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Month: May 2021

  • The Ultimate Guide To Organising Your Home

    The Ultimate Guide To Organising Your Home

    Organising a home has always been a very hard thing to do, and often people feel overwhelmed by the tasks and important issues they have to deal with in their everyday life. But, on the other hand, everybody loves to spend their free time in the comfort of their own house. This is why sacrifices need to be made. Well, I won’t lie to you, maintaining and organising your home is a very difficult challenge, but it’s not impossible.

    If you have enough will and motivation, you can learn to keep everything inside your house in order all the time. The only thing you need is a lot of patience, lots of cleaning products and the ultimate guide to organising your home I have prepared for you. So, let’s get on with it, shall we?

    Organising your kitchen

    The kitchen is a very important part of every residential property. This is the place where we cook our meals and store our food, so it’s mandatory that this space is clean and well maintained all the time. It would help you a lot if you manage to maintain a clean surrounding while you’re cooking since this is the main reason why kitchens get dirty. Even if you’re the most careful person in the world, it’s impossible to cut and cook food, without dropping some on the floor or on the kitchen surfaces.

    Regular cleaning

    This is why one of the most important household tips I can give you is to clean after yourself every time you cook. It will take you a lot less time to do that than to clean the entire kitchen once in a while. And let’s not even start on the topic where dried food is very difficult to remove.

    Appliances

    The appliances are also an integral part of every kitchen, so you should also think about those when organising your household. The oven, fridge and dishwasher are in constant touch with different food particles, so the development of dangerous bacteria is not out of the question. So, regular cleaning of the inside of the oven at least once every two weeks should be always in your cleaning schedule. The dishwasher and the fridge can be cleaned once a month or so, but make sure it’s a very thorough cleaning session.

    Cluttered cupboards

    Another very important organising issue in your kitchen is the clutter inside the cupboards. You should try to organise it somehow. Many property owners find it very useful to segregate all their spices, utensils and all the other junk in different cupboards or inside boxes, jars and other organisational methods. You just need to find yours.

    Cleaning and organising your floors

    The floors are also a crucial part of every home, and they are also a hidden danger to our health because they gather a lot of dust and dirt from the outside, which is never good. The way of organising and cleaning your floors depends on the type of floor covering you have. Spoiler alert – it will be a lot easier to clean your floors if you don’t have any unneeded items lying around. This means that first, you will need to get rid of every smaller item standing in your way, like chairs, kid’s toys, stands and all the other things.

    As, we know, every residential property stores a lot of junk in it, so you should at least remove the ones standing in the middle of the rooms. Then you should gather all the dust, sand and other particles with a hoover or a broom and treat the floor with a cleaner, suitable for the surface – wood, tile, cement, laminate and others. Remember, every type of flooring has its own preferences when it comes to cleaning, and using the wrong cleaning product can harm it irreversibly, so be careful! When it comes to keeping your floor clean and organised for longer, maybe you should consider putting some rugs or maybe a carpet in the high traffic areas of your home. The rugs and carpets will store all the dirt and dust, this way making your cleaning a lot easier, and they can look quite fancy and stylish all at the same time.

    If you decide to go with carpets, though, make sure you deep clean them every 6 months. You can do this by hiring a professional carpet cleaning company as they have the professional equipment and detergents that would provide the best results. The same goes for very deep and old stains – don’t try to clean them by yourself because you can damage the fabric forever.

    Cleaning your windows

    Just like they say the eyes are a window to a person’s soul, the same applies for the windows – they are the house’s eyes. There is a big difference between a property with clean windows compared to the one with dirty ones. For once, the one with the dirty windows doesn’t get enough sunlight inside it, which makes the air quality inside very low. This is why you should put the window cleaning on top of your monthly cleaning schedule. The most serious issue here is, that windows can be easily stained by rain or direct sun exposure just after cleaning. But don’t worry, nowadays you can find all kinds of cleaning products on the market, which prevent smudges at all times.

