Passed CKA with 88%. Primary study technique: Drilling on the labs (and keeping track of the time).
Stats:
1st pass of labs: 13 minutes, 26 seconds average (9 hours, 37 min, 32 sec total)
Last pass of labs: 4:02 average (3 hours, 9 min, 14 sec total)
Repeated each lab 5-7 times.
Spent ~33 hours across 3 weeks in labs.
Best times (average across section):
Core Concepts: 2:13
Scheduling: 2:42
Logging and Monitoring: 1:48
Application Lifecycle Monitoring: 3:00
Cluster Maintenance: 5:25
Security: 3:44
Storage: 10:52
Networking: 2:19
Install: 5:16
Troubleshooting: 5:46
Other Topics: 4:42
Having the labs for both incremental progress in individual topics and more challenging, realistic labs was vital to my preparation. Again: Excellent class, highly recommended!
I did take other classes earlier this year, but they really only served to introduce the material - were not CKA prep material.
Really, the quality instructional material coupled with the ability to hammer away at the labs until I didn’t just know it, but it came automatically, was vital in my prep. Having enough labs to be able to quantifiably identify where I needed to study next was a strong asset, too.
So that’s 17 full days of studying away, possibly an important factor in your study strategy.
My first trip through the labs took 9 hours, but was spread across a week. The next 12 hours of labs were also spread across the next week, and same with the final trips through the labs (~10 hours).
The most efficient I was ever able to get - sustained (and for a different test) - was ~6 hours a day (on Saturdays) in an 8 hour segment.
Two tab is allowed one is taking by the exam terminal and second tab to view official docs and it’s subdomain sites (not included http://discuss.kubernetes.io/).
