This course teaches you the standards and guidelines for developing items for AWS Certification exams. It outlines the overall exam development process; defines your role in the process; identifies valid item types and their components; identifies and defines item-writing standards, guidelines, and best practices; and provides guidance for validating and defending exam items.
- Course level: Intermediate
- Duration: 150 minutes
Activities
This course includes presentations and assessments.
Course objectives
In this course, you will learn to:
- Author psychometrically sound, legally defensible exam items (questions)
- Identify cognitive levels and understand their relevance to exam objective
- Author items that align to the appropriate exam level and cognitive level
- Author items that align to the appropriate job role
- Validate the technical accuracy of exam items
Intended audience
This course is intended for:
- AWS technical subject matter experts
- AWS Certification Exam Development program managers
- AWS Certification Practice Exams program managers
- AWS Certification technical architects
Prerequisites
We recommend that attendees of this course have:
- A current, valid AWS certification
- A minimum of two years of hands-on experience designing solutions, developing and deploying applications, and running or managing workloads on the AWS Cloud
Course outline
Module 1: Introduction
Module 2: Certification Fundamentals
- Exam security
- Overview of the exam development process
- The minimally qualified candidate (MQC)
- The content outline
- The exam guide
Module 3: Standard Certification Considerations
- Introduction
- Characteristics of an effective exam
- Characteristics of an effective item
- Components of an item
- Acceptable item types
- Specific guidelines for item elements
- Effective items: Deep dive
- Fairness
Module 4: Cognitive Complexity and Job Roles
- Introduction to cognitive complexity
- Cognitive complexity by exam level
- Writing items for roles
Module 5: General Guidelines and Best Practices
- Introduction
- Question structure
- Response options
- Multiple-response item stems
- Items about cost
- Subjective qualifiers
- Memorization
- AWS focus
- Portraying AWS in a negative light
- Cues for keys
- Trick questions
- Testing, not teaching
Module 6: Getting Started (4 slides)
- Considerations
- Conclusion
Module 1 description
Introduction to the course
Module 2 description
Fundamentals of certification. You will learn certification terms and concepts, and what to expect from your participation in certification development.
Module 3 description
Standard certification considerations. You will learn the basic elements of a strong certification and what goes into making a certification effective.
Module 4 description
Cognitive complexity and job roles. You will learn about cognitive complexity and the different levels of thinking required by different certification exams. You will learn about the various job roles covered by AWS Certification exams.
Module 5 description
General guidelines and best practices. You will learn guidelines and best practices to help you write effectively for AWS Certification exams.
Module 6 description
Getting started. You will learn guidance about how to start writing your content for AWS certification exams.