    Height is also a popular issue homeowners stumble upon when dealing with dirty windows, and many of them prefer to leave the cleaning of those to a licensed high-rise window cleaning service.

    Another very serious issue when it comes to windows is the fact that they gather condensation, which is the first step to developing mould. If this is your case, you should try to insulate your windows and check the ventilation system in your property. If these two factors are fine, you should maybe consider buying a dehumidifier for your home.

    Roof and gutters

    The roof in an integral structural component of every property, and you should seriously think about it when you’re organising your home. The roof is the thing which protects us from all the bad outside influences, so it’s quite important to keep it in the best possible condition. No matter what type of roof you have in your property – flat, hidden, triangle or pitched roof, it gets worn out after time, so the best property solution here is regular monitoring and checking and fixing small issues before they get big.

    Every roof type handles the weather conditions in a different way, but the part which takes the biggest hit are the gutters. They are the most significant invention which gets the water off the roof safely, but they also get clogged quite often and can cause more trouble than solutions. This is the time for my next household cleaning tip for you – make sure your gutters are always functional and clean. Don’t worry, you won’t have to go up there and check them every single week. Once in a year, usually in fall, is more than enough.

    Decluttering your home

    The clutter in your residential property is a very serious organising issue, but most people always put it on the bottom of their cleaning schedule. But with time the clutter grows bigger and bigger, until one day it just can’t be ignored anymore. The biggest areas of the house, which gather clutter on a regular basis, are the attic, the basement, the closet space, and your kid’s room. So, it’s understandable why children’s rooms contain lots of junk and toys, but the other parts of the house are just an excuse for our reluctance to throw away anything useless and old.

    But you should get over this harmful habit if you want your residential property to be well organised and clutter-free. The easiest way to get rid of the unneeded junk is to separate all the items in piles, one for the things which are still useful, one for the things you think you could donate, and one for the things nobody can benefit from but the trash. This way you will get rid of a big part of your stored items, and it will be easier to organise the rest. To do that, you can use different boxes and shelves, which will make everything look structured and neat.

    How to take care of pests

    Pest infestations are a very serious issue for every commercial or residential property because they can even cause serious structural damage to the entire thing. Why do they come? Well, the different pests come to our homes for various reasons, but the main ones are quite obvious – food, shelter, warmth. The pests also need a safe and nice environment in order to grow, develop and multiply. And obviously, our homes are the places which can provide all these things at once.

    But don’t worry, if your cleaning schedule is strict and includes cleaning leftover food from cupboards and surfaces, the risk of pests finding your house to be an attractive destination is quite small. But if you already have pests in your home, you should take immediate action towards cleaning and organising your home, in order to get rid of the infestation. Fortunately, nowadays there are countless methods of dealing with these unpleasant creatures, including poison, traps and natural repellents. Just be very careful when using these methods to avoid additional endangerment.

    Cleaning your bathroom

    The bathroom is supposed to be one of the cleanest places in the entire house, because of the fact that we get ourselves cleaned in it. Well, this is a very common misconception. The bathroom can be as dirty as every other room, even worse. On one side there is the issue about the soap and toothpaste stains all over the place, and on the other, there’s the mould, which grows freely in most bathrooms. A very important part of organising your home is to take care of the hygiene in this room. The bathtub, sink and toilet need to be regularly cleaned, the ventilation system needs to be functional all the time, and all the important items should be stored in cabinets, where the moisture can’t get to them. If you want a quick and high-quality cleaning effect, I would suggest using vinegar and baking soda, which are the strongest natural disinfectants known to mankind.

    Furniture

    The furniture usually gathers a lot of dust from the room. The easiest way for a person to estimate how long a room hasn’t been cleaned is by checking for dust on the shelves and bookcases. Of course, the levels of dust depend on the region you live in, but it’s a fact that even in the cleanest places there is still dust.

    The property maintenance solution here is one – you need to find a furniture cleaner that prevents the dust from settling down on the surface. This way your furniture’s cleanliness will last a lot longer. Also, the small items we keep on the furniture are dust catchers, so try to limit their count to a minimum.

