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DevonPatrick Adkins for AWS Community Builders

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I failed my AWS exam, but I gave it my best shot. Tips for Exam Retakes.

First of all, take a deep breath in, you gave the exam your best shot, where to go from here?
Well, I personally have failed all of the AWS Examinations before Passing them and I think there is no argument across the board that having failed first made me a better Engineer. Here are some steps that will help you on your road to becoming a Successful Cloud Engineer.

1.) **Chin up , and do not feel inadequate for failing, the worst thing we do as a community is comparing, never compare yourself to anyone else, we are all unique, in the way we learn, the same in our tastes with food or clothing, that is what makes us who we are. So the important thing here is to dust yourself off and prepare for your next attempt.

2.) AWS designs these exams for individuals that have working knowledge of the technology and not just the theory / subject matter. There is a great deal of practicality in these exams. Your exam experience is going to be much different to that a colleague or friend that’s written the exam. Once you have passed the exam AWS Accredits and Validates your have the knowledge and practicality thereof to show potential / current employees you can be entrusted with specific responsibilities. That is why these exams are not made easy, so remember when you are taking an exam that is globally weighted there is a lot more than just book study required.

3.) Take your Exam Results Seriously

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Use these results as reference and go back to your Practice Exams and do a deep dive on just that specific Domain that you need improvement in, what my approach is, I typically recreate the question provided to me, in a Lab Environment, this helps me not only understand why it’s the right answer, however when you apply it practically, the brain has a way of actually interpreting the requirement or solution for a given scenario.

4.) Stay consistent, try and be as consistent as possible to the number of hours you study a day or week, as most of the time its easy to forget a topic because you took too long to get back to it and then you have to revise the entire domain all over again. So, Consistency is key. Make sure you give yourself a dedicated number of hours to study and more especially so time to relax as well, try not to over study and then not absorb the knowledge you are taking in.

5.) Re-Book that Exam, once you are feeling confident again, I suggest try using as many practice exams that you can get your hands on, Udemy (Stephen Maarek, Neal Davis, Jon Bonso), acloud guru, Whizlabs & Tutorials Dojo. What’s important here is that you are not memorizing the same questions from the practice exams you are re-doing, if you have an HR department that can pay for these, I suggest you reach out, also the practice exams are typically quite cheap and there are typically promotions run, I remember I paid $10 for my SysOps Administrator Associate Exam with Practice Labs from Tutorial Dojo. It was amazing. I must stress here, there are many actually quite literally Hundreds of people to do date who write these exams and pass by studying and labbing and following the above methods, its my plea that you are not persuaded by anyone to purchase what are referred to DUMPS or documents that may or may not have the questions of the exam on them. Not only are your discrediting the certification that we spend many hours, months and years working to obtain, you are cheating your own future. Lets remember the certification is only the key to the interview, if you get to an interview without the real knowledge that the certification carries, that HR Agent may blacklist you against not only jobs with them but with their partner company’s as well, whats worse is that all your examinations can be revoked and you will be fined or even face imprisonment, save yourself such despair and put the hard work into completing your studies the right way.

When you Pass Nothing will feel more amazing knowing that you ROCK! Well Done, Never Give up!!!

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Top comments (12)

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aditmodi profile image
Adit Modi

Thanks to social media, success is normalized, What isn't discussed or shown is the difficulties that came before the success. Most people are not out there talking about the failures they experienced over and over again before they finally found success. Thank you, Devon for the blog post and sharing your failures.

"You cannot bypass failure before achieving success"

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deadki0001 profile image
DevonPatrick Adkins

Your welcome! & 100% Agreed @aditmodi, Social Media does cause this mindset, that we all pass, but seldom do we admit that we first failed before we Succeeded, even Great Inventors like Elon Musk, his Rockets failed too launch 3 - 4 times before he built SpaceX, which today will get man to the Moon and Mars.

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dvddpl profile image
Davide de Paolis

of course it feels better to succeed at the first try, but failures are part of the process.

I love the quote from Jocko Willnick

When things are going bad: Don’t get all bummed out, don’t get started, don’t get frustrated. No. Just look at the issue and say: “Good.”
Get up, dust off, reload, recalibrate, re-engage

Congrats for not giving up and finally get your certification

Also agree with other commenters.
What we see of other people successes' is just the tip of an iceberg:
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deadki0001 profile image
DevonPatrick Adkins

Love this @dvddpl excellent contribution to this article. The quote as well by Jocko Willnick, excellent as well!!

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jairaencio profile image
Jaira Encio

I also failed mine at first try. I was using aws everyday for my work so i was confident that i would pass the exam without studying that much. After i failed i studied and memorize all concepts and terms and that is how i passed. Skills is a plus but whitepaper is the key.

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deadki0001 profile image
DevonPatrick Adkins • Edited

Congratulations on passing @jairaencio, very good point regarding the white papers they are a must!

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jadounpushpraj profile image
Pushpraj Singh Jadoun

I also cleared AWS solutions architect associate exam. But I don't know what to do next... . I am in final year of engineering (Information Technology branch). Can someone guide me

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DevonPatrick Adkins

Hey Pushpraj well done on clearing your AWS Solutions Architect! I would say you already pretty well on your way to a great becoming a Cloud Engineer, In your position I would spend my free time putting together a portfolio of Labs to show potential employers you have what it takes to get the job done. Use Social Media as a tool, Such as LinkedIn, Twitter and even dev.to, to document your projects on Github Repos and teach others as well. An employer loves nothing better than a Team Player. That would be my focus if I were you, use this time to secure a good Internship or Job, before even having to apply for Jobs. You will see Recruiters reach out to you. Theres a major need for Cloud Engineers and that's from Solutions Architecture, DevOps, Support, Machine Learning there are many domains to go and grow through. Best of Luck @jadounpushpraj

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Rense Bakker

Is this a trick question? XD learning AWS is where you went wrong. I know its considered somewhat of an industry standard, but its an absolutely horrible platform to use... I'm still waiting for someone to pull DevOps/SysOps into the 21st century. There are actually good platforms out there already like vercel, netlify, but they don't offer the same flexibility that people think they need.

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Sysion-bit • Edited

Behind any success there is a series of trial and error, which not everyone wants to show, but they are extremely important to learning. I remember taking exams myself when I was learning the craft of writing. The most important thing is the moment in practice where just knowing theory doesn't improve anything in you, I wrote essays on various topics finding them on resources like check here where there are examples about work. And this way was done not in vain for practice is our everything and this rule applies to any specialty.

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ericcartel

I recommend you take practice test from P2PExams to prepare successfully for the AWS certification exam. These practice test will assist you get familiar with the exam pattern and types of questions. This familiarity will remove your stress and enhance your confidence. Furthermore, you will understand key concepts and pass the test with ease.
p2pexams.com/amazon

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