Passed AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner to close out 2020

JDMurray · December 2020

I passed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam yesterday with a score of 905/1000. It took me 32 minutes to make a first pass through the exam and another five minutes review a few of my answers. (This exam has a high likelihood of giving clues about how to answer some exam items from the information in other exams items, so the extra time spent may be worth it to you.)

The wording of the item stems is simple; even the scenario narratives are not very complex. (It is a fundamentals exam after all.) I didn't notice any nonsensical or fictitious information--although I did see one answer option that used the word "authentication" instead of the correct term "verification." If you know about AWS services, Cloud concepts, AWS Well-Architected Framework and AWS best practices then you can pretty much nail this exam. (Don't kid yourself; it's a LOT of information to ingest.)

For AWS CCP exam training, I noodled my way around several free training videos on YouTube and the free 6-hour course in AWS Training. I found many of these offerings to be more into entertainment and production values and less about presenting information in a succinct, palatable way--at least for my tastes.

I settled on $20 Black Friday special from Digital Cloud Training of six, 65-item AWS CCP practice exams and a 200-page study guide. I saw the DCT videos on YouTube and the material looked straight-forward, detailed, and with no extraneous glitz. Both the practice exams and guide contain material useful in many AWS exams. I will be referring back to this material when I tackle other AWS exams next year.

The DCT practice exams are very accurate to the form and function of the AWS CCP exam itself, but much more detailed and information-rich. In fact, I was rather concerned going into the CCP exam because I was only scoring in the low-70's on the DCT practice exams. However, only a few items into the actual CCP exam, I realized how much more challenging the DCT material was and forced me to study harder than I otherwise might have. The CCP exam itself actually seemed anti-climatic in comparison.

When you finish your AWS exam, you are presented with a PASS or FAIL but no score. Your score report is created after a back-office review of your exam results for fraud, to collect metrics, etc. You see your score, get your certificate, logo, etc. in the AWS Training and Certification Portal within five business days after your exam. (Mine appeared in less than a day.) There are also some additional perks to being an AWS certification holder that you will find in the portal and be emailed about too.

So what's next for me? I suppose the AWS Architect Associate is the logical next AWS cert, but I am really behind on learning (Sec)DevOps and maybe should consider the AWS Developer Associate cert first? But then there's AWS Security--hmmm...

TheWeatherman · December 2020

Congratulations on the new certification! How much time did you devote towards studying prior to sitting for the exam?

chrisone · December 2020

Wow awesome job! Congrats on the pass. Never too late to get a pass on a cert

itdept · December 2020

Congrats on the pass. Looks like a good score

JDMurray · December 2020

TheWeatherman said:

How much time did you devote towards studying prior to sitting for the exam?

Well, this is a very common question asked of anyone who passes any exam.

I did not track how much time I spent on actual study of AWS-related material specifically for this exam. My Cloud-knowledge baseline is that I have some hobbyist-level hands-on experience with AWS, I studied for the Cloud+ beta a few months ago, and (seemingly) randomly watched AWS videos over two months and did practice questions literally up until an hour before my exam.

Of course, how well I studied is something that can't be quantified. I'm not nearly as good a student as I would like to be.

nisti2 · December 2020

Congrats!! Thanks for sharing your resources!! !

RobertKaucher · December 2020

Well, well, well. It may have been close to a decade since I last signed in here but I am about to take this exam and I figured I would drop by and see if MAYBE any of the old crowd was still around. And look who I get to congratulate! Congratulations! I am happy to see you are still keeping this place going and helping to educate the world.

The system has informed me that I have earned the ANCIENT MEMBER badge. Don't tell my wife. She'll make inappropriate jokes.

JDMurray · December 2020

Hey Robert, welcome back!

Yes, I'm still here indulging in my favorite hobby. Are you getting snared by AWS too?

powerfool · August 2021

I crammed for the exam a couple of weeks ago and took it. I used Pluralsight, as I have access to it, but A Cloud Guru seems to be the preferred platform for AWS related content. I didn't see it beforehand, but AWS provides content, as well; I am unsure of the quality. If it is anything like MS Learn, it would be decent but still leave a lot to be desired. For those on the fence, another interesting item is that give you a 50% off discount on your next exam (if you are intending to go further); I am still unsure as I am primarily focused on Azure but having the foundations/fundamentals of other platforms is a nice value add.

Passed AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner to close out 2020

Comments