Top 10 Tips to help you achieve the AWS Cloud Certification Practitioner Exam.

A certified Cloud Practitioner is a person who has the knowledge and expertise to demonstrate an understanding of the cloud services. It demonstrates that you have an overall understanding of all the processes in the cloud. Cloud Computing Practitioner Exam is one of the most basic platforms that have to offer cloud certifications, including the ones like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure.

Here, I am going to talk about the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam, which I have cleared in a week in my very first attempt. I could achieved this after working on AWS for a month and nothing more. It is an accessible exam for anyone who has an interest in technology and IT. This certificate is of benefit for not just the IT experts but also for the non-technical professionals who wants to start their cloud career.

The AWS CCP exam is considered as the easiest one in all the AWS certification tracks. There are 65 multiple choice questions in the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam with no negative marking. You will have to perform all of them in a time of 90 minutes. This certification has a passing criteria of 700 scores (70%) ranging between 100 to 1000. However, to pass it in the very first attempt, one has to prepare accordingly to the demands of the exam as, without preparation, you can not clear any AWS exam.

The following are some tips on how one can clear the exam.

1. Start with AWS Training Lessons.

Here are three AWS Training courses that will introduce and help you grow your understanding about what AWS cloud is all about .

AWS Technical Essentials: This course enlightens you about AWS services, goods, and some commonplace solutions.
AWS Business Essentials: AWS Business Essentials supports candidates who want to know about the advantages of cloud computing, plus monetary profits and cloud-based approaches to help people crack business goals. This course even advises you about safety and acquiescence concepts and helps you understand AWS cloud computing approach.
AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials: This course caters to candidates who want to get a complete understanding of AWS Cloud. This course comprises cloud concepts, AWS amenities, pricing, architecture, security, and support.

2. Go through The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam Guide.

One must start preparing for the exam through this guide if one wants to have complete knowledge of the exam content. It enables you to have a sound understanding of the key concepts and the objectives of the exam. The guide allows you to concentrate on the main areas of the course book. It provides you with all the requirements of the exam and prepares one for the same.

3. Digest the Subject Areas.

The subject areas in the domains of AWS cloud practitioner examination are:

Cloud Concepts: Constitutes 28% of the exam.
Security: Constitutes 24% of the exam.
Technology: Constitutes 36% of the exam
Billing & Pricing: Make up 12% of the entire exam content.

While preparing, keeping these domains in mind gives you a better understanding of what the exam will be about and what you must be preparing for in the preparation session. Give importance to the domains which has higher percentage coverage more but do not neglect the lesser one. All the four domains should be given equal importance irrespective of the percentage coverage.

4. Go through The AWS Whitepapers.

Besides the above mentioned, some of the popular AWS Whitepapers that can most probably help you in getting a proper preparation of the AWS CCP certification exam are as given below:

Overview of AWS
How AWS pricing works
AWS Security best practices
AWS Well-Architected Framework
The business Value of AWS

Going through these whitepapers will allow you to be clear about what the certification will include and what you must be looking out to prepare. You must be centered on the ideas of the main concepts and topics in the AWS cloud world.

5. Do Free Online Courses from Youtube.

Besides the AWS Material one should look for free online courses and some training on the AWS CCP examination to grab the concepts even better. These online courses and training will give you a better understanding of the key concepts and will improve your chance of clearing the certification exam more easily. However, one should me mindful of the fact that the internet is overloaded with information. Hence, one should restrict with limited resource for study.

Also if possible get hold of free practice exams from the internet/youtube, to test your understanding and preparedness. You can also re-attempt the assessments test given after each AWS Cloud Practitioner essentials training modules and other training modules as well. Though, they are not the real test questions, these will prepare you mentally and will give you much needed confidence.

6. Book the Exam before-hand and have a Study Plan accordingly.

After going through and having better understanding of the syllabus and the exam patterns, book the exam before-hand to give yourself sufficient preparation time. And then make a study plan accordingly. This is very important because it will enable you to concentrate better, will make you more dedicated and will automatically propel you to test your limits. Appear in the exam once you have completely cleared and covered the subjects and domains of the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification exam.

7. Know the demands of the Exam and limit the resources.

Don’t always go for knowledge hunting all the time. Try to limit the content, keeping in mind the demands of the exam. Because, each concept and topic is very vast and a study in itself. Therefore, one has to focus on clearing the exam first and knowledge gaining should be left out as something which is always in process.

And also, one should limit the resources from where one is studying. This will enable you to do revision more frequently and save lots of valuable time. Multiple sources will most of the times create confusion and doubt. Rather limit your resources and revise them multiple times to have a better understanding and clarity.

8. Don’t Ingore Hands-On.

While preparing for the exam, one has the tendency to read and absorb knowledge from all the available resources and neglect the hands-on. However, Hands-on should be done more as it helps you to understand and remember the various AWS cloud services and practices. Moreover, it helps in cementing your theoretical knowledge further and gives you deeper understanding. These hands-on session also helps you in tackling application based questions during the exam more accurately rather than having a wild guess.

9. Exam Day dos and don’ts.

Don’t rush with the question, read it carefully to understand exactly what is asked before you begin with your answer.
Attempt the test by first answering the questions you are sure about. Tackle the simplest problems first.
Since, there is no negative marking an intelligent guess should be made and all questions should be attempted. This will enhance your chance of increasing your score and clearing the exam.

10. Confidence, self belief is a must.

Last but not the least, a good level of confidence is a prerequisite for completion of any task. Thus, in this exam also confidence and self belief plays a very crucial role. Since, the types of questions are un-predictable and ever changing. One has to believe in our hard work and trust our understanding to be able to come up with the right choice of answers.

Conclusion

The above mentioned were some of the tips born out of my own learning experience while preparing myself for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification exam and clearing it successfully in one attempt. I hope that it is of great help for everyone who are planning to give the certification exam and kick start their cloud career with a bang! The mantra is to keep it simple, be organized, be focused and be confident all along.