Preparing for the AWS Developer Associate Exam

Having passed the AWS Developer Associate exam back in March, I pondered what I would have liked to have known from the start. Initially I had accepted that there aren’t really shortcuts, although you can work smarter for sure.

If you want the ability to do the job, rather than just getting the piece of paper, you need to be disciplined. You need to be prepared to sacrifice a few months to be ready and be smart about how you train. I’ve laid out a plan for people and it’s really a case of the following:

Don’t let the fact it’s multiple choice fool you

Whilst some answers you can eliminate safely there are other questions which will trip you up. The only way to be safe is to learn generally, and then target your efforts.

Understand the overarching concepts

Given how vast the AWS ecosystem is, it’s pretty important to be able to target your study efforts. You don’t want to be focusing on some interesting technology that has nothing to do with what you will be tested on. That said, you also don’t want to be just learning subjects by rote, it’s important to be able to understand and re-apply concepts.

Know what you don’t know

If I study exam papers alone, I get good at passing those specific exam papers. What I don’t know from passing those papers though is what percentage of exam material I’ve actually covered.

Have I got 50% of the syllabus covered by doing practice papers? 75%? 10%?

If instead I take a look at the exam blueprint and the exam guide, I have a chance of understanding the overall ‘realm’ of content that you might be expected to know about AWS.

Set up a training plan

You need to have a definite end in sight, or you won’t last the course. I reckon you’re looking at least 16 weeks of study if you’re ‘going in cold’. By planning out your work, you make it easier to bite off little chinks and to see how you’re progressing.

Use ‘active’ rather than ‘passive’ methods to remember content

Hands on tutorials are a great way to learn, but they can be time consuming. Some concepts (but certainly not all) in terms of the exam at least are best learned ‘shallow’ and by focusing on breadth of subjects instead.

Flashcards can aid us both with recalling subject matter using spaced repetition and for comprehending something using a ‘search for meaning’. Testing yourself 2 days later on a topic is very, very different from reading something once and saying to yourself ‘yep I get it’.

Calibrate your plan based on real effort

Make sure your plan includes estimates as well as recording actual time spent. Next week, factor in a more realistic timeframe. It will save you from overcommitting and feeling burned out. If you can’t make the time spent any less than it is, review the reasons for the discrepancy between estimated vs actual times.

Setting up your Spaced Repetition Reminder System

Before you’re ready for practice papers you’ll need to take on a lot of content. Without doing ‘little and often’ in terms of memorising you won’t be able to recall it come exam time, and it’s not an open book exam. You wouldn’t go to the gym and try and lift 100KG if you’d never topped 40KG, why expect your exam brain to be any different?

Hope this helps! If you’d like a copy of my study guide/timetable, you can see it more details on my site— and questions/feedback welcomed in the comments.