I passed the AWS Certified Developer - Associate (DVA-C02) exam, so I’m sharing my experience.
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Exam Result
- Score: 738/1000 (passed)
- Exam date/time: Wednesday, March 29, 2023, from 16:00 (test center)
- Pass notification (email): Thursday, March 30, 2023, 18:36
Prerequisite Knowledge
- I had a little experience developing apps with the AWS SDK
- On the other hand, I had almost no experience building services on AWS
- I had already passed the AWS certification
SAA-C03
Study Method (Conclusion: One Udemy Course + ChatGPT)
I used only the Udemy course below. Udemy’s AWS Certified Developer Associate Practice Exams (5 sets, 325 questions)
- Study period: 3 days
- Went through problem sets 1–3 in the Udemy course three times (for two of those passes, I used ChatGPT alongside it)
- On the first pass, I felt, “This is pretty hard”
Then I tried using ChatGPT as another way to study. If you search for something like “ChatGPT study method,” all kinds of articles come up, but I did not use any of them as a reference. I had felt that ChatGPT was highly accurate when answering IT-related questions while I was building apps as a hobby, so I used it the same way for exam prep.
How I Used ChatGPT
- Paste in the question text and have it answer (accuracy: △)
- Its ability to understand Japanese trick-question wording is low
- I felt that asking ChatGPT once before checking the answer was good for memory, but because its accuracy was low, I did not use this approach much
- Ask about AWS services I did not know (accuracy: ◎)
- When an unfamiliar service (for example,
Cognito) came up, asking about it each time was extremely useful - I felt its explanations of AWS services were very accurate
- When an unfamiliar service (for example,
- “Reverse-teach” it in conversation (accuracy: ◎)
- When it gave a wrong answer, if I taught it something like, “X is actually Y,” it would honestly thank me
- The idea that “teaching is more efficient for memory than being taught” was something I could casually do with an AI, which was nice
- Sometimes it made me sad (like, what am I doing talking to an AI alone?)
The Actual Exam
It was pretty difficult. It did not feel at all like, “Oh, this is exactly what I studied!” Even if you memorize the questions and answers from the Udemy course I used, that alone might not help that much.
On the other hand, there were many questions where I could infer the answer from memories of my conversations with ChatGPT.
Thoughts
Studying with ChatGPT felt personally revolutionary, so I definitely recommend trying it. Even if you do not try to use it perfectly from the start, just casually asking whatever you are curious about is genuinely fun.
(Wait, this is turning into my thoughts on ChatGPT, not the exam.)
Finally
If you are unsure how to study, Run through the question bank → ask ChatGPT about any unfamiliar services that show up This loop alone is enough.
