Good Morning Fellow Aspiring Cloud Computing Engineers / Wizards.
I hope you are all well,
I wanted to assist anyone new to the AWS Cloud Computing Industry, Much like myself and Give a few Pointers where I can and how I achieved all 3 AWS Associate Certifications in 2 Months. (Time Between Each Certification Attempt)
WHO IS DEVON PATRICK ADKINS
First a small background into my IT Experience, I have been working from the age of 18 to date, which is roughly about 10 Years Experience, having achieved my Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer Certification in November 2008, I worked my way up from Helpdesk to where I found a new Passion NETWORKING, I completed my CCNA back in 2017, and until just recently 3 months ago was appointed as a AWS Support Engineer at Silicon Overdrive.
I was always a very curious person wondering how systems were worked, so I would open up my Packard Bell 286Mhz Machine and learn from the bare basics on what Ram was, a Hard Drive, a Graphics Card and so on, I loved Challenges and I found those mainly in Chess and 2D Point and Click Adventure Games, when a specific game would not launch, my love for tech spurred and grew me into the Engineer I am today.
Back to AWS -- SysOps Administrator Associate Experience
So one of my Probation Requirements for my Post was to tackle the AWS SysOps Certification, which at the time I had no Idea was the hardest of the Associate Certifications in the Series. This was the new Revision (SOA-C02) Exam which included the Exam Labs.
I was quite fortunate that my Company provided me access to most of the learning platforms available today, such as (Udemy, acloud guru, WhizLabs, Tutorial Dojo) at round about the Same time I was selected to be an AWS Community Builders Program. Which was a dream come true. Everything seemed to click into place and my Passion for AWS flared even more. With said Program, we were given quite a few benefits, Including access to 12 Month Cloud Academy Subscription. This is truly what helped me as Cloud Academy has an Array of Labs after they teach you a module or subject matter and you cannot proceed until you are complete with said part. What was also a great takeaway is they have a Support Team that could assist you, if you were struggling too complete as specific Subject matter like myself with (AWS WAF) for example.
I completed the Video Course and my Notes in 5 Weeks and then tackled the exam. My first Result was a Fail, The Exam is 180 Mins long and you can get fatigued very quickly as each of the questions require you to have a very Granular level understanding of how not just a given service works, but what solution you can put together to help remediate a issue a client has in Production.
Again this is where the Community Builder Program helped once more, Talking to Like Minded People, Having engaged and Shared Notes with People, helped me where I had some weak points and vice versa. I managed to Pass the Exam in my following attempt.
So total study time was about 7 - 8 Weeks, I must stress especially if you were new to AWS like myself, LABBING is incredibly important, so don't just use the Practice Exams to scope out why you were wrong, I would also recommend you to build the scenario in your own Personal AWS Account and actually resolve the issue, the brain is able to understand things more in this fashion then just parroting a given question and Answer. Needless to say this was a Beast of an Exam and I would really promote studying in Group to get this one completed and USE MULTIPLE RESOURCES.
Next up was the Solutions Architect Examination
So the first thing I do, before taking on any exam is looking at the examination Blue Print (Exam Guide) and you will notice that there is about 60 - 70% content overlap with the SysOps Administrator Associate Certification. Infact, I would rather recommend tackling this exam first, before doing the SysOps, having failed the SysOps really got my Confidence down after working so hard to pass an exam, but its vital to remember, its AWS's Recommendation that you first have 12 Months Hands on Experience prior to tackling any of the Associate Certifications.
I put myself on quite a strict Regime', getting up at 3am and studying for 4 Hours, then Gym for an hour and then Getting ready for the work day and setting a strict bed time to ensure 8 Hours sleep. Rest is Very Important! So with this exam I went through the Cloud Academy Content that helped me fill gaps I had with specific subject matters and completed their Certification of Completion, I booked my exam and then Passed 2 Weeks after obtaining my SysOps Certification and Quite Well too.
Last but not Least the AWS Developer Associate Certification
I would say in my opinion - this was the most Difficult of all 3 certificates I had taken, as too my surprise come exam day, there were alot of questions, I felt I had not saw on the Examination Blueprint, however (https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-developer-associate/) if you take a look at the exam guide there are 15 Questions that are put into the exam for R&D Purposes, this helps with new exam revisions. They state specifically as in the above URL, there are 50 Questions actually that will be scored and weighted out of 1000. So be careful not rely on a single resource, I used every single Resource I had to pass this exam and I barely passed it as my Programming Knowledge, Certification to date are purely academic. Which is why I felt this exam was the most difficult. I spoke with a number of individuals that had passed this exam and everyone has a different approach of what works for them.
So in a Nutshell even though I passed all 3 associate certificates in 2 Months, My Actual Study time was 4 Months. These exams are not easy and they are pricey. I IMPLORE you as well, not to fall victim to exam dumps, besides de-valuing the certifications we work very hard to obtain, there is a difference from having a piece of paper and actually knowing how to answer real world Solutions and that is what AWS is about.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to Reach out to me via email, or LinkedIn. I will be happy to assist you in any which way I can.
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