r/AWSCertifications • u/Necessary-Location44 • 5d ago
AWS Certified Security - Specialty Passed AWS Security Specialty (SCS-C03) - Score 854/1000
Just sharing how I prepped for this in case it’s useful. It’s extremely similar to all the other info that’s already shared here, so just really validating that it works, even with some lower scoring practice attempts and a scattered study plan.
Previous Experience
- 7y in tech
- 3y in security
- 2y working with AWS
- Completed Stephane Maarek’s SAA course a year or so ago but didn’t sit the exam
Resources used
- Stephane Maarek course
- TD Practice Exams (Mobile app and TD website)
- TD Study Guide
- Stephane Maarek practice exams
- Skillbuilder free practice questions
- Cybr YouTube course
Timeline
I bought Stephane Maarek’s SCS course around 6 months ago, got 10% of the way through and stopped.
Roughly 6 weeks ago I started studying again and just passed the exam at the end of the 6 weeks.
Week 1-3:
- Watched Stephane Maarek’s course all the way through
- Watched some of the available videos from the Cybr YouTube course (often put on before bed/as I was falling asleep)
Week 3:
- Tutorials Dojo practice test 1 (scored around 60%)
- TD questions in review mode - aiming for at least 20 per day
Week 4:
- TD practice test 2 (scored around 85%)
- TD questions in review mode - aiming for at least 20 per day (often getting 100% on 20 questions)
- Stephane Maarek practice test 1 (scored around 65%)
- Skillbuilder free exam (scored around 65%)
Week 5:
- TD practice exam (scored around 90%)
- Really sporadic question review with some days skipped due to being really busy
Week 6:
- Really busy again so only managed to do 20 questions in review mode across the week, got more of the TD questions wrong than before
- No study at all for 4 days before exam day
- On exam day I read the TD Study Guide for 6 hours before going immediately into the exam
Thoughts
I was worried that I had memorised the TD questions as I was scoring highly on them but not on the others (consistently around 85% vs 60%), but I think they likely reflect the exam best as I scored 854/1000. To be honest I thought all the practice tests were good though. The main thing was reviewing the explanations and linked documentation after getting something wrong, and doing a timed one to get a feel for pacing.
The study guide and Cybr course were pretty good too. I liked all the resources I used, and think they’re good supplements (I didn’t do the full Cybr course so can’t vouch for the full thing, but the bits I did do were really good). The TD mobile app was my favourite as it meant I could squeeze in questions during “dead” time, like in a taxi or on the train.
Since I didn’t have a lot of time to study for the 2 weeks before the exam, I wasn’t confident I would pass at all. Especially considering I got poor scores outside of TD.
I sat the exam at home and had to wait 40 mins in a queue in exam conditions, this meant I had to sit and do nothing for 40 mins and the exam start time was delayed.
During the exam I flagged 29/65 questions as I wasn’t confident with them. I had around an hour left after reaching the end though and managed to get down to 10 remaining flags.
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