It turns out… you can teach an old dog new tricks

Written By Guest User

How I learned to stop worrying and love the AWS Academy

Mark Johnson

Synopsis

Last year I discovered that a group of my colleagues had started studying towards their AWS Cloud Practitioner certification and I thought “I want me some of that”. Well actually I didn’t, but FOMO kicked in and I didn't want to be left behind. This blog post is intended to give a bit of background to the AWS Academy at PartsTrader, my experience being part of it, and some tips and tricks for people who may want to pursue AWS certifications.

 

What is it?

First rule of the AWS Academy….”Everybody talks about the AWS Academy”, in fact, try shutting them up.

The academy was set up to provide a collaborative learning environment for people interested in attaining some of the various AWS certifications that are on offer (there are a lot to choose from). The Academy operates as an informal gathering, usually via a weekly 30 minute Microsoft Teams meeting, where you can share what you have learned, run through practice exams, or tell really bad dad jokes.

While you don't need to join the Academy if you are pursuing AWS certification, I highly recommend it as I learned a lot from my fellow attendees, and it allowed us to share resources such as practice exams.

 

AWS Certification what’s in it for me?

Glory? Bragging rights? A shiny badge? The opportunity to use the laminator? Well actually, all of these things, but really for me, it is a greater awareness of what tools, technologies, and services AWS has to offer, an understanding of how and when to use them, and finally the confidence to just jump in and start building stuff in AWS.

We have such a wealth of technology at our fingertips, it would be remiss of us if we didn’t take any and every opportunity to start leveraging it. Not everything in AWS is gold, in fact there’s plenty (especially newly released stuff) that is seriously meh, but for a lot of what we do here at PartsTrader, there’s some seriously cool and fun tech in AWS.

For me too, there is a real enjoyment in learning things in a group, sharing the confusion, the “I get it now” moments, and partaking in the witty banter that usually flies around these shared sessions (especially Alistair Grant's dad jokes).

 

How do I join?

That bit is easy, just jump onto the company’s AWS Academy Slack Channel, from here you can connect with a wide group of your colleagues who are working their way through the various AWS certifications. If you want some first-hand war stories about the certification experience, just reach out to some of the AWS Academy OGs, Lisa Taylor, Alistair Grant, or Daniel Hardie.

 

Study and exam tips

Apart from joining the AWS Academy, my first study tip would be to sign up for the appropriate certification exam before you even start studying, there's nothing quite like the terror of a pending exam to focus the mind. Don’t give yourself too much time between starting your study, and sitting the exam either. There is a lot of material covered in these certifications, if you leave it too long, you will find that you have forgotten a lot of the early course material. I would suggest considering the following timeframes:

  • Cloud Practitioner - six to eight weeks

  • Developer Associate - eight to twelve weeks

Of course these timeframes will be dependent on how much time you can dedicate to your studies but as you can reschedule a booked exam up to two times for free, I would still recommend choosing a shorter timeframe.

While it’s not required, I would recommend starting with the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification. This certification will give you a high-level understanding of key AWS services, and will take you deeper than you will ever want to go into the arcane science of AWS billing. It is a good gateway certification to get you into the groove, and also help you establish a study pattern.

Other tips:

  1. Ensure you attend the weekly AWS Academy catch-ups

  2. Purchase at least one online course, we each have an annual training budget of $1,000.00 , make good use of it. There is a list at the end of this post of courses that a number of us have used

  3. Either purchase a set of practice exams (from Udemy or elsewhere), or attend an AWS Academy ride-along. Again there is a list at the end of this post of practice exams that a number of us have used

  4. Use your weekly two-hour time allocation for professional development to study

  5. Use the free digital training courses provided via the relevant Ramp-up guides (see Training Resources below)

Due to the sheer volume of material covered by the certifications, it is likely that you will need to commit a few hours of your own time per week to your studies

 

Booking an exam

Those of us who have been through the certification process to date have used Pearson VUE who in turn use ACE Training as their local exam administrator. To book your exam visit AWS training and certification. You will need to log in using an Amazon account (not your AWS account). The exams cost money, so either pay for them yourself and submit an expense claim, or grab a credit card off your leader. At the time of writing, the exam costs were:

  • Certified Cloud Practitioner: US$ 100.00

  • Associate-level exams: US$ 150.00

Passing an exam should give you some benefits, including a 50% discount on your next exam. This means that, as the Cloud Practitioner is the cheapest exam, passing this first should get you on a cycle of discounts for any subsequent Associate-level exams.

 

What are the exams like?

As someone who has never enjoyed exams, the AWS certification exams met my every expectation.

Both exams I have sat so far followed a similar format:

  • 65 multi-choice questions

  • 100 minutes (Cloud Practitioner) to 140 minutes (Developer Associate) in length

  • The required pass mark is 70%

  • You find out as soon as you submit your exam if you have passed

The exams are a mixture of single answer and multi-answer (usually two answers required) multi-choice questions. Unfortunately, for the questions that require the selection of two or more answers, you don’t get a partial credit if only one of your answers is correct.

As you progress through the exam, you can flag questions for review before you submit your final exam. I highly recommend doing this rather than spending too much time dwelling on a single question. The time allowance for the exams is generous, so you should have plenty of time to review your answers.

Pay very close attention to the language used in the questions, quite often there will be one or two key terms or phrases in the question that will help point to the most appropriate answer(s). You will encounter questions where it might seem that there is more than one possible answer (this applies to both the single answer and multi answer questions), this is where re-reading the question and identifying the key terms and phrases will help.

Don’t overthink things, there will a good number of questions where the answer seems really obvious…..that’s because it is.

 

Training Resources

There are myriad training resources available for learning what you need in order to pass the various AWS certification exams. The ones that the initial AWS academy cohort used consisted of AWS Ramp-up Guides, online courses from Udemy, and practice exams from Udemy.

The AWS ramp-up guides provide a useful plan and structure for covering the areas of knowledge you will need in order to pass the exam(s). The guides comprise a mixture of web pages, videos, white-papers, and free digital training (usually provided through the Self-paced digital training on AWS - AWS Skill Builder platform).

 
 

Cloud Practitioner

Developer Associate

You will find quite a bit of overlap between the Developer Associate material and the Cloud Practitioner material. However, the developer course will cover any common areas in much more depth

Solutions Architect Associate

This is the latest certification that some of us are pursuing so as of the time of writing this, no-one has completed the course or sat the exam. This certification looks to build on the knowledge gained from the Developer Associate certification.

Summary

Just do it!

Mark Johnson

PartsTrader ‘Old Dog’

Guest User
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