I Passed AWS Cloud Practitioner Online at Home | Cancelled at First!
Hi, everyone! 3 days ago I passed my first cloud certification exam. As you can see in the title, it’s AWS Cloud Practitioner. I’m here to share my story about how I got it and any problems happened during that time. For more information about the certification, click here!
So I joined a program called AWS She Builds Cloud Up which dedicated for women who want to start their journey to learn about cloud computing (for Practitioner level, a technical background is not required). For more information, click here!
After I completed the required courses, they gave me a free voucher to take the exam. I prepared it for about 2 months because I had another course to finish at the same time. So, it was getting longer.
Exam Preparations:
To prepare for this exam, here are the resources I used (totally free):
1. Free course provided by AWS.
2. Ramp-up guide provided by AWS.
3. AWS Whitepaper.
https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-cloud-practitioner/
(Learn based on exam outline)
4. Any free practice tests.
https://www.koenig-solutions.com/AWS
https://portal.tutorialsdojo.com/courses/free-aws-certified-cloud-practitioner-practice-exams-sampler
https://www.whizlabs.com/aws-certified-cloud-practitioner
https://digitalcloud.training/courses/free-aws-certified-cloud-practitioner-practice-exam
Note*: Please sign up first if you don’t have an account, then choose to enroll and try a free test or checkout for $0 if asked.
Then, I do these additional things (you can do so):
1. Make some notes from what you learned. Use the language that make you easy to understand.
2. Catch a keyword for each resource. For example NoSQL database for DynamoDB, object storage for S3, etc.
3. Create some tricks to remember something. For example, CORPS to remember 5 pillars of Well-Architected Frameworks. C for Cost optimization, O for Operational excellence, R for Reliability, P for Performance efficiency, and S for Security. (Update: since AWS now has 6 pillars, you can add one more S at the end “CORPSS” for the last pillar which stands for Sustainability).
4. Do any practice tests until you reach high score at least 80% constantly.
5. Schedule your exam only when you’re ready. Once you’ve scheduled, you just have 2 more chances to reschedule and it must be not less than 24 hours before your exam or you’ll lose it.
I chose to take the exam via online at home using Pearson Vue (OnVue) because the nearest test centers from my current location aren’t opened at this time because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was my first time doing OnVue.
Problem During Exam:
I lost my external microphone.
I did a system check over and over till a few minutes before the exam, but (evidently) I lost my microphone (it fell and got stuck on my prayer rug). I was crying at that time LOL :) because the proctor canceled the exam. The reason is because the proctor couldn’t hear my voice.
What do I do when facing an OnVue issue?
I contacted Pearson Vue by chat and told my issue with the case number created and mentioned by the proctor (for any issues you face when the exam is launched, please ask the proctor to open a case/ticket for you and don’t forget to ask the number for any update later).
Here’s the link to contact OnVue by chat:
https://home.pearsonvue.com/onvuehelp
I suggest you contact them first with the case number mentioned to get to know the result faster.
When I contacted them, the support told me that the voucher was restored and I could reschedule the new exam with my previous voucher (it only happened if the voucher is not expired or still valid to be used). Then, I scheduled the exam again using the same voucher and took the exam 4 hours later since I’ve found my external microphone as well. Finally, I passed the exam.
That was it for now. Thank you for coming and reading my long story :)
Good luck to anyone who’s gonna take the exam!
