Skip to main content

Certified Salesforce Administrator

Happy to report that I cleared my Certified Salesforce Administrator exam over the weekend. I thought why not share my experience and a study guide and some tips for those of you who are aspiring to appear for this exam. So here goes ...

Prepare for Your Salesforce Administrator Credential

Exam Information - Study Guide

The Salesforce Certified Administrator exam has the following characteristics:
  • Content: 60 multiple-choice/multiple-select questions
  • Time allotted to complete the exam: 105 minutes
  • Passing score: 65%
  • Registration fee: USD 200, plus applicable taxes as required per local law
  • Retake fee: USD 100, plus applicable taxes as required per local law
  • Delivery options: Proctored exam delivered onsite at a testing centre or in an online proctored environment. Click here for information on scheduling an exam.
  • References: No hard-copy or online materials may be referenced during the exam.
  • Prerequisite: None required; course attendance highly recommended

Sources I Used to Prepare

These are the sources I used to prepare for the exam, you may choose any that may suit you.
  • Focusonforce.com practice tests by Martin Gessner
https://focusonforce.com/courses/salesforce-certified-administrator/

  • Udemy 3-part course by Mike Wheeler (highest rated course on Udemy)
https://www.udemy.com/salesforce-admin/
https://www.udemy.com/salesforce-admin2/
https://www.udemy.com/salesforce-admin3/

Exam Outline

Below are the topics and the percentage in which they are covered in the exam (descending). I focussed on the ones that were over 8% in weightage. I went over the other ones but didn’t go into too much detail for those.

Standard and Custom Objects 15%

  • Describe the standard object architecture and relationship model.
  • Explain how to create, delete, and customize fields and page layouts on standard and custom objects, and understand the implications of deleting fields.
  • Given a scenario, determine how to create and assign page layouts, record types and business processes for custom and standard objects.

Sales and Marketing Applications 15%

  • Given a scenario, identify the capabilities and implications of the sales process.
  • Given a scenario, identify the appropriate sales productivity features using opportunity tools and know when products and Price Books should be used.
  • Describe the capabilities of lead automation tools and campaign management.
  • Describe the capability of Salesforce Content.

Security and Access 14%

  • Explain the various organisation security controls (e.g., passwords, IP restrictions, identity confirmation, network settings).
  • Given a user request scenario, apply the appropriate security controls based on the features and capabilities of the Salesforce sharing model (e.g., organisation-wide defaults, roles and the role hierarchy, manual sharing, sharing rules and public groups).
  • Given a scenario, determine the appropriate use of a custom profile or permission set using the various profile settings and permissions.
  • Describe how folders can be used to organise and secure communication templates, dashboards, and reports.

Service and Support Applications 12%

  • Describe the capabilities of case management (e.g., case processes, case settings, and case comments).
  • Given a scenario, identify how to automate case management (e.g., case assignment, auto-response, escalation, web-to-case, email-to-case, case teams).
  • Describe the capabilities of Salesforce Knowledge.
  • Describe the capabilities of the Community application (e.g. Ideas, Answers).

Workflow / Process Automation 12%

  • Given a scenario, identify the appropriate automation solution based on the capabilities of workflow/process.
  • Describe capabilities and use cases for the approval process.

Analytics - Reports and dashboards 10%

  • Describe the options available when creating or customizing a report (e.g., report type, report format, fields, summarizing data, filtering data, charting, scheduling, and conditional highlighting).
  • Describe the impact of the sharing model on reports.
  • Describe the options available when creating and modifying dashboards (e.g., dashboard components, data sources, chart types, scheduling, and running user).
  • Describe the capabilities of custom report types.

Data Management 8%

  • Describe the considerations when importing, updating, transferring, and mass deleting data (e.g., CSV files, data quality, field mapping, record IDs, external IDs, duplicate records).
  • Given a scenario, identify tools and use cases for managing data (e.g., dataloader, data import wizard).
  • Describe the capabilities and implications of data validation tools.
  • Describe the different ways to back up data (e.g., data export service, exports, dataloader).

User Setup 6%

  • Identify the steps to set up and/or maintain a user (e.g., assign licenses, reset passwords, and resolve locked user accounts).
  • Understand the implications of activating, deactivating, or freezing a user. 

Activity Management and Collaboration 3%

  • Describe the capabilities of activity management (e.g., manage tasks, events, public calendars, multi-day events.
  • Describe the features of Chatter (e.g., feed, groups, following, security).

Organization setup 3%

  • Describe the information found in the company information (e.g., fiscal year, business hours, currency management, default settings).
  • Distinguish between the various UI features that an administrator controls, including the implications (e.g., UI settings, search settings, list views, home page layouts).

Desktop and Mobile Administration 1%

  • Describe the capabilities of the Salesforce Mobile App.
  • Describe the installation and synchronization options of Salesforce Lightning for Outlook.

App Exchange 1%

  • Identify use cases for AppExchange applications.

Other resources

https://sfdcstudy.org/adm-201-certification/adm-201-quizzes/
https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/topic/salesforce-admin-201
https://quizlet.com/subject/salesforce-admin/

Some Tips

  • Time yourself while doing the practice tests.
  • Read the questions very carefully, there’s key terms in there which imply what is being asked.
  • Nothing is allowed inside the exam room, all belongings are kept in a locker, even jacket, watch, phone etc.
  • Eat and drink before hand if you want to, if you take a break, it’s deducted from your time.
  • Your result will be shown immediately after you click on Submit Exam. You will see ‘Pass’ or ‘Fail’ and %age for each of the sections.
  • If you happen not to clear the exam in the first attempt, I would recommend doing a brain dump of the questions immediately after the exam, so you can focus on the topics and questions that you couldn’t answer correctly. Have a printed copy of the exam guide and scribble on that.
  • Don’t forget to link your Trailhead account to the Web assessor account.

HOPE THIS IS HELPFUL!!! ALL THE BEST!!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Salesforce Products and Services

In my previous post, we've looked at what CRM is and what Salesforce is and how Salesforce can help your business. This week I would like to focus on some of the product and service offerings of the company. So let's get going and look at what Salesforce has in store. Sales Cloud No software. No hardware. No speed limits - this very aptly describes the super ability of your sales team to score more wins like never before, using an array of cloud based tools that help increase productivity and keep pipeline filled with solid leads. Best practices and inline intelligence help close more deals faster. Nurture leads so they are ready to convert and then pass them to the right reps at the right time. All the information is in one place so its easy to prioritise and make decisions based on the most up to date information. Sales Cloud Einstein is the AI component that differentiates deals won from lost and highlights top leads and next steps. Service Cloud Enhanced cu...
2 comments
Read more

CRM and Salesforce

Customer Success Platform - a key term that Salesforce use to describe their platform. A single platform that's always available, from anywhere, making it easy to manage all your customer information and interactions. Imagine if you could generate more leads, close more deals and keep customers coming back for more. Get set to transform your customers' experience. What is CRM - let's start by saying managing the relationship with your customers is a key to success and to do that, every business needs a way to track and manage the customer information and activities. Name address, telephone, emails, website visits, phone calls etc. CRM is just that - it's a software that enables a business to keep track and manage customer information and manage the relationship. It actively tracks and manages customer information Connects your entire team from any device Intelligently captures customers' emails Simplifies repetitive tasks so you can focus on...
Post a Comment
Read more