Passing AWS Cloud Practitioner

 I passed the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam 3 weeks, back I should I written a blog about it as soon as it got done. Better late than never. My goal was always to get AWS Solution Architect Associate, but it seemed too ambitious. I was not serious about it for a while, then last year Las Positas College was providing a cloud computing course. It was broken into 4 course, first 2 course was catered towards practitioner and next 2 towards Solution Architect Associate. This Spring, the next 2 courses did not happen for whatever reason. I was kind of stuck now, so I decided to focus on Practitioner.

First to prepare, I wanted to get a book that would provide the exact curriculum with reading material. I just cannot focus 100% when the recorded video is on. So I reached out to my professor in Las Positas Debbie Fields and she suggested "AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Study Guide" by Ben Piper and David Clinton, It is a Sybex publisher.  Then I signed up for some practice tests Udemy. I read the book and was giving the paper tests. My scores were not that great, I was at 50%. The problem is the assumptions that we have made based on the past experience hinders the decision making in the test. One of my running buddies is to assume our instinct is wrong and think how AWS would want to approach the problem.

Based on all these I started giving more tests o Udemy and those were very helpful, it tells you the reason why a particular answer is wrong. Once I started getting good scores on Udemy test, then I started practicing the test from the book again. I marked every page and every sentence that I felt was important. I also read thru their product whitepaper, which I feel is very important. Many questions are from those, last week of the test, I should have read the product whitepaper again. There were many questions that were not in Udemy or in the book appeared on test, couple of them I could guess based on the eliminating the wrong ones. Once I was comfortable having practices the tests enough, I was scheduled the exam 36 hours in advance. 

The test was scheduled for 10:00PM, that is only time I can operate in peace without the children entering the room. Prior to test, you have to download the Pearson software and test it out. One of the prerequisites for taking the test at home is no one should be entering the room. I had to login to the Pearson website, there is person or I would say guard waiting for you online. You have to switch on the camera and show the room, desk, and everything else. I had remove my desk phone, some post it drawings of my daughters. These guys are very thorough, made sure I don't have a second monitor or anything on the wall, there is no chance for anyone to copy. I think these folks are in India, and this is the future of tests now. Colleges can conduct the same, it might just cost them 10$ per hours in India.

Proceeding to Test, I was very nervous, the first question was easy, then somewhere along the line there were questions I had practiced, I flagged them and completed the ones that I was confident about. The language in the real test and ones in the practice tests are not the same, it takes a while to co-relate them. While taking the tests I you moved, the examiner would ask you to be in the center. I normally keep my hands on my face when I am thinking, that is totally not allowed. Somehow or the other I got thru it and reviewed all my flagged question, I was able to answer most of them and finally clicked Submit, the result said I passed.

I am proud of myself, though it is not solution architect yet, it has given me the confidence to proceed further. I will post once I clear that too. If someone has question on Practitioner, I think I can give advise to them. About the book, as soon as I posted my result, once of my office buddies dropped by that week and picked it up.