Jamal Hansen

A couple of months ago I decided that I wanted to know more about AWS Glue and other related AWS data services. I have the AWS Solutions Architect - Associate certification, and it made sense that in order to learn AWS Data Engineering, I would attempt the related AWS Associate (DEA-C01) Certification.

AWS Certifications are fairly straightforward, you study, register to take the exam, pay the fee, and then on the day you go to the test site and take the exam.

The exams that I have taken are 65 questions in length. Fifty of the questions will count towards your final score, while the remaining 15 questions are not counted towards your grade. Instead, Amazon uses them to try out new questions or other things that I don’t know about.

The questions are multiple choice and for the most part a single selection is correct, though there are some instances where you select more than one answer. Like most multiple choice standardized tests, the questions are written to be harder than you might think. They can cause you to second guess yourself and can take some time to really understand what the question is asking you.

I have studied the past couple of months; learned about a variety of AWS services particularly data related ones like AWS Glue, AWS EMR, Amazon Kinesis, and AWS QuickSight. I feel like I have learned quite a bit about these services and have completed labs that have helped to drive home the concepts.

I’ve registered for the exam this coming Friday and in an effort to cement my commitment to that date, I’ve announced publicly my intent to take the test on that date.

Now, I’m five days away and I’m doubting my ability to pass the exam. Part of that is driven by my continued setbacks passing practice tests. I’ve used a few resources to study for the exam:

These were all good resources and I would recommend them to others looking to learn about Data Engineering on AWS or preparing to take the certification exam.

I stared with the first resource, worked my way through the content, took notes, and reviewed notes in the form of flashcards until I finished and felt good about my knowledge and passed the practice exam.

Then I moved on to the next resource and repeated the process. At first I was surprised by how poorly I did on the practice exam for the second resource. the questions were phrased differently, the content focused on different aspects of the content. But I proceeded with learning the areas where I was weak until I was able to consistently pass the practice exam.

Today I moved on to the third resource and am experiencing the same. I am now faced with another way to phrase the questions and my first attempt resulted with a mere 56% success rate on the 25 question exam.

..and I’m concerned that I won’t pass this Friday’s test.

But I will be working this week to study and be as ready as I can be. Wish me luck!

I test for the AWS Data Engineer Associate Certification in five days

...and I'm not sure that I'm ready