Mohammed I completely disagree with you. I experienced the same issues. Stephane is well-travelled, but INSISTS on taking a personal approach in pronouncing things, vs universal approach. Not considering that he is dealing with many people who are hearing some terms for the first time and misleads them in the real world.
Stephane says many things wrong. Clouwatch instead of CloudWatch, pameters instead of parameters. It's as if there's a timeout on each word or phrase and data is lost in transmission. It's more annoying after you've listened for the third time. There is a video where I still don't know if he said "use Google" or "use Glue" because he seems to shorten both to "gl'". I still have all his courses though.
Hey Thanks for this video! Good analysis :) Regarding your comment at 9:30 - I used to live in Australia, Sydney for over two years. And there, it's pronounced "Cayche". ✌️
I can easily forgive anything concerning accents or phonetics. Being an American, born in South America, and grown in Europe, I can understand that sometimes you can express a word in one language with the pronunciation of another. Everybody does it, and it doesn't bother me. How many times I have to view a video with IT guys from India, where the accent makes it harder to get the meaning. But because of the quality of the content and the effort, these guys put to produce such content, I have only appreciation. As a French speaker, I get what french people are willing to say in English. "Cela fait partie du charme" as long the quality "Est au rendez-vous". Finally, I just want to say that I passed the AWS Cloud Practioner yesterday by studying for four days. Maybe with just enough points to pass, and I did it with the videos from Neal. Now I will try the Ultimate AWS Certified Solutions Architect class from Stephane. I'm sure I will pass as well. It's not because English is the native language of an instructor that it will be easy to understand. I had a hard time with Neal as well, but I liked it! Just remember that language is not a barrier, culture is...
@@MrVAV Yes, glad you realised it. Pronunciation must not be factored that seriously where it needs such special attention. Most of the guys who go through such courses are professionals already! So we automatically understand what the tutor is saying. For example, Neal always says "MemCache-D" instead of simply saying "MemCached". But that's ok. If possible, try to cut the part in the RU-vid editor and update the video. Stephane deserves a Great review! His reputation speaks for him. I don't want students to be misleaded based on one's personal choice and take Stephane's content lightly.
Please reply, although I am planning to go with Neal's because I am into a phase where everything is new for me. I have worked as in sales and now I am transitioning into AWS. I always prefer knowledge over exam targeted study. Please let me know/ help me if I am correct with context to crack this exam.
Thanks a lot for your valuable feedback. Your review helped me to choose the correct course I was looking for (Neal's Course). Neal's Pronunciation is crystal clear, so his presentation and demo. This also encourages me to practice parallelly. I believe without the clear concept, there is no point for an Architect to clear this exam. Otherwise he/she may get stuck at a certain point on job. So just clearing the exam should be a goal. Neal also helps to identify the possible exam questions. For clearing concept and passing the exam, for me, it's the best choice so far.
This was a nice summary video, Vav ! Very respectful, honest and thorough in your analysis ! I'm making a video on a similar topic, so I wanted to summarise the key points here for those passing by: * Vavs background on passing the exams: * Passed CCP on 5th September 2020 * Passed SAA on 30th September 2020 * Both scores over 900 * Took courses from Neal + Stephane for both courses * Both instructors have priced their courses the same (sometimes they're $12 sometimes $95) * Udemy pricing is weird * Vav recommends waiting for when Udemy discounts * Number of students + course duration * 195K students for Stephane and 16K students for Neal * This typically matters for Udemy courses, but both the courses are very similar * They both do screen recording in AWS and powerpoint * Vav prefers Neals presentation aesthetics (not too big of a deal) * Stephane is 24 hours, Neals is 28 hours * Comprehensiveness * Neals is better for learning AWS, as opposed to * More "aha" moments when watching the courses from Neal then Stephane * If you want to pass the exams Stephanes are just enough and are less overloading * Language / English Skills * Stephane sometimes makes speaking mistakes which felt like it misled vav * Neals audio quality is slightly lower quality than Stephane * Conclusion * Appreciate both the instructors for putting out such affordable education. * If finance is not a big factor, buy both. Would you mind if I use a couple of short snippets from your video in my own analysis? I'd love to share your perspective, and of course link back to this video. Thanks for making this !
A nice video Mr. VAV. Though opinions are totally personal, you have been extra cautious in putting the facts about both the courses and making things easier for people to choose the course that suits their plans. Thank you very much.
