinsight, F5 and Palo Alto questions. On top of that, there were 6 duplicates! The first one was two questions apart. 
  • No the study guides DO NOT IN ANY WAY WHAT SO EVER cover ANY INFORMATION WHAT SO EVER on the exam.  The training videos and in their academy DO NOT IN ANY WAY WHAT SO EVER cover ANY INFORMATION WHAT SO EVER on the exam.  Sadly they know this and continue to push it.  They say the best study guide is hands on, but if you are in DoD, Government or the private sector you will NOT use Solarwinds in the same fashion.  So your experience is not going to be the same.

  • if you are planning to take NPM exam, study the guide for NPM. A lot of colleagues told me just focus on that guide. Hopefully I pass the exam too.