How to prepare for the Professional Certified Architect Exam new version 2019

To start with what’s important: I passed on March 30 with 826 points the solution architect professional exam. Yeeee 🙂

I want to thank Scott Pletcher (THANK YOU SCOTT !!!) and acloud.guru for their well-organized way of preparing the material. I suggest you take the membership program, this will give you access to other areas and if you take this exam don’t stop, it’s easier after this one!!! And want to thank all who wrote reviews on the discussion board in acloud.guru, Mukul Gopal , Radu Lupan and all others.

The exam was difficult but not so difficult as I was expecting. I work a lot at work with AWS so I have experience in around 50% of the areas needed. I even work with Organizations, a hot topic you need to study a lot. It’s not difficult but you need to test this.

I have 2 other certifications, 2017 Architect associate and 2018 Developer Associate. this is my advice for people with similar knowledge like me, so with AWS experience.

Important areas: Organizations, VPC, networking, direct connect, VPN, lambda, step, batch, s3, CloudFront, api , rds , dynamodb, efs, gateway storage , cloudwatch , config , system manager , others.

Most difficult question : How to study lambda logs in case of 504 from api connected to lambda, options :  , vpc flowlog , xray , cloudwatch , other options.

Start 2-3 months in advance. Use both courses , Acloud.guru and Udemy , invest 2-3 h a day and more over the weekend if possible.

1 month before the exam :

take tests , a lot of them , as many as you can . A test takes 3 h , you need to train for this , I have run 8 different tests . The problem is not the course, is to review every question even if it’s correct. Could be you where lucky so you need to check every of them and study the weak areas. For me the reviews where taking from 6h / test to 3-4 days to understand every question and to check every weak area.

2 weeks before the exam : try the practice exam from PSI or Amazon ( the 40 $ one , you have a discount if you bought the exam so it’s free ) . I had the same score as others 30% , I was shocked !!!! Don’t despair , it’s more difficult than the real exam. And you have another 2 weeks to prepare 🙂

In the last week try at least 4 tests , try acloud.guru test again and again, it’s mental training too , the exam is difficult you need to train your brain for so many questions in such a short interval under stress .

If you run the 2 courses and the tests I add the links here , you will cover over 90% of the exam. You will be prepared.

The exam : You will not have a lot of time left , you will not go over the questions again ,except a few . So focus and if a question is simple , invest 5 sec to be sure there is no trick , if not , next one. If you need 5-8 min on one question , no problem , are other that are fast. Try to keep the 25 question / h pace !!! , I suggest you try to have a small reserve, I had around 5 min / h , I lost 5 min for the bathroom 🙂 . Could review in the last 10 min / 8 questions with flags.

Hope you see the congratulations !!!!

Whitepapers , videos , aws training material ( are a lot free ) . Check on Amazon , they add all the time new videos.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional 2019 https://www.udemy.com/share/1003rIAkYdeVpbQnQ=/ by Zeal Vora

300 AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Practice Test Questions in 4 sets with Explanations and References https://www.udemy.com/share/100wHEAkYdeVpbQnQ=/ by Jon Bonso

AWS CSAP – Certified Solutions Architect Professional practice tests & datailed explanations – ( NEW TESTS ) – 2019 https://www.udemy.com/share/1005UuAkYdeVpbQnQ=/