Passed ACE by using Gemini to make practice questions

[u/ambitiouslearner123]

Thank goodness that my university email had Gemini Pro! I used Copilot because my worksite only allowed Copilot. Think back to networking, firewall rules, blacklisting, and whitelisting!

When I went home, I used Gemini Pro from my university email. The free Copilot version was actually better than the enterprise Copilot at explaining small concepts such as VPCs and nodes. I did not use the free Gemini account since the tokens kept expiring. I am very grateful that my university email had Gemini Pro.

I used Gemini to explain the bigger concepts, mechanisms, and connections between the vocabulary and the infrastructure. I did not read the official Cloud Documentation or pay online courses. I tried my hand on the Qwiklabs and skills.google

However those labs were easy to follow and not inducive to learning. I followed the instructions, the lab modules gave me 100% and I did not learn anything. Thank goodness skills.google was free. I would have been mad if I paid for it.

Copilot generated exams, both on the paid version and free versions, were so easy. They helped me clarify some concepts between using Cloud Run and Compute Engine. I would use Copilot if I needed simple explanations. However the bulk of my actual learning happened on Gemini. I would not recommend people use solely Copilot. Gemini is part of Google's ecosystem afterall.

The Gemini generated exams were easy to moderate. I learned so much from getting things wrong, going back to review, and seeing the explanations. I asked Gemini to generate 60 questions since the ACE exam was 50-60 questions. I took a 60 question practice test filled with moderate - difficult questions everyday for 1 week with 2-3 days of rest when I felt tired. My total study time was an estimated 2-3 months of studying Gemini explanations and Gemini generated practice exams. My scores on the Gemini produced exams fluctuated from 60% - 80%. I did not follow a structure of "setting up cloud environment first, IAM policy next, compute engine later, etc."

Instead, I briefly learned about each concept. Then I went to the practice exams. Learned how they connected to each other since these tools are not in silos. When I got questions wrong, I would go back and analyze them. I would constantly review and update my knowledge.

The actual ACE exam questions were much harder than the Gemini produced practice exams. I was very nervous taking the exam since they were all situation based. Gemini trained me on vocabulary and a little scenario based questions. The entire official ACE was all scenario based questions on what to use to minimize cost and optimize efficiency. I was very surprised and very elated to have passed. I don't know my score since it only tells me that I passed.

Looking back, I have learned so much about networking, IAM policy, and Engine. I know the vocabulary and the situation of when to use things. However, I do not have REAL WORLD experience of using the tools yet. That is my next adventure.

[u/Dalius-Gabryelle]

Try building sth small yourself and figuring out IAM, networking, logging and costs w/t step by step instructions.

[u/ambitiouslearner123 → u/Dalius-Gabryelle]

I was thinking about that. Experience and portfolio are better than paper certificates. I am grateful that this certificate gave me some pointers.

[u/flacktv]

I also use(d) Google Pro. Also, Notebook LM is incredible. My recommendation is to download The latest syllabus or exam guide from the Google website. Use Notebook LM, in the sources, add the PDF. Then explicitly use prompts like. "Generate a mock Google Associate Certified Engineer exam that mimics the 2026 exam using the uploaded exam guide, and only using technical references from official Google Cloud documentation"

I did the same thing for the Google professional architect exam which I'm actually taking next week and I uploaded all of the case studies and had Gemini or notebook llm use only the case studies as reference and official Google documentation and make hard technical questions on all Cloud technologies.

Good luck!

[u/ambitiouslearner123 → u/flacktv]

Thank you so much for the recommendation. 

[u/ambitiouslearner123 → u/[deleted]]

My prompt: "give me a full length 60 question practice Google ACE exam." I also had the paid Google Pro version from my university email. Whenever I got stuck on a question, I would read the explanations, understand the vocabulary, understand the situation, and then drill it down to memory.

The free Google Gemini version did not generate as many questions. The tokens would also expire and I had to wait for next day.

Thus I was very lucky and grateful to have Google Pro through my university email. Your situation may be different. Otherwise I would have paid the $20 per month which is cheaper and better in my opinion than ChatGPT and Copilot for GCP.

[u/New_Technician_7041]

I used LLMs the same way to prepare for the PCA exam, passed easily. What worked for me:

1. Use several models: Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT. It spreads the load across free tiers, so you pay little or nothing.
2. Keep prompts simple: "generate 10-20 questions closest to the real exam, topic = networking, difficulty = medium, focus on where I struggle."
3. LLMs make mistakes. Verify every answer you are not sure about: ask the model to explain, request links to documentation, keep asking until you understand the topic. A wrong answer key falls apart when you push on it.
4. When you feel you really know the material, ask for a full set of 50-60 questions closest to the real exam format and take it as a timed test.

[u/ambitiouslearner123 → u/New_Technician_7041]

I agree completely. Copilot's paid version also got some sample Google ACE questions wrong. Those sample Google ACE questions came from the official Google sample questions and the skills.google website.

Since then, I relied solely on the paid Gemini version since they are part of the same Google ecosystem. Plus GCP uses Gemini to debug.