Passing the AWS developer certificate course
Tags: aws, cloud
Published: 2021-06-30 00:39:49

## Context
- My company (Appian) provides a generous offering of ~$7,000 AUD per year for self-study. The catch though is you have to  pass in order to receive the full subsidy.
- For a while now, I've been eyeing for this certification, finally comited and booked the exam with 2 months to study for it.
- Did the studying outside of work (this involved nights and weekends).

## Study plan
### Lectures
- Started to watch Stephanie Maarek's [Ultimate AWS Certified Developer Associate 2021 - NEW!](https://appian.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-developer-associate-dva-c01/learn/lecture/12203058?start=0#overview)
- For the first few weeks, I watched the lectures and did the follow along. 
- The pace though was a bit slow so by week 4 / half way, I only finished around 30% of the course content.
- To speed things up, I skipped the follow along and watch the videos on 2x speed (sometimes 3x with the javascript)
```javascript
document.querySelector('video').playbackRate = 3.0
```
- Did the above method for 3 weeks. With 1 week left, and around 80% done. I took 3 days of work off and watched the rest of it with 2 days to spare.

### Practice Papers
- On the last 2 days, I did 8 practice papers from Stephanie and Neal's practice papers on Udemy (see below). 
- The practice paper revision process was:
	1. Speed run the practice paper and see what area I was weak on.
	2. Do some revision (usually reviewing the lecture slides and these github notes)
	3. Practice the same test again to make sure I remember the mistakes and move on to the next test.
	Since the above process was to make sure I understand my content, I sped through each practice paper (completing them on average in 30 minutes - it's either I knew the answer or I don't).
- Near the end though, because of the time constraint, I just practice the paper without doing the revision. At this point I felt like I have a decent chance of passing the exam

- Score on each practice exam (I didn't do it in this order, rather a mix of both courses but generally starting from Practice Test 1 to 5)

- "[Practice Exams | AWS Certified Developer](https://appian.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-developer-associate-practice-tests-dva-c01/)" by Stephanie Maarek

	| Practice Test | Attempt | Reattempt|
	| --- | --- | --- |
	| Practice 1 | 66% | 95% |
	| Practice 2 | 70% | 93% |
	| Practice 3 | 70% | 90% |
	| Practice 4 | 80% | 89% |
	| Practice 5 | 81% | 95% |

- "[AWS Certified Developer Associate Practice Exam](https://appian.udemy.com/course/aws-developer-associate-practice-exams)" By Neal Davis

	| Practice Test | Attempt | Reattempt|
	| --- | --- | --- |
	| Practice 1 | 69% | - |
	| Practice 2 | 80% | 92% |
	| Practice 3 | 73% | - |
	| Practice 4 | 81% | - |
	
## Exam
- Booked in on-line with PSI, process was painless / pretty easy.
- Went to the in-person exam at Bella Vista , couldn't find parking though so glad I went in 4 hours early (Parked at Mcdonalds nearby and did some more practice papers before the test).
- The actual exam process was a computer and all the questions on a slide (UI was outdated and a bit laggy).
- Finished the exam in an hour.
## Results
- I passed the AWS developer associate exam with 905/1000.
- Got Appian to re-imburse the amount in full 😁.

Hope it helps! Feel free to ping me on twitter (@kndwindev) if you have any questions!