How I passed SAA-C03 in Jan 2024 with a power failure in the end.

Having spent over 4 years in the AWS/Cloud domain, the AWS Certified Solutions Architect exam always lingered on my to-do list but I could never find the time and motivation to sit and study for long hours.

Read through the end to find out about the power failure drama!

This year-end (2023) I finally made up my mind to study and appear for it.

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

I started preparing for the exam during the Christmas Holidays, While being a Hindu might not traditionally involve Christmas celebrations, I utilized the downtime wisely.

How long did I study?

A comprehensive 15 days. Despite prior AWS work experience, facing a multiple-choice exam required a unique approach.

I devoted nearly 8 hours during the 2 long weekends and 4 hours on other days to my preparation.

My TRUE source of study

Thanks to my organisation (Thomson Reuters) I had access to the A Cloud Guru Platform and their course material is very detailed. I watched the entire course at 1.5x speed.

After I finished my course I thought I was ready to appear for the exam but then I attempted Stéphane Maarek’s Practice Tests on Udemy and realized I needed to study a LOT more.

So I attempted the first 4 tests with 50%, visited all the incorrect answers, prepared notes out of those and revised them all, then I attempted the 5th one and got 76% and 6th one with 73%, which boosted my morale a little bit, but I still need to study more.

I kept on remembering what Stéphane mentioned in the Course Description

“Guaranteed chance to pass the exam if you score 90%+ on each practice exam”

and I knew I needed to score more before booking my exam. so I made a second attempt and I scored almost 85% on all the tests. but I kept on thinking about his statement so I made a third attempt after 2 days of no study and just revising my notes and I got 92% in 2 of the exams. I felt I was ready to book the exam.

So I booked the exam on January 13th (which was also a festival day for the Northern part of India — Lohri)

Lohri Festival

The Unforeseen Twist

My exam was at 8:30 and you are supposed to check in 30 minutes before the exam, so I logged in and cleared all the system tests and my exam started almost at 8:15.

I started solving all the questions and asked for a washroom break but the proctor denied it as per the policy you are not allowed to leave your seat.

I answered all the questions and flagged a few to revisit, As soon as I visited the 65th question(the last one), I clicked on a button on the bottom right, I don't even remember whether it was a Finish Test button or review flagged, as soon as I clicked that, my screen went blank and I realized I had unplugged my laptop when the proctor asked me to show the room and never plugged it back.

Photo by Kari Shea on Unsplash

Of course, I had a panic moment, I tried to log in after my laptop restarted but was denied access. I raised a ticket with Pearson Vue to look into the case and allow me to reschedule the exam.

In my mind, I was all prepared to reattempt it the following weekend.

To my surprise, when I woke up the next morning, I saw a Credly Badge in my email and could not believe I passed the exam and didn't need to reappear, a pleasant surprise and a significant relief.

In retrospect, the experience was worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed the course, practice tests, and the notes from @abdur Rahman

Key Takeaway

1. Take your time to prepare for the exam, it could be 2 months or 2 weeks. Have Patience.
2. Make notes from the incorrect answers and revise them.
3. Pick any one online course(ACG, Udemy) and watch it thoroughly.
4. Keep your laptop connected to POWER at all times during the exam.
5. Don't drink much water during the exam, you will not be allowed to use the washroom.
6. Sleep well before the exam, I don't think I slept well the day before and I was feeling really tired during the exam, which could affect your brain’s processing capabilities.

If you are working on Amazon Web Services AWS, I would encourage you to appear for the exam. If you need any preparation tips, feel free to reach out to me in the comments below. I would be happy to help.

Good Luck with your exam!