    Safety issues

    Organising your home means not only organising all the rooms and items but also organising the safety of the property you live in. This topic includes many things, from the energy efficiency and gas safety of the house to the safety of the locks in the place. Not many properties meet all the requirements, but you will have to at least try. Lately the most efficient way to protect your home from burglaries and theft are the security systems. And when it comes to protecting the lives and health of the residents, regular checkups of the appliances and systems are just something that needs to be done.

    Prioritizing

    We hope the ultimate guide to organising your home will be useful for many people. But while you put on your gloves and grab the detergent, just remember that you can’t clean absolutely everything right away. Even the smallest home has lots of corners, and if we want to keep them all clean, we need to organise our work and prioritize. Otherwise, you will find yourself quite lost in the big pile of chores that need to be done.

     

     

  • 7 Tips on How to Manage your Household Budget

    7 Tips on How to Manage your Household Budget

    You might think you are very good at saving money but if you don’t have an actual budgeting system that you follow thoroughly, saving up can be quite difficult. Organise yourself and your family so that you can pay your living expenses, pay off your debts on time, save money for the future and overall make your life a lot more enjoyable, without the anxiety of making ends meet. Prepare for emergency situations and secure your family. No matter if you’re trying to save up money for something or you just need a good family budget system, being organized is extremely important.

    In this article, we will show you the 7 most important steps in creating a successful budgeting system that will work no matter if you have a family or you live alone.

    7 important tips on managing your household finances

    Set your goals

    First of all, you should decide what exactly do you want to gain by organising your budget. Do you want to save money for emergencies or do you want to pay off your debt? Depending on the answer, we can separate the financial goals into two categories: immediate and long-range goals.

    As you can guess by the name, immediate goals are the things that require money right away and they can be used for a luxury or a necessity. Long-range goals mostly include saving this money for the year ahead and either spending it slowly over the years or once on a big event in the far future. Those two goals are quite codependent – how you spend and save your money today will affect what you will have later on in the future.

    Immediate financial goals on their own can be separated into different groups of spendings – obligatory, like your mortgage, other debts, monthly rent, bills, household supplies, food, cell phone, and child or pet-related expenses. These are the things you cannot delay in paying for. Then, you have the secondary goals that include non-essential expenses such as dining out, subscriptions, clothes, going on vacations, etc. Things you don’t necessarily need to spend money on and if you have more obligatory expenses and not enough money, you should consider cutting those expenses to make things easier.

    Long-range financial goals might include retirement savings, investments – car or home, saving money to send your kids or even yourself to university or college, moving to another country, moving away from home, anything that will require a larger sum of money and is kind of far in the future. Planning for these long-term goals might include starting and contributing to an IRA or Roth IRA, seeking out grants and scholarships, as well as comparing interest rates for student loans for your child’s college education. As we said earlier, immediate expenses affect your money in the future. If you spend too much on non-essential items and don’t pay off your debts on time, for example, you will certainly face those decisions later on in life and possibly regret them.

    Track your spendings

    Now that you know where you want to be in the future, it’s time to see how you’re dealing in the present. See what are the things you spend the most money on. To make things easier, you can even divide your spendings into three different categories – fixed and variable committed expenses or non-essential (discretionary) expenses. The fixed ones are your rent, mortgage, debt, which are usually the same price each month. The variable ones are still essential, but the amount of money varies each time – one month you might need more gasoline than the other, for example. Lastly, discretionary expenses will include your gym membership, going out to eat with friends or spending the weekend out of town.

    Put all of those expenses together and if the leftover money is not enough, reevaluate your way of spending money, as well as the things you might consider important but aren’t actually essential. We understand that it’s quite difficult to say bye to the things you love doing or buying, especially if you have kids that don’t really grasp the concept of saving money for the future. However, this is easily the most important step of it all because includes the acknowledgment of the things we are doing wrong and working towards a better future.

