AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Official Study Guide: Associate Exam

This book ranks among the best technical books I have read. It ‘tics the boxes’ for having the appropriate content (scope of the book matches that of the exam) and level of detail, but what makes this book ‘great’ is the context and reference to operational best practices. For those with an ITIL or similar background the book will be especially rewarding as the AWS services and their operation are explained in a way that aligns with industry standard operational best practices.For me, this made the book more accessible – this is a book you can sit down and read. That said, the material is dense - read this (if possible) a chapter per sitting, when you are fresh, and take some time to think over what you read. I spent quite some time thinking ‘so how would this apply to a large scale production system’. Also spend time on the ‘Exam Essentials’ at the end of each chapter they are ‘gold’.Another reviewer mentioned ‘poorly formatted’. I completely disagree. The book is formatted the same as the SA Cert prep book – chapter, then exam essentials, hands on exercises, and a set of ~20 questions that are chapter specific. I found it easy to jump back to the appropriate section if I missed a question in the chapter quiz. I also found the order in which the authors presented topics to be well thought out, which also helped with ‘readability’.I received the book late in my prep for the exam, and delayed sitting for the exam as a result. I did have a concern that the book and my previous study materials would not align, but this was not the case. The book is ordered differently than the ACG online course, and in most cases the book provides more context and examples. I found a combination of the online course and the book very effective in helping me retain both concepts and facts (and you need both to pass this exam).My path to certification included this book, the A Cloud Guru SysOps online Cert course, and two different ‘practice exam’ products, (one from Whizlabs and one from BrainCert.The book mentions using practice tests as a study aid, and I am a proponent. I took every practice test available, then went back to review the wrong answers on every practice test 3-4 times over the course of several weeks to understand why the right answer was the right answer. This often led to reviewing the AWS documentation on a specific subject.

The best part of the book was the online practice tests and flash cards. I thought the book wasn't as easy to follow as some of the other study materials I used. But I can't complain; I passed my test. Hooray!

WS SysOps Associate certification guide is one of the many many resources to prepare for the exam, along with official AWS white papers and FAQs. Book authors are very experienced people and managed to got all concepts needed covering for the exam.Also, the book has an assessment at the beginning so you can do it before and after reading and end of chapter questions to measure level of understanding and where to reinforce knowledge. Those are sitar.to real exam questions helping new students get a feel of the questions. Some are fact based and many are small scenario based to prove you understand where each technology or product is more appropriate in a situation.Book does not teach you how to use he services in detail, which you be very long and not covered in the exam, you need to look at AWS tutorials and how to documentation, but it presents exercises as a cookbook so you can follow along and see things working.I think I saw few errors in two or three phrases but nothing that takes value away, surely correct in next print editions.Book also has much valuable exam tips and items to keep attention at the end of each chapter. I recommend if reading it once, review those factual information one more time.Last, the book will give you access to online exams simulations at a Willey portal. I haven't tried yet but assuming they are same very good quality as the original AWS Solutions Architect guide book, this will help gauging how well prepared you are for the exam.

I'm in Chapter 5 now.... I'm definitely picking up useful info. This will be my first AWS cert. I will update my review after my test.** UPDATE 12/28/2017** I Passed! The book was EXTREMELY valuable in preparing me. I would use it again. And the flashcards, quizzes, and 2 exams that come with the book were super useful (a handful of the questions were actually on the exam)... I also watched the Cloud Guru course, which helped to fill in some gaps. And I took the Whizlabs assessment and 2 of the Whizlabs practice exams (again, a couple of the questions showed up on the actual exam).The book is dense, but I'm definitely more knowledgeable about AWS because of going through it..... I think all of the exam concepts are adequately covered by the book and exercises alone. However, for the purposes of just passing, the practice exams (from the book and Whizlabs) did a fantastic job simulating the actual exam. But I'm not sure I could have passed with just the practice exams. Employ the combo strategy if you can! And best of luck!

I have taken several certification tests over the past years and have come to rely on Sybex books to be a generally safe reference. This book covered the material in the test to the point that I was able to pass the exam on the first sitting. Overall it was generally well structured with the exception of the database and deployment chapters these were a confusing conglomeration of general facts with very little clarity on what it was they were describing that really need to be re-edited. The exercises for the database and deployment operations had download locations referenced that are no longer accessible to the public, or were extremely vague, (load your app). In summary, it is a solid reference for the test however, if you are using it as a reference for DB operations or understanding all the deployment tools, lower your expectations.