PART 7: MAKING PAYMENTS

This section was quite troublesome for me, so I decided to give it its section to properly dissect it.

From my experience, there are 4 primary ways to make payments for your certification exam. Let's break them down:

• Walk in at the exam centre

By far, this is the least stressful. Find the nearest Pearson Vue exam centre and talk to the admin. You will be told all that you need to know.

• Card payment

This was my first option when I was ready to make a payment. On your online account, payment is usually the last step after scheduling.

If your exam provider supports card payment for your country, then you are in luck. Unfortunately for me, card payment was not supported, and you won't know this till the very last step, which is quite frustrating.

• Buying an exam voucher.

If your exam provider doesn't support card payments, you can buy from 3rd party exam centers. There are several exam voucher vendors, but not all are authorized.

After getting your voucher, use the voucher in place of card payment, and you will be good to go.

• Payment via Pearson VUE Customer Support

There was fine print on the AWS exam portal that I overlooked during my exam scheduling, which set me back months. This is a mistake I made, and I don't want you to repeat the same.

When scheduling your exam on the AWS online portal, there is a section to request accommodation (like extra time, language assistance, etc.). If you plan to take the exam in person and you request accommodation and AWS approves it:

• You cannot complete the scheduling and payment yourself.
•  You need to contact Pearson VUE support for them to schedule and make payment on your behalf. 
• This step often takes some business days for Pearson to contact you, delaying your exam.

If you don’t need special accommodations, I recommend not selecting anything in that section. This keeps your scheduling and payment process seamless.

In the next section, we’ll explore exam day preparation — what to expect, what to bring, and how to stay calm under pressure.