@@jkc6869 I finished only stef course, but I bought Neal practice questions which are extremely useful as well, it took about 4 months until I got the cert in the first attempt
Thanks for taking the time - I'm nitpicky as well and your review helped me decide! It is also refreshing to see a critical review that remains diplomatic and friendly. You sure know how to give feedback :-)
For some reason I followed Neal Davis and I feel more connected to him due to his In depth explanation style. I passed my SAA yesterday. Neal's course is very straight forward and super hands on. I loved his Presentations and Real world scenarios. Of course Neal's course will be too much to take-in at times. But I preferred him to throw everything at me. The cheat sheets are freakishly helpful. I don't think Neal made any mistakes. Grammatically, I didn't find any, but I also don't care. Keep in mind that Neal's course PDFs need to be revised atleast once! even though you gone through all his videos. You need to take his practice test seriously and pass it to get the real AWS exam idea. I don't know anything about Stephanie by the way. So can't tell. I believe he is as good as Neal.
I bought both Stephane and Neil's CCP course. Neil's course was BY FAR more informative! He made everything make sense, he taught you how to THINK for the exam. Stephane, mumbles a lot and rushes through some parts, as if he had somewhere to rush to, but wanted to get the recording done quickly before leaving. That's just how I personally perceived it. You could tell the areas where he did BAD edits to try to update certain areas, sounds very unprofessional. When I took my CCP exam, I scored 946 out of 1000. And I honestly owe it to Neil's detailed and relaxed approach. He gave you rationale and made you understand things, unlike Stephane that would run through demos and mumbles on. it was frustrating. He lacked explanation and rationale. If you want to be competent and speak confidently amongst your peers. I would strongly advise you take Neil's class! Plus Neil's course was up tp date. Stephane was still behind.
I dont think stephane is in a rush.... usually non native english speakers have mother tongue influences, and (probably) in stephane's case french is a quicker language to talk than english. So, it's just the way he talks, in English.
I agree. I respect both of them and their crafts. With Stephane it did feel rushed but with Neil it was very relaxed detailed and he had an outline to pass the exam. Also with a few extra bucks you can do real world examples on Neil’s website. It’s not just about passing the exam but understanding the cloud itself.
Thank you for your insights. The fact that you went through both courses helped me decide to go ahead and do both as well (that and hoping that Neal will push me past the 70% average score I keep getting w/ Stephane's practice tests). I've recently completed Stephane's course and as of this writing am ~15% through Neal's course. The language barriers I can understand but will move past that issue as my main concern at the moment is the number of mistakes I'm spotting with Neal's approach. It's probably a result of his effort to clean up and/or update the videos, but I've so far run into a few detours -- most notably, what resulted in a lengthy troubleshooting session only to discover that the video never covered the need to create an "orders.html" file; I can only assume that that specific portion of the video was cleaned out of the course (perhaps to update it for AWS' ever-changing UI/UX). But it's this approach that makes his videos harder to follow than Stephane's videos -- Stephane organizes the content in a more self-contained manner, or at least that's the feel so far. There are also clues along the way that there is extra care paid by Stephane and staff to ensure there's continuity and completeness in the videos. I am not writing off Neal at all as his focus on walkthroughs and hands-on over long theoretical explanations (my take thus far) appeals more to me, at least given the size and complexity of this (AWS) topic. I think in a few weeks, if I am fortunate enough to have passed the CDA, then both Stephane and Neal will have been responsible.
"so that's it for this lesson. I hope you like it and I'll see you in the next lesson. For some reason those last 5 seconds in every class just drive me insane. I started to use Neal's and never went back.
I got to give you credit for the analysis. I was not buying any of the courses but have respect for both instructors in putting a map of what the exam will cover or what AWS may ask for. Nicely done and this is your channel and your opinion is respected. I see no issues with your thoughts and to the point: Buy both courses or if you just want to pass the exam go for Stephane...
I did struggled with Stephen's accent. Eventually moved to acloudguru. Used Neal's practice exam. My firm paid for these courses, hence I had the choice try multiple options.
Good comparison. I passed CCP using Neal's course and was very happy overall with his course. Looked at all positive reviews and number of students on Stephan's course for the SAA, thought it must be the best course. I am at lecture 10 and struggling with the speed of delivery. I respect his french background may have some influence though I just can't grasp it. People say you just select the lower video playback speed but it sounds horrible with lower speed. Could anyone advise if I should continue or switch to Neal's course as I bought that as well. I really don't want to spend countless hours NOT grasping much. The way Stephan demonstrates things, it clearly shows he has exceptional understanding about the AWS platform but when you teach somebody, you need to slow down a bit. At times I feel dizzy and have to pause and walk away to relax my brain.
same here. i am struggling after S3, Extra Storage, ECS..etc.. looks like Stephane just want to finish the lecture asap and i need force myself to remember all the stuff that i don't really understand. I am thinking should I jump to Cantrill and restart all over again
I bought both. I like both, Neal is extremely good with his practice exam. I learned more from Neal's practice exams. They actually had me pass the exam.
