Skip to main content

6 Days to Salesforce Admin Certification - Day 5

.
A reward for hard work.

Crunch time!
It is day 5 out of 6, and the exam is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.  Days 1-4 were all about preparation by studying specific topics one by one, but tonight is reserved for an overall review with two goals:
  • Develop a test taking strategy
  • Complete 2 practice tests
Test Taking Strategy
I turned to Salesforce guru David Liu for test taking tips. His blog post "Certification Test Taking Strategies" provides 8 excellent guidelines for the exam.  I used several of his ideas plus some
original Trailhead Baby thought to develop my own top 5 strategies to ace the Salesforce Administrator Exam- 
  1. Read every question twice to make sure that no detail is overlooked.
  2. Read every potential answer slowly - noting key words.
  3. Use the check box to "Mark this item for later review" if not 100% certain of the answer.
  4. Set up little encouragements during the test in order to stay motivated.  Write down numbers 1 through 60 as soon as I sit down at the testing center.  As I progress through the questions, write a "😊" next to a question to indicate that "Yes, I've got this one!"  A "?" indicates that I am fairly confident that the question is correct, but not 100%.  A "???" shows that I have no idea and to make sure that I circle back to this question at the end.  This is also a good visual reminder of how much time I need to reserve at the end of the exam to circle back to the "???" questions.  
  5. Pick out a reward for completing the exam.  Regardless of pass of fail, I am going to celebrate the hard work that went into the attempt by trying my first cupcake! 

Practice Tests
I took two practice tests utilizing the same strategy that I intend to adopt during the official exam.  Practice tests were taken from two websites:
  1. Certified on Demand - A half length (30 question) practice test is included with the $40 license.  I found the format of the questions to be very similar to that of the actual exam.
  2. Salesforce Ben - A full length practice test that is FREE!  This test provided a comprehensive self-evaluation of knowledge with to-the-point questions.  The questions on the Salesforce exam contained more "fluff," but the overall content was very similar. 
I passed both exams - barely!  My scores were in the mid-70's, so I took the missed questions and spent the remainder of the night on Trailhead and help.Salesforce.com, researching the correct answers and brushing up on confusing topics.  Notes went on my review sheet for tomorrow's final study session.  Want to see my review sheet?  It's below! 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Service Cloud Specialist Superbadge - 4,5,6,7

Part of doing the Service Cloud Specialist superbadge is trying new things, so I am putting up picture of new things that I've tried recently.  One of my favorite new things this week was taking a shower with my whole block collection.  Mom put me in the shower, and I sneaked out to grab the block bin and dumped it in.  I'm concerned to share photos because of the slight nudity, however, I can assure you that it was a glorious adventure.  Instead, I'll share my favorite Saturday new thing- walking to the coffee shop for a sprinkle donut!  Back to the superbadge... Challenge 4 Case Routing If you haven't taken the Onmi Channel module yet, now is a good time! I kept that particular module open one on screen while I walked through this step.  It is hard to give many hints about this step without giving away too many details - so - the best advice is to read through the challenge and label each step with the corresponding Salesforce term.  (IE - "The...
191 comments
Read more

Business Administration Specialist Superbadge- 3 & 4

This afternoon, I added a genius wig in an attempt to look a little older and more experienced.  The free lemonade offer worked!  I made two dollars today!  A huge thank you to Jocelyn Fennewald , Salesforce MVP, for pointing out the "remove all columns" option within the report creator.  When you start a create a new report, simply click to start with a clean screen.  If you are familiar with report and dashboards, this challenge should only take 30 or so minutes to complete.  Below are tips and gotchas for each report / dashboard.  If you need more help, leave a comment! Reports Accounts by Market To create the "Market" row grouping, use a bucket field. Make sure that the correct date range is selected. High Value Residential  This report includes: 1 filter, 1 grouping, and 1 summarized field.  Rated Accounts by State The record count for state and account rating are automatically added. Note the filter.  ...
134 comments
Read more

Service Cloud Specialist Superbadge - 1,2,3

A confession - I know next to nothing about service cloud.  While I was excited that a new superbadge was available, it made me a little nervous that I had to do all of the prerequisites and tackle new things like macros.  New things - new year - let's get started! (Right after I finish guitar practice) If you are also a service cloud novice, the Omni-Channel Basics is a crucial prerequisite even though it is not officially required. Challenge 1 App Appearance  This, like all superbadges, requires a careful read through the instructions prior to any clicking.  I found it helpful to take a separate notebook and write down the steps that I would need for each challenge step - for example -  My rough notes for challenge 1: Create 2 profiles  Tweak service Console 3 new items on utility bar Allow access for new profiles Create User  Beware - After editing the service console, you might have to edit the new profiles.  I found i...
155 comments
Read more