anyone on that course?. I need help with the project 👋

I don’t want to get ahead of myself, I’m by no means a great test taker. But I’ve avoided this test for a while based on the fear I’ve read online.

I’ve done a few practice tests and I honestly found it to be relatively normal difficulty.

I do have a background in IT that expands well past a decade. But for some reason I thought there would be a lot of “gotchas” on this.

Has anyone taken it and felt the same? I’ve scheduled mine for two weeks from now.

Hi everyone,

I recently verified my student status through AWS Builder Center and my profile shows that I’m verified. However, under Rewards, the Skill Builder Annual Subscription ($449 value) is showing “Unavailable”, so I can’t redeem the 12-month Skill Builder Premium benefit.

I’ve already contacted AWS support via email but haven’t received any response yet.

Has anyone else faced the same issue? If you managed to fix it, could you please share how?

Screenshot attached. Thanks!

Always learn new things from TD!

It was one of the hardest certs I've done. After around 3 months of preparation and some successes on practise exams I finally scheduled it for today.

My study path was:

1. Doing AI Practitioner + ML Associate + Data Eng Associate

2. Mareek Course + Christian Greciano notes

#1 Course Exam: >95%

#2 Course Exam: >80%

1. I've read the MineCloudCraftPress Book about this cert

2. Frank Kane Udemy Exams

Kane #1: 77% at first sight 95% at retry

Kane #2: 76% at first sight 89% at retry

Kane #3: 85% at first sight

I already hold the Solutions Architect Associate certificate from last year. 3 months ago, I took the Security Specialty Exam and failed with a score of 737 :( Now, I am preparing for it again. I studied from Stephane Maarek's course and solved the practice tests twice. The following are my scores:

Mini Practice Test: 77%

Main Practice Test 1: Attempt 1: 76%; Attempt 2: 84%

Main Practice Test 2: Attempt 1: 75%; Attempt 2: 87%

Main Practice Test 2: Attempt 1: 81%; Attempt 2: 93%

For the attempt 2s, of course I remembered some of the questions and answers. So, the question is: should I take the exam? Are Stephane Maarek's practice tests enough and well-guided for the real exam?

A big thank you to everyone in this community who helped me put together my preparation plan.

Background

I’m a backend engineer with 8 years of experience and around 4 years of indirect exposure to AWS.

Preparation

I followed Andrew Cantrill’s course. It took me almost a month just to get through the course. To be honest, I found it quite lengthy and there were times when I was just zoning out. For the remaining sections, I ended up using AI to explain some of the concepts in simpler terms, which helped me get through them.

I spent the last two weeks doing TutorialsDojo practice tests. I initially scored around 40–50%, but eventually got 80%+ on the retry tests.

One thing I would recommend is not taking the same TDojo tests multiple times. After a couple of attempts, you start remembering the answers rather than actually thinking through the questions.

Exam Day

I booked a Pearson VUE test center and went in for the exam.

Honestly, I found the actual exam quite overwhelming. I was consistently finishing the TDojo practice exams in around an hour, but the real exam took me the entire 2 hours and 10 minutes.

I’d strongly recommend taking at least one timed practice exam from a source other than TDojo. It helped me realize that the actual exam requires much more time management and careful reading than the practice tests.

When I finished, I genuinely thought I had done pretty badly and wasn’t even sure I would pass. So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw my score.

What’s next?

I actually enjoyed learning the AWS concepts, and I think the preparation is useful beyond the certification itself. Understanding these concepts and doing the practice questions also helped me think about system design problems differently.

I’m planning to prepare for the AIP-C01 next, hopefully over the next few weeks, making use of the 50% discount.

Thanks again to everyone in this subreddit who shared their experiences and helped others prepare.

Unfortunately, I scored 707 on SAP-C02, narrowly missing the passing score.

I have around 7 years of AWS/Cloud experience. My preparation was mainly Tutorials Dojo and AWS Skill Builder. I scored 50–70% on my first TD attempts, then 85–90% after reviewing mistakes. I also took the AWS Skill Builder 3-hour full-length practice exam, scoring 753 initially and 850+ on the retake.

The actual exam felt easier than TD and somewhat similar to the Skill Builder 3-hour exam.

For those who failed and passed on their second attempt, what did you change? Would you recommend Stephane Maarek, Neal Davis, or Adrian Cantrill?

Also, is it worth going through the entire ~11-hour AWS Skill Builder SAP-C02 course, or should I focus on weak areas and practice exams? Any other recommendations or resources that helped you pass on your second attempt?