    Spending more than what you earn is not normal and if that is the case, you will need a serious rearrangement of priorities. Ask yourself every time you will spend money if you really need to do this and if there is a cheaper alternative. For example, if you have the chance to make your lunch at home or walk to work, it would be a lot better to do so. See what memberships you can cancel that you don’t even use that much and relocate the money to places where it’s most needed.

    Choosing a Budgeting System

    So you’re up to the point where you’ve set your goals, you know the things you spend your money on, but how to keep all of this information organised? Luckily, there are many ways to do this but we will concentrate on the four basic ones that are proven in time to be the most effective and, of course, budget-friendly.

    • A spending diary.

    This is maybe the oldest budget tracking method in time and it’s the one the whole family can join into. You only a pen and a notebook. It would be easier to keep the whole family’s expenses in one notebook but if you have kids, you can encourage them to make their own and even turn in into a game. Help them craft an awesome looking budgeting diary and show them how fun saving money can be. You can even propose that they draw their dreams and goals so that everything seems more real. And for the adults in the family, you only have to write the expenses in whichever way would be easier for you to track them. You can split them by categories or by which person is spending the money. Find what works best for you.

    • A spreadsheet.

    This method might not be as fun for the kids as a crafty notebook but it makes things a lot easier for the adults as it does all the calculations automatically. The most used software is Microsoft Excel, of course, and you can find a ton of example budgeting spreadsheets on the Internet if you don’t know where to start. You can also use the Google Sheets system that would allow for other members to edit the spreadsheet online from any device. From the history option, you can also see who did what, which makes tracking a lot easier than an offline spreadsheet.

    • A free online software.

    And then there are some free web-based programs that are not created especially for budgeting but still do a pretty good job at it. We can recommend that you try either Mint.com or Manilla as they allow you to group all of your spendings, regardless of the category that they fall into and monitor them properly.

    • A special financial software.

    And lastly, you have the various software programs made especially for tracking and managing your finances but most of them are a bit tricky to use, especially for younger or older members of the family.

    Make a thorough research to see which method would work the best for you and your family and stick with it.

    Prepare for seasonal expenses

    These are the type of expenses that come once or twice a year and are able to put quite a hole on your family budget. Holidays that include family gatherings, presents, decorations, etc., are usually the ones we spend the most money on. Will you be the host for a grand family dinner? Do you need to buy presents for all your nephews and nieces? If the answer is yes, then it’s a good idea to plan all those things ahead. It’s very individual as, for example, you may not have such a big family or you don’t celebrate as many holidays. When you sit down to make your long-term plans, take these things into consideration. Another seasonal spending, if you have children, are the school supplies. Some stuff you can re-use from last year, sure, but others need to be restocked every year like school books, new notebooks or even a laptop if your kid needs one.

    Plan ahead

    You may think that month-to-month can be considered as planning ahead and it kind of is, to be honest. But planning ahead usually means thinking about the years to come. One thing that everyone learnt in 2020 is that no matter how stable or organised your life might be, things could quickly turn around for the worse. We don’t want to sound negative or pessimistic but since this is the current situation for many households at the moment, we think it’s important to emphasise on the importance of thinking for the future. One of the things you can do is splitting your paycheck into multiple accounts, open a savings account, or if you’re more traditional, even an emergency piggy bank can do the work.

    However, there aren’t only emergencies in the future. If you have young kids, what most likely awaits you in the future is a big graduation celebration, money for higher education, a wedding, etc. There are many big events in the future that can be stressful enough on their own but you can make them a lot more pleasant if you have the budget for them.

    Be consistent and bring the whole family in

    Getting started is relatively easy compared to actually sticking to your plan and even getting the whole family on board. Still, it’s proven that group activities and regimes are a lot easier to follow because you don’t have to count on yourself only. Make it clear to everyone in your family, including the kids, that this will be your new way of living and that everyone will benefit from it. Especially your children, who will have the chance to form a budget-saving mentality from a young age, making their future life a lot easier. Make sure that everyone follows through with the plan you’ve decided on, which should be agreed upon by all members of the family anyways.

