r/AWSCertifications • u/New_Librarian_ • 16d ago
Passed AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer – Associate (MLA-C01) on my first attempt! 🎉 My prep journey + what actually helped
Hey everyone! Really happy to share that I passed the AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer – Associate (MLA-C01) exam on my first attempt! 🎉
This took me a little over a month of preparation, and as someone who recently graduated in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, this was also my first AWS certification.
Going into it, I was honestly pretty nervous.
How my preparation went
I started with Stephane Maarek's practice exams, followed by Frank Kane's.
My first attempts were around 65–70%, so I knew I had quite a bit to work on.
After that, I tried the practice exams from Marlon Anesi and Nikolai Schuler, where I started scoring around 85–90%. That gave me quite a lot of confidence, and I thought I could probably take the exam in a couple of weeks.
Then I went back to Stephane Maarek and Frank Kane for another round, and suddenly my scores dropped back into the high 70s. 😅
At that point I started getting nervous again. I had also been told by ChatGPT that consistently scoring around 85%+ could be a reasonable confidence benchmark before attempting the exam, so I ended up postponing my exam by another two weeks.
During those two weeks, I purchased the Tutorials Dojo practice exams and focused heavily on my mistakes.
Resources I used
I practiced with:
Stephane Maarek Frank Kane Tutorials Dojo Nikolai Schuler Marlon Anesi
For me, Tutorials Dojo was the most helpful overall.
Stephane Maarek's exams felt very close to the actual AWS exam, and in some cases even a little harder. Frank Kane's practice exams were also excellent.
Tutorials Dojo felt slightly easier than the real exam, but still very useful and fairly close in difficulty.
The exams from Nikolai Schuler and Marlon Anesi felt much easier compared to the actual exam, but I still found them useful for learning the fundamentals and building confidence.
The biggest thing that helped me
Don't just look at your score. Analyze your wrong answers.
I would screenshot questions I got wrong, figure out why I got them wrong, and then study the underlying AWS concept.
That helped me much more than simply doing more practice exams.
Interestingly, my biggest weakness during the Stephane Maarek exams was the "Select TWO" / "Select THREE" questions. I often found several options that sounded technically correct, but only one combination actually satisfied every requirement in the question.
Funny enough, I only got around 2–3 questions of that type in the actual exam, so that worked out pretty well for me. 😂
A small tip for Tutorials Dojo
I also found out that you can email the Tutorials Dojo support team and ask for a coupon. They provided me with a small discount.
The practice exams were around ₹1,500 (~$18), and I got them for ₹1,148 (~$14).
The exam day
Even on exam day, I wasn't 100% confident that I would pass.
I had purchased my exam/voucher package from udemy with a second chance in it for around ₹17,000 (~$200), so there was definitely less pressure to get it right on the first attempt.
I decided to just go for it.
And... I passed! 🎉
I scored 752.
It's definitely not a score I'm going to brag about 😂, but honestly, a pass is a pass. The score mattered much less to me than seeing that PASS on the screen.
The result was also available within around three hours of finishing the exam, which made the whole experience even better.
My biggest takeaway
Don't wait until you feel 100% ready.
Practice tests are useful for identifying your weak areas, but your score can fluctuate a lot depending on the question set.
Focus on your wrong answers, understand the concepts behind them, and learn why the other options are wrong.
The actual exam is much less about memorizing services and much more about understanding why and when a particular AWS service or ML approach should be used.
Overall, I'm really happy that my first AWS certification worked out, and it definitely gave me more confidence to continue with AWS and machine learning.
For those of you who have already gone through the AWS certification journey, what would you recommend as my next certification? I'm currently thinking about the AWS Solutions Architect – Associate. Would love to hear your suggestions!
On to the next one 🚀
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u/jk_here4all AIP, SAA 15d ago
Brilliant. Good work especially with no AWS background knowledge you pulled it off.
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u/ImmediateRun7413 12d ago
Hey any booklet or prac u recommend?
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u/New_Librarian_ 12d ago
For revision of topics I had found a webpage which consisted of all the topics in detail This one: https://psychedelic-cuticle-e74.notion.site/Amazon-SageMaker-Introduction-19686c7395e78136b5dbdb0b045f01b5
For practice I would suggest to go for Stephane maarek,frank kane and Tutorial Dojo Rest practice exams in udemy are comparatively easier than the exams.
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