How I passed AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner with 986 in 45 days

Is AWS CCP certification on your mind? Are you in a quest to find the answers to the following questions: “How long would it take to be ready to sit the AWS CCP Certification? How tough would it be to pass the certification without prior relevant experience? Is Hands on experience really necessary to pass the exam? Is it possible to pass the exam with flying colours even for someone from Non IT Back ground? What are some reliable courses? When is the right time to register for the exam / How do you know if you are ready for the exam? How to stay motivated?”. Here in this article I attempt to address all of these questions and I hope you find this useful.
Before moving further, I would like to provide you with my background. I am a Mainframe Developer with 11 years of experience in software development and maintenance. I worked with clients in Banking Domain, Airline Domain and Telecom Domain. I was picked by my employer to get certified in AWS CCP as part of a program to prepare the employees for future. I do not know what was the criteria for selecting me for organisation wide program but I thought it was something to do with my contribution to the organisation in my current positions. I did not achieve distinction in my undergraduate studies and scored only 68% and in my 12th I scored 91%. I hope this little academic background can help you assess my skills and abilities. However I scored 986 in AWS CCP after preparation for about 45 days. My score is quite decent for someone who has not achieved much in academics. If I could do it in 45 days then you too can and in a much lesser time.
After I was selected for the organisation wide program, I was given only two months to complete the certification. My company offered me Udemy courses. Soon I signed up for Stephane Maarek‘s course on Udemy. I started going through the videos the very first day. But in the very first week I have hit the road blocks because the topics appeared dry. I had no clue how the course was laid out. Probably I should have gone through the index to see how the course was structured. I didn’t have a clue as to why the topics were being taught in the manner they were taught. Slowly I began to lose interest. After a week had passed I knew I was not doing well on the course. So I started taking notes from second week until the 3th week when I realised I was not on track. I was going through the course at a snail’s pace because I took notes of each and every detail. This was not helping me and so I took another approach. I started browsing the AWS Site. Every day I would copy important lines of each service and document them in a spreadsheet. After a week I started reading them and tested if I could recollect the material. Again I was finding it tough to remember what I noted down. There was one topic that I found difficult to understand and that was SQS (It was very simple but didn’t make much sense because I did not know about Microservices). So I looked up Youtube to see if there were any videos with a better explanation. That was when I discovered Neal Davis’s course. His explanations made so much sense. I quickly signed up for his course on Udemy. But this time I took notes selectively. I noted down only the important points. I felt happy for having found his course but I was unhappy with the result I got with the first practice test. I googled all the questions on the practice test and attempted the course and yet scored only 72%. But by then there were many topics yet to be learnt. I continued with the course and once I completed Neal’s course I felt I knew something about Cloud Computing. I again looked up Youtube to see the comparison between Stephane’s and Neal’s course. A Youtube video taught me that in order to score high on the test one should sign up Stephane’s course but to understand the concepts thoroughly, Neal’s course would be more useful. So I went back to Stephane’s course but this time I glanced at the index of the course and found that it had a structure that I failed to recognise the first time. I then booked my AWS CCP certifications with about 2 weeks to go.
I started taking practice tests and was scoring in the mid-seventies. I used to review the wrong answers and would re take the test. On retakes I was scoring above 90% and was happy with the scores I received. I took about 12 practice tests on Udemy and scored almost between 75% and 85%. That was when I gained confidence that I could pass the certification. When the test day arrived, I had no tension because of the scores I received. On the test I found the questions to be pretty straight forward asking to select the service that addresses the use case presented. I felt relieved after about half an hour into the test realising that I was doing pretty well on the test. Before I looked at the options I would guess the answer and then proceed with marking the right answer. I marked some for review and by the time I reached the end of the test there was so much time still left because while registering for the test I requested for additional half an hour available for non-native speakers of English. I reviewed all the marked ones and then all the questions again and was still left out with half an hour. I then submitted the exam and breathed a sigh of relief seeing ‘Passed’ on the screen. I thought my score would be somewhere in the nineties. Once I received my score, 986, I felt ecstatic and shared my tips on my company’s portal for future test takers. Here are some points that could help you with your preparation

1. Sign up for Stephane’s course on Udemy. It covers all the topics tested on the exam and so would suffice to pass the exam. If you can sign up for Neal’s course then that is an added advantage. But Stephane’s course is enough and you don’t need anything else. There are other courses about which I am not aware of. Do some research. You would find a few more good resources
2. If possible, attend AWS Bootcamps (I attended 8 hour AWS Bootcamp that helped me understand the topics very well. However I felt that it would not be enough to pass the examination. This was arranged by my company and so it was free of charge)
3. Do not register for the test before completing the preparation. You might end up postponing the test. But if you are the type who would only prepare thoroughly if there was pressure then you can book the test and then prepare. Make sure to request for additional Half an hour if you are a non-native speaker of English
4. Deadlines are a must as they ensure that you prepare regularly. So set some deadlines and achieve them
5. Two to four weeks of preparation would be enough for AWS CCP Certification (I would spend one hour each day and sit for extended time on weekends)
6. Study how the course is structured
7. Watch all the videos of the course at-least two to three times
8. Do not take notes of every detail. Course has an option to download PPTs. So note taking would only mean reinventing the wheel. If you still think your notes will help then stick to important ones only. This will help when you revise the concepts learnt
9. Go to https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/ Study the one liner descriptions of all the services. You can also prepare one liners by going to AWS Site dedicated for each service. I would highly recommend preparing one or two liners because you will see questions based on the definitions. Example: Go to https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/ and note down one liner definitions
10. Practice tests will help you understand whether you are ready to sit the test. Anything between 80% and above is perhaps good indicator of passing the certification
11. Take Practice tests (6 on Udemy are enough), not more than thrice each and review all the questions and read the given explanations. I reviewed only the wrong questions and still scored high on the main test. I would however advise you to review all
12. Read more than thrice on different days the explanations for the questions you answered incorrectly
13. Watch the videos every day without fail, take practice tests and review the questions to score high on the test.
14. You don’t need relevant experience if you are from Non IT background because there are a couple of videos on what Cloud Computing is all about. This is enough to understand how business firms deliver their solutions through IT infrastructure
15. Hands on experience is always recommended. Try having hands on experience but it is not mandatory for passing the test
16. Hands on practice, watching videos/articles about cloud computing, recent trends and blog posts and joining twitter spaces on Cloud Computing can help you stay motivated.

All the very best for your exam.