    Save money on cleaning

    One of the things that could be eating out from your family budget is home cleaning but luckily, there are many things you can do that will decrease the amount of money you spend related to it.

    • Make your own cleaning products – White vinegar and baking soda can do wonders both separately and combined. They can be used in the cleaning and disinfection of almost any surface, taking care of stubborn stains in carpets or clothes, and so much more.
    • Clean up regularly – General wear and tear can actually destroy your appliances and furniture. Maintaining your oven or fabric sofa clean, or pretty much everything in your house, will expand their lifetime and you won’t have to worry about replacing them after a year of usage.
    • Take care of stains immediately – If left untreated, stains can really put a hole in your budget, especially if you are living in a rented property. Most of them need to be cleaned right away or you will have this ugly stain on your beautiful wall for years to come, which will make your property a lot more difficult to sell if you’re thinking about it. Even if you are not, it will be a lot more expensive to clean up a 5-year old stain than one from a second ago.
    • Buy in bulks – Keep an eye out for discounts so you can supply your home with cleaning products for at least a year. Many warehouses sell them in bulks and you will really save money even if it seems like you’ve given a lot in the first place. It will still be cheaper than buying your detergents every month or so.
    • Store your cleaning supplies properly – If you do want to use your cleaning detergents for a long time, make sure they are stored properly, that there are no leaks, they are away from direct sunlight and extreme temperatures. What’s the point in buying a huge bottle of laundry detergent if it loses its powers in a few weeks because it’s been standing in the sun for so long?
    • Invest in reusable tools – Using disposable cleaning tools might be a lot easier because you just throw them away after each use but when thinking about the long term use, they don’t make a lot of sense. It’s bad for the environment and for your budget. Instead of using paper towels or baby wipes, buy a couple of microfibre cloths that you can wash in the machine. Switch your mop with disposable pads for one with reusable that can also be washed in the machine. Buy a metal bucket, instead of a plastic one. Go around your house and see which ones you can change for a more eco and budget-friendly version.
  • The Ultimate Guide to Preparing Your Home Before Vacation

    The Ultimate Guide to Preparing Your Home Before Vacation

    Before you leave for spring vacation, do not forget to give your home some love and attention. Have a checklist of what needs to be done to prepare your home for your absence and your smooth return. That way, you can enjoy your family vacation fully and worry-free.

    Whether you’re going out of town for days or weeks, make sure to complete this home preparation checklist before leaving.

    Tidy the house

    The last thing you want is to come home to a messy apartment after a nice, relaxing vacation. So, make sure to clean and declutter your space before you leave. Run a quick vacuum around your living areas to remove dirt and food residues that could attract pests and insects into your home. You may also want to check your fridge and throw or give away supplies that might go bad. Lastly, do not forget to take out the trash. This is important to prevent the spread of foul odor in your home due to rotten food.

    Turn off your water supply

    A plumbing emergency can happen at any time. To prevent leaks and flooding in your home while you’re away, consider turning off your main water supply. According to HomeGuide, most homeowners spend between $400 and $1,500 total to repair burst pipes. That does not include the costs to clean and repair water damage in your home, which range from $1,000 to $2,000 depending on the extent. Save water and money by making the trip to your basement to shut off your water supply.

    Check all your doors and windows

    Forgetting to check all doors and windows is one of the biggest mistakes homeowners make when leaving for vacation. Leaving just one window or door unsecured can put your home at risk of burglary. Double-check your locks before you set off for a trip. If you have spare keys you’ve been hiding outside, make sure to remove them as professional burglars exactly know where to find them.

    Arrange a pet sitter

    If you have pets that you’ll be leaving alone at home, it would be ideal to hire a pet sitter. This will give you peace of mind, knowing your beloved pets are well fed and taken care of while you’re on vacation. It’s not advisable to ask your family or friends to look after your pets as it could take a lot of their precious time. Best to leave the job to the pros.

