The number of articles that I wrote in the last 2 months was less than usual. This happened because I focus most of my energy to get certified on the cloud - Microsoft Azure.
Last year in September I decided to try to get certified on ALL Microsoft Azure certifications. In total there were around 19 exams that I had to take, covering a lot of different topics from IoT and SAP to Data and Data Scientist. It was not an easy ride, and I would say that the hardest one for me was the Data Scientist certification. Not because it is hard, but because it is not something that I am doing day by day, and learning different algorithms and how to work with them was something different for me.
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One of the most common questions that I received was how long it took to prepare and what kind of resources I used. The training materials that I used were from Udemy plus training content that is available from Microsoft for each certification. For each exam, I spend around 20-30 hours studying and things become easier and easier once the pile of passed exams was bigger and bigger.
When I found time to prepare for the exams? Most of the time was when putting the kids to sleep and during the night when I had to go to them.
Did I fail any exam? Yes. When I took for the first time Data Scientist exam I failed big time. The questions were so different from what I expected that I asked myself if I can pass this exam without having to study for it for a few months.
Let's take a look at some tips and tricks that I used to study for the exams:
- Use online video training to build basic knowledge. I used video training from Scott Duffy and Alan Rodrigues, which I bought from Udemy.
- When were available I used two different video training for the same exam because different content is covered on each of them
- I cover the official documentation and learning path that Microsoft is offering for free only after I watched the video training.
- Hands-on experience is important. There are a lot of questions where you will need to know how to configure things in Azure Portal, ARM, or from the command line.
- When there are areas that you feel that you don't know well, Google it. There is a bunch of free documentation available.
- Before the exam watch one more time the video training content (in fast mode).
- Don't expect that after a while the exams to be easier, because the topics are different. There is a small overlap, but not enough to enable you to pass the exam.
- A great price for the training materials, which quality is pretty good.
- Pay one time per training and use it as much as possible for life
- The feedback section for each training enables you to get feedback from the others related to the quality of the content and trainer.
- You have the ability to require money back from Udemy if the training is not what you expected. I have done this for a few times and works very well.
- The total cost of training materials per exam was around $30-$50.
- At this moment in time, I own around 68 training packages from Udemy.
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