How I got my 5th. AWS (Solution Architect Professional) certification

In this article I will share with you the entire journey that I went through to achieve my fifth AWS certification, the tough and dreamed AWS Solution Architect Professional (SAP-C01).

This article contains some similarities with the first three articles I wrote on the certification subject (Solution Architect Associate, SysOps Adminsitrator Associate e Developer Associate), but with specific details of SA Professional. If you are on the path to these certifications check out the other articles by clicking on the link.

I hope that this article can encourage many people to achieve this important milestone, which is the AWS Solution Architect Professional Level..

Among the various certifications available, Solution Architect Professional belongs to the Professional Level together with another certification, DevOps Engineer Professional, which will be my future target.

About the Exam

In times of COVID-19 and a lot of home office, PearsonVue made the exam available online, that is, you can take the test in the comfort of your home. More information can be obtained using the following URL: https://aws.amazon.com/certification/faqs/.

The exam consists of 75 questions, with a maximum duration of 180 minutes (3 hours), and the minimum score necessary to obtain certification must be 75% (750 points out of 1000 in total).

The test must be held at a test center (PSI or Pearson Vue) or online (Pearson Vue). Please register in advance to avoid "congestion". I have scheduled the exam with 2 days in advance.

The cost of the exam is USD 300.00 for a single trial. If you do not pass on the first try you will have to pay again for a new one. For those who already have SAA or SysOps Associate certification, you can redeem a 50% discount benefit on CertMetrics ??.

The preparation

My way of preparing for the exam basically included the resources below:

1. ???? A Cloud Guru
2. ?? Udemy (AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Practice Exam by Jon Bonso)
3. ?? AWS WhitePapers (I’ve only read a few of them, but I’ll list all of those recommended in the section below).

The "Cloud Guru" was a resource that I used in the studies and provides a more focused on the certification exam. Great resource, very objective and direct to the point. I used it to recap all the topics for the exam. At the end of each session there is an "Exam Tips" that helped me a lot the day before the test.

The second resource that I used was Jon Bonso's exam simulations on the Udemy platform. This was a tip that I received during a webinar about the certification exam and I attended a few months ago. There are 4 simulations with 75 questions each. I did each of the 4 simulated tests, until reaching the minimum score of 85% in all of them, before went to the real exam. To reach this score I had to do each of the tests 3 times, and don't be alarmed if the score is below 50% in the first time that you try the simulation. After each simulated exam, I review all the questions that I was wrong to try to assimilate the information that I was unable to absorb during the courses. The questions have the same level of complexity as the real exam and that was very good to practice. The tip here is to observe the format of the questions, the scenarios described and the format of the answers. Unlike other tests, SAP-C01 provides complex scenarios (text with 6 to 7 lines) and in some cases complex answers (3 to 4 lines for each alternative). That was a tip I received and I always had the feeling that all the questions would be complex. But that's not what happened. There are several complex questions, but there are also more direct and simple ones. Jon Bonso's simulation is very similar on this point.

The day before the test I acquired the mock test from CertMetrics which helped me to know exactly how the test interface is and some sample questions (20 questions - 60 minutes). This simulated micro exam have a cost about USD 40.00, but I used the voucher I got with my last certification and ended up leaving for free. I did the simulation and reached a low score (65%). I confess that it made me a little nervous for the real exam, but according to several reports on the internet, it happened to several people and I decided to move on.

A prova Online

I had taken the online exams before (Certified Kubernetes Administrator and the AWS Developer Associate are examples) and wanted to see if PersonVue had evolved in this regard. I did the system check, a day before, to check if your environment had the minimum prerequisites (internet, microphone and camera) and everything went as expected.

My exam was scheduled for 10:30 pm and the system made available the "Begin Exam" button 30 minutes before the scheduled time. So I went on time at 10:00 pm to carry out the initial setup. It is necessary to download the OneVue app, unpack and install (next, next, finish). During the verification phase, it will be necessary to use the smartphone to access a URL (m.proctorcam.com), enter a code previously provided and photograph the identification document (front and back), a selfie and the location of the event (front, bottom, left and right).

After that you wait a few minutes and a Proctor connects to the system and makes some requests. He asked me to show the table, check that the external monitor was off, my wrists (to check that I am not using a smart watch) and asked to turn or cover the monitor. You cannot have any paper, cell phone or electronic device under the table.

I was able to perform the entire exam without any system crashes and interruptions, unlike the last time I did it.

I believe that PersonVue has improved the platform in these latest versions.

The Final Result

? When you finish the exam you only receive a "Pass / Fail". But then you receive an email with a link to the final score. At the time of writing this article I haven't received the final score yet.

Lessons Learned

1. ?? The total time of 180 minutes was tightened to perform the exam (at the end of my exam there were only 2 more minutes). This is a factor that caused me a lot of stress and disturbed me on some questions. If you have difficulty in English Language, time can be a serious offender here. The simulations helps a lot, but you can also request an extension of time for "non Native English Speakers". This request can be made on the CertMetrics website in the special needs section. Special attention to this point: If you have this option enabled in your profile, you will not be able to schedule the test online. If this is the case, you will need to contact PearsonVue to schedule.
2. ??Reading the exam Guide always helps me focus on the topics where I have the most difficulty.
3. ?? No "Check all true" questions. All multiple-choice questions have a "Select 2 alternatives" or "Select 3 alternatives" marking, which greatly facilitates the resolution of some questions.
4. ?? Jon Bonso's questions helped me a lot. Some questions have the same level of complexity as the exam, but don't expect to find questions equal to the exam. This is very rare to happen. It is very worthwhile to perform the simulation a few times to improve the knowledge and be able to control the time of the exam. More important than studying the questions is to study the explanations given by Jon for each question. That helped me a lot!
5. ??I started to use WhizLabs, but gave up due to the high factor of errors in vocabulary and spelling. I started to notice that some questions did not match the topics described in SAP-C01, so I left WhizLabs and focused only on Jon Bonso. It requires a bit of patience to learn, but it’s well worth it.
6. As the total time of the exam is long, I adopted a different strategy this time. As previously described, I scheduled the test for the night period to not suffer interruptions at home. Most of the time the nocturnal silence helped me to focus more on the questions, but a Flamengo's soccer fan neighbour (despite living in Sao Paulo) gave a few screams at the end of the game, but nothing that shook me, lol. A negative factor here is tiredness. I finished the exam at 1:30 am.

Usefull Links

• Official Documentation: https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-solutions-architect-professional/
• Amazon Certification FAQs: https://aws.amazon.com/certification/faqs/
• Exam Guide: https://d1.awsstatic.com/training-and-certification/docs-sa-pro/AWS-Certified-Solutions-Architect-Professional_Exam-Guide.pdf
• A Cloud Guru: https://acloud.guru/
• Udemy (Jon Bonso): https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-solutions-architect-professional-practice-exams-amazon/