    Adjust your thermostat

    Leaving your air conditioner on full blast when there’s no one to enjoy it is a huge waste of energy and money. Thus, make sure to adjust your thermostat before leaving home. The Department of Energy recommends setting your thermostat to 85 to 90 degrees F during the warm season when going out of town for more than three days.

    Schedule a professional AC repair before leaving for vacation

    Quality air conditioning is key to preventing humidity-related problems in your home. Prevent dangerous AC breakdowns while you’re away by calling for a professional Air Conditioning Repair Port St. Lucie. There are a lot of reputable HVAC companies you can partner with in the area. What are you waiting for? Have a professional contractor service your AC now!

  • 5 Unmistakable Signs Your Customer is not Happy

    5 Unmistakable Signs Your Customer is not Happy

    You get a customer on board! Congratulations! Now, it is your turn to fulfil the commitments you made at the time of sale. Because if you don’t, he will soon feel dissatisfied and might switch to your competitors. It is important to learn how to read your customers and check whether they are happy or not with your services. It will reduce churn and maintain your revenue.

    How will you know your customer is unhappy and about to leave your business? Well, some warning signs can indicate that a customer is on their way out the door. Being able to spot those signs can help you act fast and retain your customers before they leave you.

    Here are 5 unmistakable signs your customer is not happy

    Your customer complains frequently-

    Are complaints a sign of customer engagement? Yes! You read it right! But when your customer complains frequently, it is a warning sign that he is unhappy with your service! The complaining gets too frequent when their problems are not being appropriately addressed. If you notice any such customer, then it’s time to pay attention to their complaints. Try to address their issues as soon as possible because they are more likely to go to your competitors now.

    Remember: You are better off having a customer complain, than silently go off to a competitor.

    Your customer stops engaging with you-

    Who is worse than a customer who is frequently complaining? A customer who doesn’t complain! He doesn’t respond to your emails. He might have stopped reading them! When you notice the customers stop engaging with you, it signals their dissatisfaction with your services. They might be doing this because they lose hope in your services. Probably, they are exploring products offered by your competitors and about to switch.

    Your customer decreases his spending on your products and services-

    Before leaving your business, your customer will slowly decrease his spending on your services and test out offerings from your competitors. How can you detect this behaviour? By keeping an eye on his spending among your products or services. What can you do now? First, identify the customers who are spending less. Then, you may focus on promoting the ways in which your products and services can benefit them. Perhaps, offering discounts or taking feedback from them can work!

    Your customer is not responding to discounts and special offers-

    Everyone likes discounts and freebies. It has been observed that promotional emails containing discount offers get the highest open rate. What if your customer is ignoring your promotional emails as well! There is something seriously wrong! He might have lost interest in your services. He might be thinking that your services are not worth using even at a discounted price. It usually happens because of poor product performance or a bad service experience.

    Your customer starts referring to your contract terms-

    A good relationship is about mutual understanding, trust and care. Customer relationships are also like that. So, everything was going well. But suddenly, your customer is asking many questions about the terms and conditions written on your contracts. It’s a warning sign that he may not feel satisfied with your service. When your customer reaches this stage, you can think that the trust is no longer there and he may look for any other company.

    We have discussed 5 warning signs that can indicate your customer is not happy. Now it is your turn to keep an eye out for the above-mentioned behavior of your customer and do the needful to retain him. Remember, it is more expensive to get new customers on board than to retain old customers. So, always try to retain your existing customers to increase your profits.

    For business owners in the Field Service Industry, here is a piece of advice!  Look for software that not only enhances your business processes but also keeps your customers happy.  Look for the best field service management software that helps you treat your customers like a king.

    After all, a customer is a king! There is no known business till now that can do without customers. So, treat your customer as a king and try your best to deliver the best service to him.

