It is an immense pleasure to announce that recently I passed AWS Certified Solution Architect – Associate exam.
I choose to have AWS certified because I have some working exposure on AWS while working on my some freelancing clients/project in past. AWS is also a leading cloud provider and so I decided to go for AWS Certification.
Meantime, It was one of the reason I was less active on my Blog and couldn’t gave enough time to my lovely daughters. Lets have a look at exam general information and then I will share few tips or my journey to become AWS Certified-
- Exam: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (AWS SAA-C01)
- Total Questions: 65
- Exam Duration: 130 mins (average 2 mins per question)
- Exam format: Multiple choice ( no -ve marking )
- Exam Cost: $150 + £30 Vat = $180
- Passing score: 720 ( 100 to 1000 scale)
- Exam Content: refer Blueprint here.
Once you finished answering all 65 questions and click on end test, some feedback questions being asked and finally you end exam. In my case , after finishing exam , I didnt see my score (or pass/fail) but saw some ‘Congratulations…‘ message on screen but not sure whether its
because I passed exam or for completing the exam.
Its not allowing me to sleep and I Googled and found that if you pass exam then Congratulations.. message appeared on screen else Thanking you.. message appreaed.
Also they said that Result will take max 5 working days but I got my result in 24 hours. It been update in AWS training account and same day evening I got email regarding I passed exam.
How did I study ?
I started around February and prepared the daily study schedule. It took almost 5 months (including daily official work and family time (hoping my better half not reading this blog :).
- First I purchased official AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide and I prepared a schedule to read all chapters.
- while reading I completed All Labs exercise given at end of each chapter.
- then I referred ACG ( A cloud Guru )
- then I referred A Linux Academy. Both ACG and LA are good.
- 2-3 weeks before apperaing for final exam, I used WhizLabs practice test series. The explanation given for Right and wrong answer(s) definately help a lot.
- also while reading official Study Guide, I made my own notes specially on VPC, S3, ELB and Security Pillar.
I haven’t gone through White Papers as thoroughly as supposed to be. I belive if you did enough practicals/Labs its help you tunderstand what you read/studied and you really dont need to Remember anything , Hands-on lab helps make your concepts crystall clear and boost confidence.
I would suggest read question carefully and first try to find the keywords like “Cost Effective” or “fault tolerant” etc then next step to eliminate wrong choices first and then choose best one from remaining options.
For tough or doubtful questions , Flag them and re-visit those questions at end of exam.
In my case some prior expereince on AWS also help me to relate the thing while studying (but not necessary)
I passed exam with 80.40%. On final note, stay Focused on your day to day scheduled objectives and take your own time. Dont prepare for too long, ideally 4 months are enough and keep your mind fresh. Must go though practice test(s) before final exam.
Last but not least , Thanks to my friend Mohan T Babu (thangamo) who insisted and motivated me to go for Certification. This is my 1st certification I could have ever appreaed and passed in first attempt and my elder daughter, Swastika who remind me every evening to do good-study.
Stay tuned for more exting stuff and Have a Good Luck !!!
anupam pawar 