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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!!!

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