One Bite at a Time
The ACE study guide is thick, a non trivial undertaking that will intimidate at a glance. Taking it one chapter at a time worked well for me. I understood what was ahead of me (many pages and tests), and once I had that clocked I just focused on the chapter I was on. I would read and work through the concepts intently, one page at a time. Before I'd know it I would be at the chapter test.
Project Influence
While studying for this exam I would make time to work on projects that utilized services on GCP. I have a budget alert setup and everything.
This was fun because a lot of the time I was using a service I read about. I was implementing IAM roles, spinning up services, and experimenting in a real environment. You can't touch it all but you can get good experience aligning a project while studying.
Passing The Exam
In the final stretch, I took the practice exams more than I needed to. There were only two, but I went through them multiple times until I was consistently scoring close to 100%.
This helped me build familiarity with the format of a 50 question timed exam and improved my pace. Taking the actual exam felt more comfortable, but the questions were still challenging even with all that practice. In the end I felt prepared and passed. I had earned my certification...It certainly felt earned.
Final Take Aways
Participating in labs, aligning projects and taking deep dives into the subject matter you are not familiar with or uncomfortable with are all things that augment the learning. I found that all 3 modes of learning are best for me. Listening, reading, and doing - that really sets things in for me.
Cultivating tools is huge, for example.
I used Google's NotebookLM and an online version of the study guide to create audio overviews (short podcasts) for each chapter. I'd even do that for documentation on services and concepts to help me understand something a little better.
I find I am motivated to staying focused in knowing that the end result would not only mean renewing the cert. but also make me a more capable dev, engineer, and future architect.