How to get AWS Pro Certified
Opinions in this blog are my own.
I have 7 AWS Certifications (list is in order): AWS Cloud Practitioner, AWS Solutions Architect Associate, AWS Developer Associate, AWS SysOps Associate, AWS Solutions Architect Professional, AWS Devops Professional, and AWS Security Specialty. I am going to talk about my journey and best practices to achieve the AWS Pro Certifications.
My journey
When I was preparing for the Cloud Practitioner and Associate certifications I watched courses from Stephane Maarek and A Cloud Guru. Then after I finished the course, I took the practice exams. These certifications took me around 3 months to prepare each.
I noticed that even though I watched all the courses and took notes, I was getting a very low score (40 or below) on my first practice exam attempts and I had to re-visit the course to re-learn the topics. I decided that for the SA Pro I will try doing practice exams first instead of video tutorials, and then decide which topics to study based on what I got wrong.
Tutorials Dojo practice exams have a “Review mode” that allows you to get feedback immediately after you answer a question. I decided to use this mode to study. I got a score of 47 on the SA Pro first practice exam without a video course. For every question, I reviewed carefully the explanation on why my answer was right or wrong. I repeated the process until I got consistent 75+ scores. This allowed me to prepare in ~1 month for the exam. I got a score of 780 in the SA Pro. I did the same strategy for the DevOps Pro. I got a score of 840.
My best practices
Book your exam and do not change the date. This will force you to commit to study.
Don’t do a full practice exam on a single day. I recommend you do a maximum of 30 questions per day, because you can get easily burned out by the overwhelming 75 questions. I did 25 questions per day.
Take the practice exams in “Review mode”.
Review all your right and wrong answers from practice exams.
Review the “Get to know the exam” and “Get to know exam-style questions” sections from AWS Skill Builder prep courses. (SA Pro prep course, DevOps Pro prep course).
If you have been studying for a while and still don’t feel ready, try the AWS Skill Builder practice exam. If you pass it is almost certain that you will pass the official exam.
Read the FAQ from the services covered in the exam. Example: AWS CloudTrail FAQ.
Only watch videos when you need to refresh your knowledge on a topic or a quick introduction to a service. Study mostly from practice exams.
The day of the exam don’t study. Save your energy for the exam.
Take the exam on a test center. There you don’t have to worry about personal computer or network failures.
Be careful of keywords such as “most cost-effective”, “less operational overhead”, “solve the issue right now”, “most secure”. All the answers could be right, but there’s only one that solves the problem best. Search for keywords to narrow down the possible correct options.
Summary
“Work backwards” from your weaknesses, try, learn, repeat, until you get a score of 75+ in practice exams. With this strategy I have achieved the Solutions Architect Professional, Devops Professional, and Security Specialty with ~1 month of preparation each.
Resources I used to prepare for the AWS Pro Certifications:
AWS Solutions Architect Professional
AWS DevOps Engineer Professional
Good luck!
