It is not uncommon for students to ask if they can do a course or exam? This is really two issues. Are you allowed to by some enforced prerequisite vs. Do you have the necessary background to complete the study and learn what you need to be successful?
Summary
There is really two parts to this questions.
- The rules controlling who can sit the exam.(Permission)
- The competency required to be successful at studying and eventually passing the exam. (Ability)
Permission
The rules about who can sit the exam are controlled by the vendor. We have no control over that. If you check the vendor site for each exam you will find the prerequisite for that exam. In general they are quite open, but do check.
Ability
The minimum competency to be successful at learning the course and passing the exam is something that we feel strongly about. We are very focussed on our students being successful in their careers, and we do not them failing because they are unprepared.
To help you make a decision. please consider the following:
- Most of our courses are designed to help practicing IT engineers and developers learn to use Cloud vendor services. That does not mean that someone without IT background cannot attempt them, but they will need to work hard to fill in the missing background to be successful. If you are a practitioner of IT you should have no problem jumping into the associate level courses and learning effectively. If you are starting from a less skilled position, we have course that will help you quickly lift your skills to a point where you can follow and learn as you go. Check out the A Cloud Guru Learning Paths
The courses are hierarchical. To effectively study a Professional, specialty or advanced course you need the underlying (associate) skills, not just general industry skills. You need actual skill and some experience with the vendor's services. Your ability to learn a course effectively depends on having the background.
You can attempt an advanced course without the background. However you will struggle, need to stop and research the underlying skills each step of the way, and run the risk that you are so distracted by what you don't understand that you cannot learn the new material. In my opinion you are much better to run though an underpinning course first, to ensure that you have the necessary skills before taking on an advanced course. That will allow to focus on the new learnings without distraction. [IMO] in the long run this is actually faster and more productive than attempting an advanced course without the necessary skills.
With membership there is no financial penalty as all the material is available for the one price.
With Membership many foundation course have either in-course practice exams, or an exam simulator. To test your ability to do an advanced course, do one of the underpinning associate practice exams, if you cannot score > 60%, you should go back and do the associate course to get your skills where they should be.
Most vendors have a hierarchy of exams and we generally match that with a hierarchy of course. There are some general guidelines here.
If you need help, please contact Pluralsight Support.