Tag Archives: certification

Jeanne’s experiences taking the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam

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Yesterday, I took and passed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam. Also see:

Registering for the exam

Registering was pretty easy. You enter your zip code and it tells you the next available exam date of the nearby centers. You can click on each one to see actual dates/times. There were both weekday and weekend choices which was nice.

The exam center

I took the exam at “Forest Hills Brainseed.” Being able to walk to the venue was nice because I could leave “unnecessary objects” at home!

The center had a locker for your stuff. You hold the key during the exam. They weren’t strict about what you put in the locker. I kept my credit card and tissues in my pockets. (Some centers have made me empty my pockets.) The center keeps your drivers license while you are in the exam room.

Like most exams, you are entitled to a writing utensil and something to write on. This center uses paper and pencil. I haven’t gotten physical paper at an exam in ages. It was *so* nice.

This center also provides ear plugs which I didn’t need.

The center had two rooms of 10 computers each. My room was less than half filled, but it was still hot. Luckily, I wore a short sleeve t-shirt under a sweatshirt so could just remove my sweatshirt.

The actual exam

The software didn’t log me in at first. The center had me change computers and then it worked.

After 22 minutes, I had completed my first pass of the exam and was 100% confident on 44 of the answers. (Passing is a little higher than that.) Luckily I was 50% confident of others. I did some more review but turned it in with about 50 minutes left. (I always finish cert exams quickly.)

After you click “End test”, you get 6-9 survey questions. Then you get your pass/fail result. One to five days later, you’ll get an email with your actual score. (Janeice and I both got the score one day later). Given that this is a pass fail exam, the score isn’t important to me. That said, I did get a good score – 895 (out of 1000)

How to view your score

  • Sign in to the AWS Training and Certification Portal.
  • Click the ‘Certification’ tab.
  • Click the ‘AWS Certification Account’ button.
  • Click “Previous Exams”
  • Click “Download” on the right hand side

OCA/OCP 8 Programmer Practice Tests AVAILABLE NOW!

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Jeanne and I are really excited to announce that our new book OCA / OCP Practice Tests: Exam 1Z0-808 and Exam 1Z0-809 is now shipping. In fact, we just received our copies today! The book is available in both print and digital formats from Amazon and other major book retailers. In addition, purchasing this book grants the holder access to Sybex’s interactive test bank!

This book serves as worthwhile companion to our previous two books, now available as set, The OCA / OCP Certification Kit. With this book you are really getting two books in one, as Jeanne and I packed over 1000+ questions into this text, covering both the OCA and OCP exams. To better prepare you for test day, we also threw in two simulated OCA/OCP exams. Whether your taking the OCA exam now and thinking about the OCP exam down the road, or taking the OCP exam and need a refresher on the cumulative material, this book has got you covered!

This book covers 100% of all exam objectives in these practice tests, which means you’ll be ready for:

  • Java basics, class design, and data types
  • Using decision and loop constructs
  • Building and using arrays
  • Methods, encapsulation, and inheritance
  • Mastering Java Streams
  • Working with the Date/Time API and Localization
  • Understanding design patterns and principles
  • Writing Lambda expressions and functional interfaces
  • Exceptions and assertions
  • Java File I/O (NIO.2)
  • Concurrency and localization
  • JDBC and database applications

Jeanne and I put a lot of time, energy, and planning into this new book and we really hope our reader enjoy it!

Announcing: Our NEW Java OCA / OCP 8 Practice Test Book!

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Jeanne and I are thrilled and excited to announce that we are nearly done writing a brand new book for the OCA / OCP Java 8 Programmer exams!

The new book, OCA / OCP Java SE 8 Programmer Practice Tests, includes over 1000+ hand-crafted and peer reviewed questions. We’ve also created a new permanent Practice Tests OCA / OCP 8 book page on the blog to keep track of updates and news about the new book.

Jeanne and I wanted to say how thankful we are to our all of our readers of our first two books. Without your invaluable feedback and positive reviews, we never would have been offered this opportunity to expand our OCA and OCP subject matter. We promise to make this next book our best yet!

We are expecting to ship the book in March 2017. Stay tuned for additional news about the book!