I just passed my CCP after doing Stephane's course, which was absolutely great and I credit him, no complaints. When I was doing some of my own research whilst learning, I inevitably ended up on Neil's RU-vid channel. I found his content excellent as well. I may just go with Neil for my SAA as I can't do both, but I am yet to decide.
I bought Stephane’s Udemy course, didn’t finished it yet but I plan to buy Neal’s one because I feel it goes more in depth and the info graphics are wayyyy better
I had purchased Stephane for the Cloud exam but Niels for the Solutions Architect Associate course. There are codes out there to give a bigger discount. I found one for each that meant I got them for £11.99 each. Im still looking for codes to have both Stephane and Niels courses, as need to pass both exams by end Jan 2022. So your video helped. Thanks
I've already bought all from both of them, and I'm just about to go for the SAP-C01, but it's good to consider the diffs. I think I will be relying on Neal's more for this next one, especially his practice exams.
Thank you Mr. VAV for making this video. It helped a new comer to AWS like myself, immensely. I just started watching Neal Davis’ video about AWS, ( not any certification exam per say. ) I like to study the subject matter first, for what it is, as you say. And hardly 20 minutes into Neal Davis’ course, I can say that it contains what I am looking for, that is a very good explanation of concepts and I find it quite useful. I am quite fussy about the speaker’s voice, accent, speed of speaking etc. and Neal is very good on all these counts.
Thank you for making this video. It is very helpful. I understand this is your opinion, but I have made my decision already. Both if them are good, but Neal appeals more to me.
You are very correct. I don't mind accents at all, but when hearing it over and over, and maybe re-listening, mispronounciation can become an unnecessary irritant.
I think for the most part, accents don't play a significant part. However, some are distracting, especially when there are odd pronounciations, like you mentioned regarding ElastiCache. Attention is already difficult for many of us and anything that creates more friction is just too much.
Thanks for this video Mr. VAV. However, I came across your video after passing the exam. Actually, I had been equally benefited from both courses and passed the SAA-CO2. I felt like both are good in different ways for passing the exam. If anyone wanted to take SAA-CO2, I would suggest to preview both and go with both or the one that suits you the most.
Blimey, folks, what are you talking about? Adrian Cantrill is the best ;) Pls, stop comparing these two gents. Trust me, both look awesome from the first glance... Until the moment when you first see the Adrian Cantrill video courses!
If yu are an average student like me you should skip Stephane's course. I can so relate to Vav's comprehensiveness part here, Stephane is so focus to the exam that it gives no insight to the core of the topic, it made it so difficult to understand the big picture, I will never recommend Stephane's course to anyone
I have used Stephane and ACloudGuru and passed the exam on the first attempt. I like Stephane's style, the only issue I have with him is that he tries to cover way too many points which is not really required for the exam. This can overwhelm the student.
You can't pass the associate exam without going deep. At least now, in 2022. You can't pass it just going through Stephane's course, which is more about stuff without too much explanation, not even via the Q&A section. And the problem is that you realize this only when you do a practice exam. You have to read a lot more: whitepapers, faqs, etc. and more important, to have a real understanding of how things work. Also the hand-on part of the course is very weak. So Stephane's course cover only a 50-60% of the preparation for the exam.
In regards the Stephane’s course I found the practice exams very hard and I had to revisit the training slides and other sites to try to remember these very granular details that are not mentioned in detail in the course. In other hand I like Neal’s videos final section “exam cram” it helps to get the important details for the exam.
I am watching Stephane's udemy course and I relate to you. I actually watched the free course by Neal and I sort of think I should have bought his Udemy course as he articulates stuff much more clear and compelling. Although my main goal is to pass the exam, I found STEPHANE'S course extremely boring and hard to follow along. The mumbling and slide reading is just annoying.
I completely agree with you, I bought Stephane's course in Udemy, it was so boring that I lost all the interest to do the certification, He does not bring any energy, A pathetic instructor as per my experience
If I were just listening to Mr Vav's summary, I would have picked Stephane. However, given the video clips shown here, I would really struggle to understand Stephane. Perhaps it is on 1.5x or something, but I now think that I would have to choose Neal's.
Very informative, helpful, and fair. The only thing I found hard to catch was when you played snippets of the referenced videos and speeded them up. But maybe you did this for some RU-vid reasons?
My default Udemy playback speed is 1.5x. When I screen-recorded those snippets, I forgot to reset the playback speed to 1x. I noticed that after uploading the video. My bad!
@@MrVAV I think that's a really lame excuse. After finding out you had recorded at 1.5X speed you could have re-edited the snippets and re-uploaded the new version of the video at the correct speed.
Iam preparing for aws sysops admin. If we see in Udemy Stephen comes with 25hrs of duration content and Neal come with 16hrs. I am begginer and I want to certify which is best? And if we prefer for Neal it will cover all concepts which commes in SOA-C02? AND I WILL PASS?
