Chapter 9
Final Preparation
Are you excited to take the exam, now that you’ve read this book? I sure hope so. You should be. This chapter puts certification prep all together for you and takes a detailed look at the actual certification exam.
This chapter shares some great ideas on ensuring that you ace your upcoming exam. If you read this book to really master AWS and were not really considering certification, maybe this chapter will convince you to give it a try!
The first eight chapters of this book cover the technologies, protocols, design concepts, and considerations required to be prepared to pass the AWS Certified Developer–Associate (DVA-C01) exam. Although these chapters supply a lot of detailed information, most people need more preparation than just reading the first eight chapters of this book. This chapter details a set of tools and a study plan to help you complete your preparation for the exam.
This short chapter has four main sections. The first section provides information about the AWS Certified Developer–Associate (DVA-C01) exam. The second section shares some important tips to keep in mind to ensure that you are ready for this exam. The third section discusses exam preparation tools that may be useful at this point in your study process. The final section of this chapter provides a suggested study plan you can follow, now that you have completed all the earlier chapters in this book.
Exam Information
Here are details you should be aware of regarding the AWS Certified Developer–Associate exam:
Question types: Multiple-choice and multiple-correct-answer style
Passing score: 720 (out of 1000)
Time limit: 130 minutes
Available languages: English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean
Exam fee: $150 USD
Exam ID code: DVA-C01
This exam seeks to validate the following for a candidate:
Understanding of the core AWS services, uses, and basic AWS architecture best practices
Proficiency in developing, deploying, and debugging cloud-based applications using AWS
Amazon Web Services certification exam authors recommend the following skills and experience for candidates who want to pass this exam:
One or more years of hands-on experience developing and maintaining an AWS-based application
In-depth knowledge of at least one high-level programming language
Understanding of core AWS services, uses, and basic AWS architecture best practices
Proficiency in developing, deploying, and debugging cloud-based applications using AWS
Ability to use the AWS service APIs, AWS CLI, and SDKs to write applications
Ability to identify key features of AWS services
Understanding of the AWS shared responsibility model
Understanding of application life cycle management
Ability to use a CI/CD pipeline to deploy applications on AWS
Ability to use or interact with AWS services
Ability to apply a basic understanding of cloud-native applications to write code
Ability to write code using AWS security best practices (for example, not using secret and access keys in code but instead using IAM roles)
Ability to author, maintain, and debug code modules on AWS
Proficiency writing code for serverless applications
Understanding of the use of containers in the development process
The exam is broken into five different domains. Here are those domains and the percentage of the exam that covers each:
Domain 1: Deployment: 22%
Domain 2: Security: 26%
Domain 3: Development with AWS Services: 30%
Domain 4: Refactoring: 10%
Domain 5: Monitoring and Troubleshooting: 12%
The following are the exam objectives for these domains:
Domain 1: Deployment
1.1 Deploy written code in AWS using existing CI/CD pipelines, processes, and patterns.
1.2 Deploy applications using Elastic Beanstalk.
1.3 Prepare the application deployment package to be deployed to AWS.
1.4 Deploy serverless applications.
Domain 2: Security
2.1 Make authenticated calls to AWS services.
2.2 Implement encryption using AWS services.
2.3 Implement application authentication and authorization.
Domain 3: Development with AWS Services
3.1 Write code for serverless applications.
3.2 Translate functional requirements into application design.
3.3 Implement application design into application code.
3.4 Write code that interacts with AWS services by using APIs, SDKs, and AWS CLI.
Domain 4: Refactoring
4.1 Optimize application to best use AWS services and features.
4.2 Migrate existing application code to run on AWS.
Domain 5: Monitoring and Troubleshooting
5.1 Write code that can be monitored.
5.2 Perform root cause analysis on faults found in testing or production.
Getting Ready
Here are some important tips to keep in mind to ensure that you are ready for this rewarding exam:
Build and use a study tracker: Consider using the exam objectives shown in this chapter to build yourself a study tracker. Such a tracker can help ensure that you have not missed anything and that you are confident for your exam. As a matter of fact, this book offers a sample Study Planner (online Appendix C) on the companion website.