  • A Guide to The Certification of The Amazon AWS

    A Guide to The Certification of The Amazon AWS

    Due to the requirements of the company and personal career development, I recently chose to participate in the AWS Exam of the Certified Solutions Architect – Professional. The whole process is still relatively difficult, and there are a lot of experience and tips to share with you in the following passage. I hope to be helpful to you.

    There are five people gaining the certificate in my company (FIT2CLOUD) (including 2 Certified Solutions Architects – Professional and 3 Certified Solutions Architects – Associate), so relatively speaking, I have accumulated some experience in preparing for AWS certification.

    1. Why do you want to get the Amazon AWS certification[click it]?

    Let’s start with two numbers. The first information shows that AWS remains at the top of the Leaders, and its revenue is five times more than the sum of that including four followers from the second to the fifth according to the report of the Magic Quadrant by Gartner 2015 IaaS.

    The second information is that the financial report of the Amazon which was first reported publicly in April showed that revenue is USD1.56 billion and year-over-year increase in revenue of approximately 49%.

    The information indicates that more and more enterprises are adopting AWS. As a result, there is a growing demand for people with the AWS expertise. Amazon AWS certification is now one of the most valuable certificates and a frequently searched keyword on LinkedIn.

    2. AWS Certification System

    AWS certification systems include Solutions Architect, Developer, and Sysops Administrator for different positions that require different AWS skills. Each of types has two levels: Associate Level and Professional Level.

    The personnel who participates in taking the certification only obtain the Associate Level certification first. Then they would be eligible for obtaining the corresponding category of the Professional Level certification examination. On the whole, the Associate Level is relatively easy, while the Professional Level is quite difficult. (The  number of the author only ranked approximately 1200. In the company, the number of a colleague who has passed the examination ranked approximately 500 in June last year, which means that there are only approximately 600 members had passed the examination. And all the passing members include a significant number of AWS’s own employees). Because it is a little bit difficult, and it is said that there are training classes. But fortunately, I have used AWS in my previous and present companies, so I still have a lot of practice and experience. I finally passed the Certified Solutions Architect – Professional through intensive self-study before the exam. Through this process, it can be said that on the one hand, getting the official recognition from Amazon AWS will help me get more opportunities in my career. On the other hand, more importantly, this process can greatly improve our understanding of architecture design, understanding of AWS services, and understanding of cloud computing, so the preparation and effort in this process is definitely worth it. The above paragraphs is the introduction of AWS certification and personal views, and the following paragraphs will take the Certified Solutions Architect – Professional as an example to introduce the content, difficulties, and preparation experience.

    3. The content of the examination

    It can be said that the whole exam revolves around one question, that is, how to use AWS cloud computing technology to better solve the problems encountered by the enterprises in various application scenarios. From the view of the content, there are the following characteristics, and these characteristics also decide the value and the requirement of the certification.

    • The content is very close to the actual situation. The content of the exam comes from the actual problems to be solved, which can be said to be closely to the actual life. Following the trend of the times, rather than testing some rote knowledge is also an evidence to show the high level of the question and the testing direction.
    • The depth and breadth of the testing contents investigate the ability and experience accumulated in many aspects, involving the aspects from computing, networking, storage, load balance, safety, big data, CDN, DNS, deployment, middleware of the candidates. It is not only about the related services of the AWS, also involves the comprehensive architectural designing experience and understanding. It needs a lot of the accumulation at ordinary times.

    4. The tests you need to pass

    This exam can be said to be very difficult, and its difficulties and requirements mainly include the following aspects.

    English reading level: Currently, the only languages supported by the test are English and Japanese, so we can only choose English. This difficulty need us to solve the most basic problem, that is, to quickly understand the questions and basically finish the problem. The total time of the exam is 170 minutes, and the number of questions is 80. The average time of each question is 2 minutes. Considering the content of the options, the length of each question is between 150 and 350, and most of the questions in the computer test are longer than half a screen, which requires a high speed of reading comprehension and the ability to quickly and accurately obtain information. It can be said that the entire process of nearly three hours is highly stressful.

