Once you have finished this book and completed the practical exercises, my personal recommendation is to first determine whether you have the confidence that you will score at least 80% on the exam. To determine this, come back to this section and read the overview. Next, run through the practice questions in this book, as they will map quite well to the questions in the actual exam. After that, if you still need more assurance, take the practice exam.
Once you decide to take the exam, there are some general guidelines you should be aware of. First, make sure you arrive at least 15 minutes before your scheduled time. Plan to arrive even earlier if possible – I usually plan to be at the proctor about 30 minutes early. This is to avoid any eventuality en route to the testing center such as traffic or public transport delays. If you live in an area of traffic extremes, you should take that into consideration. Remember that this is an important day and you should not be subject to additional stress such as traffic when you have an AWS exam to worry about.
Once you have arrived, you will be signed in and you will need to put your possessions in a locker. The lockers in typical testing centers are designed to hold only your essentials, so avoid bringing a laptop bag or other bulkier items. Once you get to your exam station, you will need to accept the terms and conditions of the exam. The exam timer starts immediately after this. The terms and conditions page is not timed, so if you need a few seconds to take a deep breath before your exam or to clear your head, this is the time to do it. After the clock starts, make sure that you read all the questions carefully and follow the advice given in Chapter 22, Example Tips and Tricks.
You have the option of marking each question you are unsure of so that you can come back to it later. I highly recommend doing that, as you might come across a question with a similar topic as you progress through the questions and that might help you answer the original question. Once you come to the end and you submit your exam, you will take a quick satisfaction survey. Immediately after that, you will be shown a page with either a pass or a fail score. Soon after the exam result has been recorded, you will receive an email with a breakdown of scores across each domain. If you fail, this will help you focus on the necessary domains that you need to brush up on. And always remember: keep calm. Good luck!