I like Stephane's Video - very passionate, very well-explained, to the point and enough to help me prepare for exam and get me in the door. You can learn, in depth, from work or take different instructor courses later, if you want.
You're very correct...it was from Steph's video course on Udemy that I discovered I could request for extra 30 minutes as a non-English speaker for my AWS SAA CO2 exam.I am from West Africa(NIGERIA) but very passionate to learn and pass Cloud Technology certifications.
I think the pronunciation is not that important. For 10 bucks I would not be Irritated at all. Content quality goes beyond Minor production flaws, in my opinion. Plus the guy is native french speaker and these are no language courses.
I was quite disappointed with the Neal Davis delivery for solutions architect associate course because he went into doing labs before explaining the theories which is extremely hard to follow. I did his cloud practitioner course which is way better. I do not understand why he has changed his delivery....so i might just turn to stephane course to prepare for my exams
I recently completed Neal's SysOps Admin course - which is one of the latest courses. It was delivered very nicely and was much better than the associate architect course. So, to your point, yes, Neal's delivery is quite different across his courses. Perhaps, he is testing different styles to find out what the students like the most.
@@MrVAV is it sufficient to clear the exam for solutions architect - associate if I only rely on Stephane Maarek curriculum alone? I think the contents he covered is already so much to digest if one is to study the slides
@@xingxing85 I agree that the content may seem overwhelming at first. But that negative feeling fades away really quickly as you continue watching. Yes, Stephane's course is sufficient to pass the exam. And if, for a specific topic, Stephane's explanation does not agree with you; just Google it - you will surely find an answer that agrees with you better.
The CSAA was my first video course. Since then I have greatly improved my style and optimized it based on student feedback. The CSAA will be completely re-recorded very soon and the new style will likely be something you will find much better
I have to strongly disagree with you. I watched your video before starting my architect associate course. I went to Stephane although I did practioner course with Neal. Both are good in their ways. After finishing Stephane course, I bought Neal course and practice exams because I am not getting a decent scores in practice exams. Stephane is too fast even though details. Neals pace is good and his practice exams are fantastic. If I were to go again, I will buy only Neal. I am going to Neal for professional.
I think Stephane is legible, I did not understand the EBS storage error or omission did you want him to say that both types of storage preserve data across reboots?
If you don’t want to waste your money then don’t go for Stephan’s course, watch free RU-vid videos, this will be more helpful than listening to his boring lectures
hey! I have a question for you, as a fresher without experience with soln Architect certification, is it easy to grab a job? because most of the companies ask for the experience for this post. as a fresher what should I do now.
Hello! First off, getting a 'real' cloud architect role just after completing SAA is practically impossible - especially when you say that you are also a fresher. I don't mean to depress your hopes, but rather mean to level-set them. If you think objectively about what a real architect is supposed to do, you will understand. But, some companies also like to hand out big titles just like candies - so you will certainly find people who got 'architect' title after completing SAA. Second: Companies want experience for the architect role. But you could find a junior architect role which does not require experience. You can also complete the SysOps cert to get into CloudOps first then use that experience to jump to an architect role. Ultimately, I am not too experienced myself, so please take my word for what it is worth. I would encourage you to post this question on the LinkedIn page that you become eligible to join after completing one AWS cert.
Thanks so much for the video ..It is helpful. Just wanna ask if u could suggest that I have passed cloud practitioner certification.Next can I go for SysOps Associate certification or to do Solution Architect Associate first.
You can go for either of those. Most people recommend going for Architect Associates. Here's my experience: Architect requires learning a lot of services on a high level whereas Sysops Associate requires understanding fewer services in much depth. So you can make a decision based on your background and preferences.
I passed the exam today. Stephane's udemy course was my study base. I really liked enjoyed. Neal practice tests are harder.. Some questions are very similar to the official test.
Why have you fast forwarded the video, I have bought this course on udemy for Stephane and here you have fast forwarded the video which is disingenuous
With respect to accent and pronunciation, with all due respect, indians’ pronunciation/accent irritates me the most. Many times i search a course, like the content but get disappointed really fast after listening the instructor/speaker with bad accent. Being non-native English speaker, it take me months and years to develop the right pronunciation but listening indian for some time, i feel like my accent/pronunciation is being distorted.
Overall both instructors have good practice exams. I have an inclination toward buying Neal's exam because his questions are typically grammatically correct.
At 4 you said go for neal's course if you want to understand more than just passing the exam, but in conclusion you contradict that. Please let us know.
My notes are neither comprehensive nor organized enough to share online. But both of these instructors provide a pdf version of their slides that you can download. And Neal even provides an ebook.
Apparently the older version SAA-C02 was easier than SAA-C03 which is more solution architecture oriented and requires a comprehensive understanding of the course content.