    On the other hand, many scenarios involved in the exam question are really inaccessible to us at ordinary times, and the content is unfamiliar. So we need to make decisions on the spot, and you are experiencing a highly tense process, which tests our accumulation ability and psychological quality at ordinary times. So this is the requirement of English, and it is likely for you to fail here. For this level, short-term improvement can be achieved by reading more AWS English documents and blog articles, and getting more familiar with sample questions and SPOTO Practice Exam to improve your ability. Exercise the ability to refine the designing needs quickly from the topic, and be familiar with the various sayings.

    Understanding of the AWS Service: The AWS services tested in the exam have both depth and breadth. Key services that take us time to master include IAM, STS, VPC, EC2, EBS, ELB, S3,Storage Gateway, RDS, DynamoDB, CloudFront, Route53, CloudFormation, OpsWorks, Kinesis. You also need to know about Glacier, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, Direct Connect, Elastic Beanstalk, Elasticache, EMR, Redshift, Data Pipeline, SWF, SNS, SES. It usually takes at least a day to read through the documentation for each service carefully, so this is a long preparation process. For the understanding of the key content, IAM and VPC are the most important. Other aspects can’t be talked about here as a result of the signing of the examination confidentiality agreement. So I can only talk about few points here, please forgive me. You can get a better understanding of the exam outline and simulation exam provided by AWS, and accordingly adjust the input in various aspects and make up for the deficiency according to the exam results.

    Architectural designing experience: From the point of the IT enterprise system requirements and the basic principles of architecture designing, it usually finish the work about ensuring the quality of products and services on the basis of ensuring product functions. Namely, high availability, high performance, security, reliability, flexibility, scalability, easy deployment and management, low cost are the core points. The difference is that AWS provides a flexible and programmable base platform according to its demand, which is a giant success. We need to combine AWS to provide and manage enterprise IT and business systems in a more efficient way, with lower cost, faster speed and more reliable architecture. The most intuitive thing is that there will be a lot of questions in the examination, which will appear in a kind of practical problem scenario. We need to use these general architectural designing experience and AWS services knowledge to solve problems and make quick judgments. So to some extent, we are examining the accumulation and consciousness of everyday life.

    5. Advice on the spot

    Due to the large number of questions in the examination process and the wide scope of the content, so the process is too long, hard and tense. Therefore, I will give you the following suggestions.

    Prepare the Red Bull. It is an energy consuming process because of 80 questions one by one in three hours. And each question is longer than the former one.

    • Choose the right examination venue. AWS provides multiple examination venues in China, so you need to know the testing environment in advance. Try to choose the good network condition, and a relatively quiet examination venue. And get your own pair of earplugs just in case.
    • Examination rhythm need to be controlled well. For easy question, you must be determined to immediately choose to do without redundant consideration. It is a good way to save time to finish some difficult questions and the whole examination. It is basically an ideal if you plan to spend the equal time to each question.
    • According to personal psychological quality, appropriately give up some questions. If some questions are too long and difficult to understand, do not consider and choose the topic of the question to record on the paper. Look back when there is time (it is difficult to look back with abundant time).
    • The examination process had better be able to keep ahead of the other candidates at least two or three questions at the aspect of the time, especially for the general psychological quality of candidates. When you finish the last 10 questions, you should first scan the easy ones before the difficult ones, and then write down the easy ones.  And then come back to scan the ones that didn’t be scanned. If there is a hope that you can get it right, you should spend more time finishing the questions, and if there is no hope, you must choose one decisively.

    6. Study materials

    It is suggested that before the examination, you should use the SPOTO Practice Exam to familiarize yourself with the characteristics of the questions, content, length, process, rhythm, question quantity and time of the test, all of which are the half of the real standard of the examination. It means 40 questions in one and a half hours. USD 40 payed for a test, this investment is better worth it. However, the frustrating thing is that after the end of the simulation exam you can only know the overall score and the scores of each part. So, for the uncertain answers, it’s best to prepare together and discuss with each other.

    Also see this aws solutions architect associate practice exam