AWS Certified Security Specialty - Beta

GoHawks

I received the email that AWS has finally made available the new attempt at their beta version of the Security Specialty exam. Did anyone else receive the invite and/or is planning on attempting the beta? I signed up for the latest exam date I could to maximize the amount of study time that I have. For those who may be taking the exam what is your study plan?

JoJoCal19

This is great news! I've started on AWS certs and was hoping this one would be back soon. Going to do CCP>CSAA>Security Specialty.

Kinet1c

Signed up for this as well. Going to use the Linux Academy AWS Security Essentials and Advanced AWS Security courses before taking it in a few weeks.

Kinet1c

There were a lot of KMS questions on the exam. Can't see myself passing so will be utilising that free voucher for when the exam comes out of beta.

Clm

Kinet1c wrote: »

There were a lot of KMS questions on the exam. Can't see myself passing so will be utilising that free voucher for when the exam comes out of beta.

Same thing im doing not alot of solid materials to study to say im confident ill passs but i will crush it the next go around.

JoJoCal19

I'm still studying for this. Ended up bumping my exam from the 22nd to the 1st. Will make sure to put a lot of effort into KMS. I know ACG has like 4 different KMS videos. So far the material is sinking in really well. Of all the certs I've studied for, AWS seems to sink in the best. Maybe due to its practical and hands on nature, maybe its the way Ryan explains it.

Clm

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

I'm still studying for this. Ended up bumping my exam from the 22nd to the 1st. Will make sure to put a lot of effort into KMS. I know ACG has like 4 different KMS videos. So far the material is sinking in really well. Of all the certs I've studied for, AWS seems to sink in the best. Maybe due to its practical and hands on nature, maybe its the way Ryan explains it.

Ryan is good i used his class for my exam but a week before i passed i found this course which was awesome too

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate - Mastery 2018

cochi78

I experienced a lot of questions around IAM/S3 Bucket Policies as well as a diverse set of incident response questions (how to handle a certain dDoS, how to work with a hacked machine etc). Overall a very enjoyable experience and a lot less ambiguity compared to the other AWS exams I experienced. The intricacies of KMS/CMK and imported key material are important as well.

Concerning the acloud.guru Security course, I was rather disappointed. There were a lot of missed video cuts (restarting a sentence, obviously planned to cut out the previous try; once even clearly having skipped a part of the lecture in the middle). Additionally, I expect a security specialty prep course to NOT repeat the entire segment on how a VPC is created. After all, one should've worked through that on the Associate exams anyway. TBH I found that to be the worst ACG course so far.

Sorry Ryan, always recommending you in my classes. But that one needs serious rework.

lacagrl17

This security course is a good introduction to some of the services: https://linuxacademy.com/amazon-web-services/training/course/name/aws-security-essentials

Kinet1c

lacagrl17 wrote: »

Woops, linked the wrong one up there: https://linuxacademy.com/amazon-web-services/training/course/name/aws-security-essentials

It's good but it's not enough to pass the beta exam. It does not dive in to the topics deep enough. LA will say this themselves.

lacagrl17

The course wasn’t intended for this exam, but it does give background on many of the services. Some great resources to supplement the course to take the exam are the AWS white papers, and re:invent videos.