Think about your time budget for questions on the exam: When you do the math, you will see that, on average, you have two minutes per question. While this does not sound like a lot of time, keep in mind that many of the questions will be very straightforward, and you will take 15 to 30 seconds on those. This leaves you extra time for other questions on the exam.
Watch the clock: Periodically check on the time remaining as you are taking the exam. You might even find that you can slow down pretty dramatically if you have built up a nice block of extra time.
Get some earplugs: The testing center might provide earplugs but get some just in case and bring them along. There might be other test takers in the center with you, and you do not want to be distracted by their screams. I personally have no issue blocking out the sounds around me, so I never worry about this, but I know it is an issue for some.
Plan your travel time: Give yourself extra time to find the center and get checked in. Be sure to arrive early. As you test more at a particular center, you can certainly start cutting it closer time-wise.
Get rest: Most students report that getting plenty of rest the night before the exam boosts their success. All-night cram sessions are typically not successful.
Bring in valuables but get ready to lock them up: The testing center will take your phone, your smart watch, your wallet, and other such items. It will provide a secure place for them. Note that some exam centers will not be able to accommodate large items like laptops or larger bags.
Take notes: You will be given note-taking implements and should not be afraid to use them. I always jot down any questions I struggle with on the exam. I then memorize them at the end of the test by reading my notes over and over again. I always make sure I have a pen and paper in the car, and I write down the issues in my car just after the exam. When I get home—with a pass or fail—I research those items.
Use the FAQs in your study: The Amazon test authors have told me they love to pull questions from the FAQs they publish at the AWS site. The FAQs are a really fun and valuable read anyway, so go through the ones for the various services that are key for this exam.
Practice exam questions are great—so use them: This text provides many practice exam questions. Be sure to go through them thoroughly. Remember that you shouldn’t blindly memorize answers; rather, use the practice questions to really see where you are weak in your knowledge and then study up on those areas.
The practice questions simulate both the look and feel of the exam, and you should also use them as a gauge of your confidence level for passing the exam. My recommendation is that you should be able to answer at least 80% or more of the practice exam questions correctly. Make sure to learn how to read the questions carefully. The details in the question might make it easy to choose the correct answer. Look for clues like “which service is most suitable” and “what is the cheapest way,” “fastest way,” “simplest way,” and so on. Here you will need to use your understanding of the capabilities, cost, and features of unmanaged and managed services to narrow down the answers.
On the day of the exam, make sure to arrive at the testing center at least 15 minutes before your scheduled exam time. I usually plan to be at the location 30 minutes ahead of the exam, which helps me avoid any eventuality that would otherwise cause me to be late, such as traffic or public transport delays. If at all possible, clear your schedule on the day of the exam because any additional stress can throw you off your best game.
When you arrive at the testing center, the proctor will sign you in and ask you to put your belongings in a locker. Then you will be escorted to the exam station, where you can take a moment to settle in. The proctor will provide pen and paper if you wish. Once the exam starts, you need to accept the terms and conditions of the exam. The exam timer starts immediately after the terms and conditions sections, so if you need a few second before your exam starts, this will be your last opportunity to clear your head and get in to the zone.
When the exam clock starts, start reading through the questions quickly but keep a close eye on the detail. You would ideally want to go through all the questions with enough time to return to any that you might not be sure of. Remember that you have the option of marking questions you want to return to, so if you are unsure of the answer to a particular question, mark it, and you can easily return to it later. I highly recommend using the marking function. If a question with a similar topic pops up later, it might help you answer the original question much more easily. I usually write down the number of a question that is troublesome, the topic (such as EC2, S3, or automation), and something that will help me remember why I didn’t know the answer. This way, when I get to a similar question, I can see if I can use it to figure out the original question and then quickly return to that marked question and answer it.
