Learning about learning: AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam (CPE)
When I imagined getting an AWS “Cloud Practitioner” certification, I thought it’d be an involved process, where I’d spin up disposable resources and glue them together with highly customized security groups, and the like. What I found instead was being asked to remember a litany of facts and definitions… not to downplay the importance of words meaning things — having a shared, understood language is critical when we’re collaborating — but the approach to learning facts and definitions is what this exam is asking for.
In order to tackle this project, I came up with a three-part learning strategy —
1) Practicing Like You Perform
2) Spaced-Repetition Learning
3) Testing before Learning
PRACTICE LIKE YOU PERFORM
The AWS CPE, it turns out, is a timed, grueling, multiple-choice question exam proctored in a room similar to one they interrogate prisoners in. So, that’s where and how I planned to study. The two best tools I found for this were WhizLabs and ACloudGuru — (ACG) even throws in a t-shirt w/ a membership that is as comfortable as it is misleading if this is your first “Cert”.
ACG and WhizLabs both give timed exams asking THE SAME questions, in THE SAME FORMAT you will see on the AWS Exam. Bingo.
SPACED-REPETITION LEARNING
When I was a college student, I used an app called SuperMemo for exams/quizzes that forced me to learn a large number of facts; SuperMemo was software built on an algorithm used to calculate a user’s “forgetting curve” so that flashcards can be served just as a user is about to forget the information.
The theory is that recalling information we’ve learned when it’s tough-but-still-accessible increases both
a) the amount of information that can be processed
b) the length of time that information can be processed
two critical factors when you need to understand the nuance between the 800+ questions provided by ACG and WhizLabs.
Today, my tool of choice is Anki Flashcards, which follows the same principles. The last time I checked, it was free on Android, MacOs, and PC, and cost $26 on iOS 🤷♂. The best part is that you can sync progress/profile/collections across devices.
TESTING BEFORE LEARNING
Before I watched a single video, or read a single whitepaper, or looked at anything related to the CPE Exam, I took a practice exam, cold. What better way to get an idea of what AWS thinks is important for me to glean out of that ocean of information, than to have it let me know where I’m the most ignorant starting out? If your brain is anything like mine, it takes being wrong a little personally. Taking, and failing, exams related to the information you’re about to learn will prime your brain to pick out the important details as you learn — and will help tune you back in when you inevitably start to lose focus.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER
With my learning strategies defined, I got to work. I decided to completely skip taking notes on any videos (played at 1.25x) or trying to deeply understand any whitepapers — with 800+ nuanced questions/answer being provided by WhizLabs and ACG, the details came largely into focus, and drove specific searches into documentation to answer questions about WHY my answer was wrong.
Each day, I took an exam from each resource, cold. I then went over the results of each, and screenshot them into Anki flashcards (you will get really efficient at this). On day 2, I started using Anki flashcards, and THEN taking the two exams, and adding more questions to the mix (no need to add duplicates).
Every once in a while I’d jump on the AWS Developer Console and check out the AWS products I was answering questions about, or I’d watch/listen to a video at faster-than-normal speed to fill in the gaps.
This entire process, from exam taking and SRS flashcard making to passing the CPE took about 3 weeks — your mileage may vary.
BONUS LEARNING — RETENTION
You can set Anki to ask you questions from ALL/SOME of your flashcard groups — helping you retain facts from all kinds of things you’ve gone over in the past.
