CourseVerdict

Ultimate AWS Certified Developer Associate 2026 DVA-C02 vs GRE Math Prep Course: The A–Z on GRE Math Topic by Topic

Same Bayesian formula, same rubric — so the difference in scores reflects the difference in the courses, not the difference in how we evaluated them.

Stephane Maarek (Udemy) · Test Prep

Ultimate AWS Certified Developer Associate 2026 DVA-C02

4.5/ 5 · 28 opinions
22 positive4 neutral2 negative/ 28 total

Olu Sanya (Udemy) · Test Prep

GRE Math Prep Course: The A–Z on GRE Math Topic by Topic

3.9/ 5 · 28 opinions
19 positive5 neutral4 negative/ 28 total

Per-criterion

Ultimate AWS Certified Developer Associate 2026 DVA-C02

Content quality4.6 / 5

The course spans 50+ hours of video covering all six DVA-C02 exam domains — Deployment, Security, Development with AWS Services, Refactoring, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting. Deep dives into DynamoDB, SQS, SNS, Lambda, API Gateway, CodePipeline, and X-Ray are consistently praised as thorough and up-to-date following the DVA-C02 blueprint revision. A small number of reviewers flag the Lambda and DynamoDB advanced sections as feeling rushed compared to the networking coverage.

Instructor4.8 / 5

Maarek holds 11 AWS certifications and has trained over 1.5 million students across his Udemy catalogue. Reviewers consistently describe his teaching style as exceptionally clear — he breaks complex multi-service interactions into logical architectural diagrams and follows up with live console walkthroughs students can reproduce on the AWS free tier. His 11x certified credibility means explanations carry genuine practitioner weight, not just exam-guide paraphrasing.

Value for money4.7 / 5

At Udemy sale price (~$15–25, which is the price at nearly every purchase given Udemy's near-perpetual promotion cycle), 50+ hours of DVA-C02 content represents one of the highest content-per-dollar ratios available for AWS certification prep. Lifetime access with free ongoing updates is a key differentiator versus subscription-gated platforms.

GRE Math Prep Course: The A–Z on GRE Math Topic by Topic

Content quality4.3 / 5

The course is a tightly-organised library of 240 worked GRE quant solutions across ~13 hours, taught topic by topic from the absolute basics up through harder material like probability. Reviewers consistently praise the clear, step-by-step breakdowns and the memorable mnemonic devices (the "Beyonce Rule" is the one people quote back). The recurring content caveat is that it is purely solution walkthroughs — there are no embedded original practice questions, so the "content" is teaching, not testing.

Instructor4.4 / 5

Olu Sanya is the strongest part of the package. A Morehouse/Georgia Tech Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering graduate with 14+ years of test-prep experience, he is repeatedly described as engaging, patient and good at making a nervous student feel math is learnable. His stated philosophy — "it's not difficult, you just don't know it yet" — shows up in the teaching, and the free 1-hour Skype session he offers is a rare personal touch at this price.

Value for money4.0 / 5

List price is around $70 but the course is almost always on sale in the $10-20 band with lifetime access, plus a free formula-sheet PDF and a bonus Skype session — genuinely cheap versus Magoosh, Manhattan or Target Test Prep. The honest deduction is that you are required to buy Barron's 6 GRE Practice Tests separately to actually use the videos, so the true out-of-pocket cost is higher than the headline, and independent reviewers note Barron's is not the best-regarded practice source.

Practice material2.8 / 5

The weakest dimension by a wide margin and the one every critical source agrees on. The course contains no independent practice questions, no quizzes and no full-length tests — it is built entirely around explaining problems from an external Barron's book you must purchase yourself. BrightLink Prep is blunt that "there are no practice exercises crucial to forming a solid understanding," and points out Barron's is a questionable choice versus official ETS material.

Score improvement3.9 / 5

Learners credit the method with building confidence and giving them concrete strategies for question types they previously froze on, and the topic-by-topic mastery approach maps well onto how GRE quant is structured. But because the course supplies no practice and no full-length mocks, score movement depends entirely on the learner doing the external Barron's (and ideally official ETS) practice on top — the videos teach the how, not the timed reps.

Scoring methodology applies identically to every course on the site — see the formula.