10 days ago I had a sudden surge of energy to complete my Advanced Administrator Certification. I thought this was quite a big challenge only having 10 days, as I usually have left around a month to revise for my previous exams, but I’m pleased to announce, I passed!
I probably found this exam the most daunting going into, as there are not a lot of practice questions around the internet like the Administrator & Developer exams. It does make you explore a lot of features that you might not normally touch. This however is one of the reasons I love certifications as it forces you to explore all areas of Salesforce.
Coming out of the exam, I felt like it wasn’t actually too hard as I made sure I prepared properly and revised like mad for 10 days, reading over materials, testing out features and generally cramming as much stuff into my brain as possible. Hopefully this guide will start people off in the right direction.
Tactics
My usual tactics for exams is to use the Study Guide as a checklist. I look over this to see what material is included and even if I know some of these areas, I will still revise them again to make sure I know everything 100%. Once I have covered an area, I will tick it off or highlight the area on the study guide that I have printed off.
When I say “revise” an area, what this usually means is compiling my own word document together with my own notes that I have extracted from various videos, training resources and implementation guides. Once I have done this for each area on the study guide, I usually end up with a word document that is about 40 pages long. I use this as my kind of “Bible”.
The next stage I go through after I have written down notes on every area in the study guide, is to go through the implementation guides and related videos on youtube and fill in any gaps in my notes. This usually involves printing out all of my own notes and then writing and highlighting over any areas that might need some more detailed information.
The final stage to my revision is to go over some of the areas I am less familiar with in Salesforce, play around with them, try and set things up, break things and run a few different scenarios.
Material
I’m lucky enough to have access to the Salesforce Partner Training Portal which I think helped me a lot with my revision. If you do not have access to this, all the material is still available in workbooks and on YouTube in various formats. As I had access to the Partner portal I first followed the videos the study guide recommends, the first set of videos which are titled “Administration Essentials for Experiences Admins” includes the majority of the bulk needed for this certification. This doesn’t mean you can just take this and pass, but it is a massive help.
For training that was not available on the Partner Training Portal, i printed off the relevant implementation guides and then revised the first sections of these (Where definitions and terminology is defined). I will be detailing all of the resources I used in Advanced Administrator Exam Resources.
Tips
- Question format is very similar to the other exams, whereby you will have two answers that are just plain wrong and then two which are feasible. Please see my section in the Sales Cloud Exam Guide on Question Format if you are unsure of this.
- Reading each question carefully could not be more relevant in the Adv Adm, there are purposely answers that are very similar so that if you rush over a question and jump to conclusions, you can get it wrong.
- Use the “Mark Question” feature to mark any question you are not sure of, I tend to mark what feels like quite a lot of questions but at the end I found that it was only “23” and this was including questions I have 75% sure on. This meant that I had a very good chance of passing even without going over the exam again, but…
- Definitely use as much time as you can to go over the questions. I actually used the whole 90 minutes which included 60 minutes to do the initial test and then 30 minutes to go over it again. I ended up changing about 3 answers once I went over the exam as I hadn’t read the question properly!
- If you read the questions carefully enough, you will actually find some questions give you clues to others.
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Hector Perez
Great post Ben! I just got my Advanced admin in April as well and this would have helped 🙂
Ben McCarthy
Thanks Hector! Service cloud next (I’m addicted 🙂 )
alex sloan
Ben- Great work….and congrats. This type of studying is critical. There is no easy button as many would like. Your post has inspired me to go register for my next exam. Oh and look I needed to take a maintenance exam as well…
Thank for the great site.
Alex
@isualum12
Ben McCarthy
Thank you for your kind words Alex. I’m really pleased that its inspired you to do more, hopefully the post will help you along the way.
Scott OBrien
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the site. Last December I studied like crazy for about 2 months before taking the Admin 201 exam. I passed but it may have just been barely! At that time I used Trailhead quite a bit and I think it helped.
I took the instructor lead course for ADM211 last year but my company wants me to obtain my ADM211 cert by end of June this year. I will be out most of May on vacation so this is going to be a huge challenge. Along with your site, can you recommend any modules on Trailhead (or elsewhere) that would be useful?
Thanks, Scott
Rakesh Kumar
Ben can you please help me with Adm201 exams.I am planning to take this test in next 15 days.
I didnt attend any training classes as they are too costly.I am very much interested in Salesforce crm.
Your kind help is highly appreciated.
Elizaveta Khazina
Hello. Could you please double check the question: While working with a report, a Sales Manager at SFB Industries would
like to see the that each opportunity is contributing to the overall pipeline.
How can this be achieved?
A) Create a custom summary formula and use the PARENTGROUPVAL function
B) Create a formula field on the opportunity and include this in the report
C) Create a formula field on the opportunity that uses the PARENTGROUPVAL function. Include this in the report
D) Create a custom summary formula and use the PREVGROUPVAL function
I would not agree that the correct answer is A.
Thanks
Ken Gordon
Passed my Advanced Admin cert this afternoon – your mock exam was a definite help. Thanks for doing that.
Ben McCarthy
I’m really glad it helped you and congratulations!
Jiju Samuel
HI Ben,
Congratulations!!! I have Salesforce Partner Training Portal access. Do I Have to go through both admin and advance admin for this certification in partner training portal. I passed my Admin exam almost 2 years ago.
inder
Ben,
Where can i find the mock test.I am planning to give admin advanced.
Matthew R Anders
Is your “Bible” available somewhere, if so please provide link in reply, and is there a link to the mock exam that others have referenced? If so please link to it in reply.
Most of all thanks for all you do Ben. You are a champion!
Ola
Hi Ben, i am planning to take the Advanced Admin Exam soon, heard that the exam questions have changed a lot.
does your mock exam cover the Advanced Admin exam?
Thanks
Ola
Tiffany
Hi Ben, do you have a mock exam for the advanced admin certification? Where an i find it?
Ben McCarthy
Hi Tiffany, there is a full exam on the members section of my website. You can access this at the top of the screen via sign up.
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Natasha Mukherjee
Great study materials and the practice mock exams. I cleared the Advanced Administrator certification.