AWS Data Engineer Associate Certification Test - Take 2

This morning I woke up early and drove over to the Pearson Vue testing center early. It is a Friday, but I took the day off from work to take take the AWS Data Engineer Associate Certification Test. I took it for the second time today. Clearly I did not pass the test the first time.

I don’t know at this point if I’ve passed the test this time, or not. In my experience it generally takes until the end of the day to receive the results of an AWS certification test. I took the test this morning at 8 am and an finished around 2 hours later. Now it’s almost 1 in the afternoon and I’ve had a little time to think about my experience.

Comparing today’s experience taking the test with my previous experience a couple things stand out as the same, and a couple seem different.

I’ll start out with the similarities. First the testing center. It’s a perfectly functional testing center, built into a small office on the third floor of a small office building. I’ve taken a handful of exams here and I associate it with testing anxiety and being quiet so you don’t disturb the other folks taking exams.

From what I’ve gathered there are a wide variety of exams proctored here from real estate, to auditing, to well anything you can get a certification in.

I brought my passport again. The certification guide says that I need two forms of ID. I’m pretty sure that a driver’s license and a credit card with my name on it would suffice, but I’m not willing to take that chance. So I bring my passport with me. I’ve thought of trying the driver’s license and another form of ID, but since I have to hand over my belongings to take the test, I would feel silly handing over a credit card when I’m holding my passport. Maybe I’ll test this theory at some point.

I received the 2 laminated sheets of paper and dry (wet?) erase pens. I understand that I’m allowed to write on these, but not allowed to erase. Seems like an odd rule. I don’t even know what I would write on these plastic sheets.

The exam itself has flagging and review mechanisms built in, so I don’t need to write down questions to return to. I’m sure there are some test taking strategies that use these sheets. I don’t know what it is, and I don’t want to have to worry about writing down the wrong thing.. whatever that might be.. and nullifying my score. I just don’t use them.

As for differences, this time I was far more relaxed about the time. Last time I got really paranoid about not finishing in time and though I did finish, I only had minutes left on the clock. This time I finished with about 15 minutes faster, but wasn’t stressing the time along the way.

Last time, because I was worried about time, I started flagging questions I was spending a long time on and then coming back to them when done. This is a strategy I’ve heard recommended by a few folks. Last time I decided to do it about half way through. This time I just went into the test with this strategy in mind. I flagged one early on and kept moving. Then came back at the end and reviewed all my flagged questions. Oddly enough, I only flagged 4 of the 65 questions. I was honestly surprised that the number was so low when I saw it.

I also feel more calm this time, while I don’t know if I passed or not, the questions didn’t seem as difficult. I believe that I passed the test, but I could be wrong.

In any case I have about 7-8 hours until I expect to have my results. I’ll probably edit in my actual results at the end of this post.

I hope that you are achieving your goals and passing whatever exams you are taking. Enjoy your weekend.

5 PM Edit: I passed!!