After Testing

To access the report, select the Exam History tab in your AWS Certification Account. For certification exams that use scaled scoring, you can view, download, or print the exam report from the Exam History table in your AWS Certification Account. In the table, on the line of the chosen exam code and exam name, navigate to Score Report to find a Download hyperlink. Selecting Download will download the PDF version of your score report to your device’s local download folder. You may either view or print the report.

A criterion-referenced passing standard is determined on the initial test form using a process known as the modified Angoff technique, in which a panel of content experts estimate the difficulty of each question in relation to the minimally qualified candidate. This method uses the average of these ratings across the panel of experts, after significant discussion and multiple rounds of ratings to achieve consensus, to ultimately derive the minimum raw passing standard.

Following the determination of the passing standard on the initial test form, the number of questions candidates need to answer correctly to pass all other test forms is determined through a statistical process known as equating. This statistical process evaluates each question on the test forms and determines if an adjustment to the passing standard is needed due to the differential difficulty of the questions making up the test form.

Scores for the AWS Certification exams are reported as scaled scores, rather than the raw number of questions scored correct. Scaled scores allow for consistent interpretation of scores across multiple exam forms. AWS uses multiple exam forms to replace questions as needed and to preserve the security of the exams. As the separate exam forms may vary slightly in difficulty due to the fact they consist of different questions, the forms are statistically equated to ensure all candidates are held to the same standard of competency. For example, correctly answering seven out of 10 easy questions does not indicate the same level of knowledge as correctly answering seven out of 10 difficult questions. The equated score is then converted to a scale score (in much the same way you can convert between scales such as Fahrenheit and Celsius) for presentation to the candidate. This ensures that two scores have the same interpretation regardless of the form the candidate took.

The passing standard reported for scaled scores always will remain the same. The passing standard is represented by a scaled score of 700 for Foundational-level exams, 720 for Associate-level exams, and 750 for Professional-level and Specialty exams.

If you fail an exam, you must wait 14 calendar days before you are eligible to retake the exam. There is no limit on exam attempts. However, you must pay the full registration fee for each exam attempt. Once you have passed an exam, you will not be able to retake the same exam for two years. If the exam has been updated with a new exam guide and exam series code, you will be eligible to take the new exam version. 

Note that beta exam test takers can take the beta version only once, after which they will need to wait to retake the exam when the certification exam becomes generally available.