At the end of the exam, you have another opportunity to review any marked questions. Before you submit your exam, make sure you have completed each and every question—or at least as many as you can. Once your test is submitted, a quick satisfaction survey appears, and the tension starts building. Even after almost two decades of taking IT exams, I have to admit my heart does start racing in anticipation of the result at this point. After you submit the survey, you are presented with a pass or a fail score, and soon after that you should receive an email with a breakdown of scores across each domain. If you fail, this breakdown will help you focus on the domains that you need to brush up on.
Keep calm, stay focused, and good luck!
Tools for Final Preparation
This section lists some information about the available tools and how to access them.
Pearson Cert Practice Test Engine and Questions on the Website
Register this book to get access to the Pearson IT Certification test engine (software that displays and grades a set of exam-realistic multiple-choice questions). Using the Pearson Cert Practice Test Engine, you can either study by going through the questions in Study mode or take a simulated (timed) AWS Certified Developer–Associate (DVA-C01) exam.
The Pearson Test Prep practice test software comes with two full practice exams. These practice tests are available to you either online or as an offline Windows application. To access the practice exams that were developed with this book, see the instructions in the card inserted in the sleeve in the back of the book. That card includes a unique access code that enables you to activate your exams in the Pearson Test Prep software.
Accessing the Pearson Test Prep Software Online
The online version of this software can be used on any device with a browser and connectivity to the Internet, including desktop machines, tablets, and smartphones. To start using your practice exams online, follow these steps:
Step 1.Go to http://www.PearsonTestPrep.com.
Step 2.Select Pearson IT Certification as your product group.
Step 3.Enter the email and password for your account. If you don’t have an account on PearsonITCertification.com or CiscoPress.com, you need to establish one by going to PearsonITCertification.com/join.
Step 4.In the My Products tab, click the Activate New Product button.
Step 5.Enter the access code printed on the insert card in the back of your book to activate your product. The product is now listed in your My Products page.
Step 6.Click the Exams button to launch the exam settings screen and start your exam.
Accessing the Pearson Test Prep Software Offline
If you want to study offline, you can download and install the Windows version of the Pearson Test Prep software. You can find a download link for this software on the book’s companion website, or you can just enter this link in your browser:
http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/content/downloads/pcpt/engine.zip
To access the book’s companion website and the software, follow these steps:
Step 1.Register your book by going to PearsonITCertification.com/register and entering the ISBN: 9780135853290.
Step 2.Respond to the challenge questions.
Step 3.Go to your account page and select the Registered Products tab.
Step 4.Click on the Access Bonus Content link under the product listing.
Step 5.Click the Install Pearson Test Prep Desktop Version link under the Practice Exams section of the page to download the software.
Step 6.After the software finishes downloading, unzip all the files on your computer.
Step 7.Double-click the application file to start the installation and follow the onscreen instructions to complete the registration.
Step 8.When the installation is complete, launch the application and click the Activate Exam button on the My Products tab.
Step 9.Click the Activate a Product button in the Activate Product Wizard.
Step 10.Enter the unique access code from the card in the back of your book and click the Activate button.
Step 11.Click Next and then click the Finish button to download the exam data to your application.
Step 12.You can now start using the practice exams by selecting the product and clicking the Open Exam button to open the exam settings screen.
The offline and online versions sync together, so saved exams and grade results recorded on one version will also be available to you on the other.
Customizing Your Exams
When you are in the exam settings screen, you can choose to take exams in one of three modes:
Study mode
Practice Exam mode
Flash Card mode
Study mode allows you to fully customize your exams and review answers as you are taking the exam. This is typically the mode you use first to assess your knowledge and identify information gaps. Practice Exam mode locks certain customization options to present you with a realistic exam experience. Use this mode when you are preparing to test your exam readiness. Flash Card mode strips out the answers and presents you with only the question stem. This mode is great for late-stage preparation when you really want to challenge yourself to provide answers without the benefit of seeing multiple-choice options. This mode does not provide the detailed score reports that the other two modes provide, so it is not the best mode for helping you identify knowledge gaps.
