This is the ORIGINAL post.
For SCS-C02 exam only
After putting it off many times, I finally got a free half day to take the AWS Certified Security Specialty exam. And phew…, I passed it and got certified.
I was surprised this time as I did not spend much time preparing for it and I did not even buy any paid tutorial and practice tests. All of the resources I used are free.
You must be interested in how I achieved it.
Let’s get into it now!
Learning Materials
Lots of examinees including me do not like or are not used to reading official documents as they look boring and just text. Instead, video tutorials are much more direct and easier to understand.
So here I would like to say something before we dive into the materials.
You must start learning and understanding things via text instead of videos as you need to spend 3 hours reading lots of questions and answers in Text.
AWS Certified Security — Specialty (SCS-C02) Exam Guide
This is the most important document you should read multiple times and take it a checklist for your knowledge before taking this exam.
There are six domains for this exam and in fact, there is much overlapped knowledge if you have taken some other AWS exams.
What I have done was to go through every sentence and check if the related knowledge is in my brain. If not, I usually do three things:
- Google the related services and check the key points for this service
- Log into AWS Management Console to do some practice
- Yes, you can also check the related knowledge on Youtube
I think this is the fastest way to understand what level you are at and what you lack regarding the scope of the exam.
AWS Skill Builder Material
As an AWS Community Builder, I would highly recommend AWS Skill Builders website it offers so many free learning courses. Below is what you can find and they are totally free.
- AWS Security Fundamentals Second Edition
- Exam Prep Official Practice Question Set : AWS Certified Security — Specialty (SCS-C02 — English)
You can also use the Filter function to find out the topic you are interested in.
AWS White-Papers are Always Recommended to Read
For my last 7 years of learning and working on AWS, I read lots of AWS architecture blogs and AWS re:Invent videos on YouTube. These help a lot and I found some of the questions are coming from them which are real customer use cases. Also, AWS white-papers are highly recommended! Below two are must-reads that I recommended many times in my previous blogs:
Jayendrapatil.com
If you are an AWS learner, you should meet this guy and know his blog website.
I’m not here to advertise for him, but his blog website is really well-made.
You can check out the learning path for AWS Certified Security — Specialty (SCS-C02) Exam.
Time Plan And Tips
Compared with AWS Certified Solution Architect Professional, the Security Specialty Exam is a bit easier. If you ask me how you need to schedule your exam, I would say it depends.
However, there is a most general rule you should follow: Don’t study intermittently.
You should schedule at least a couple of hours of learning every two or three days if you are too busy with no matter your job or family things before the exam.
Remember to note down the knowledge points you are not familiar with and review them before the exam.
This is particularly important for those who are not native English speakers, like myself. You have the option to ask for an additional 30 minutes to finish the exam permanently. Once this extension is granted, it will apply to all subsequent exam registrations as well.
Last but not least, I would like to emphasize!
Finally
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Thanks.
