I passed! I got my AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03) certification 389389389 You can even see it if you really want to. There is something extremely addictive to me about collecting these silly little badges. It makes all the nerves and anxiety I was feeling beforehand worth it somehow. I know, weird right? Before I sat the exam, all my bravado was gone and I was thinking "I don't want to do another certification ever again". As soon as I found out I'd passed, I was looking up which one to do next (thinking Developer Associate, in case you were wondering). So bizarre and ridiculous.

Anyway, enough about my brain. I thought I'd write up some notes about what I did that got me that pass in the hopes of giving you some ideas if you're in the middle of studying for yours. I also wanted to write some suggestions for future me about how I could do things differently next time, so there will be some discussion of that in here too.

I did a course. Or two.

I started studying for SAA-C03 not long after I did my Cloud Practitioner exam. I started off doing Stephane Maarek's very thorough Udemy course (I get access to Udemy for free through work, but this course normally costs �a359.99) and pretty much finished it. Somewhere along the line, I lost interest in the entire certification process - I was busy at work and in my personal life and I just didn't have the capacity. When I came back to it, I was looking for a different course to do as I didn't really want to do the same one again.

A colleague had recommended A Cloud Guru, so I gave their Solutions Architect Associate course a go as well. I picked up a subscription during a half price sale so I managed to get their Personal Plus plan for �a317.99/month, but normally it costs a fair bit more than that so I can see why people balk at it. I must say that I found the whole approach of the course really suited my learning style, especially with the added practical labs that you get with Personal Plus. Every section has an "exam tips" overview and I found watching through these the day before my exam especially helpful. The word associations the course plants in your brain also served me really well - "if you see Cassandra, think Keyspaces", that kind of thing.