In addition to these three modes, you are able to select the source of your questions. You can choose to take exams that cover all the chapters, or you can narrow your selection to just a single chapter or the chapters that make up specific parts in the book. All chapters are selected by default. If you want to narrow your focus to individual chapters, simply deselect all the chapters and then select only those on which you want to focus in the Objectives area.
You can also select the exam banks on which to focus. Each exam bank comes complete with a full exam of questions that cover topics in every chapter. The two exams printed in the book are available to you, as well as two additional exams of unique questions. You can have the test engine serve up exams from all four banks or just from one individual bank by selecting the desired banks in the exam bank area.
You can make several other customizations to your exam from the exam settings screen, such as the time allotted to take the exam, the number of questions served up, whether to randomize questions and answers, whether to show the number of correct answers for multiple-answer questions, and whether to serve up only specific types of questions. You can also create custom test banks by selecting only questions that you have marked or questions on which you have added notes.
Updating Your Exams
If you are using the online version of the Pearson Test Prep software, you should always have access to the latest version of the software as well as the exam data. If you are using the Windows desktop version, every time you launch the software, it will check to see if any updates are available for your exam data and automatically download any changes made since the last time you used the software. This requires that you are connected to the Internet at the time you launch the software.
Sometimes, due to a number of factors, the exam data may not fully download when you activate your exam. If you find that figures or exhibits are missing, you may need to manually update your exams.
To update a particular exam you have already activated and downloaded, simply select the Tools tab and click the Update Products button. Again, this is only an issue with the Windows desktop application.
If you want to check for updates to the Windows desktop version of the Pearson Test Prep exam engine software, simply select the Tools tab and click the Update Application button. Doing so allows you to ensure that you are running the latest version of the software engine.
Premium Edition
In addition to the free practice exam provided on the website, you can purchase additional exams with expanded functionality directly from Pearson IT Certification. The Premium Edition of this title contains an additional two full practice exams and an eBook (in both PDF and ePub format). In addition, the Premium Edition title also has remediation for each question to the specific part of the eBook that relates to that question.
Because you have purchased the print version of this title, you can purchase the Premium Edition at a deep discount. A coupon code in the book sleeve contains a one-time-use code and instructions for where you can purchase the Premium Edition.
To view the Premium Edition product page, go to www.informit.com/title/9780135853290.
Chapter-Ending Review Tools
Chapters 1 through 8 have several features in the “Exam Preparation Tasks” and “Q&A” sections at the end of the chapter. You might have already worked through these in each chapter. Using these tools again can also be useful as you make your final preparations for the exam.
Suggested Plan for Final Review/Study
This section provides a suggested study plan from the point at which you finish reading Chapter 8 until you take the AWS Certified Developer–Associate (DVA-C01) exam. You can ignore this plan, use it as is, or just take suggestions from it.
The plan involves these steps:
Step 1.Review key topics and “Do I Know This Already?” (DIKTA?) questions: You can use the table that lists the key topics in each chapter or just flip the pages, looking for key topics. Also, reviewing the DIKTA? questions from the beginning of the chapter can be helpful for review.
Step 2.Review “Q&A” sections: Go through the Q&A questions at the end of each chapter to identify areas where you need more study.
Step 3.Use the Pearson Cert Practice Test engine to practice: You can use the Pearson Cert Practice Test engine to study using a bank of unique exam-realistic questions available only with this book.
Summary
The tools and suggestions listed in this chapter have been designed with one goal in mind: to help you develop the skills required to pass the AWS Certified Developer–Associate (DVA-C01) exam. This book has been developed from the beginning to not only tell you the facts but also to help you learn how to apply the facts. No matter what your experience level leading up to taking the exams, it is our hope that the broad range of preparation tools, and even the structure of the book, will help you pass the exam with ease. We hope you do well on the exam.