How to Revise for Your Salesforce Admin Exam If You're Short on Time
If you’re Salesforce Admin exam is around the corner and you’re not feeling quite prepared, don’t fret!
It’s totally normal to feel nervous about sitting your Admin exam. In all likelihood, it’s probably the first assessment you’ve sat since you left school. However, the difference here is that you’ve also got a full time job and life commitments to take care of, leaving little time to study.
So, rather than worrying about your Admin exam and having flashbacks to sitting tests in school, check out these 5 tips we’ve put together if you’re sitting your exam and are short on time for study.
Spend Time in the Salesforce Org
You can do all the revision you want, but nothing will replace spending time actually in the Salesforce Org. Yes, do go over your notes and make new ones. But the best way to learn is to maximise your time in the Salesforce Org.
What we’ve found is that those who do the best in their Admin exam are those who have spent the most amount of time in their Salesforce Org. If you’re short on time, the best way to quickly learn as much as you can would be to get your hands dirty!
Take Advantage of Cheat Sheets
Cheat sheets are your secret weapon to speed up the process of revising for your exam. Having a set of structured, color-coded and sectioned notes will save you so much time when you are revising.
When you’ve got limited time, you can’t afford to be memorising everything. Cheat sheets will speed up the process of memorisation, allowing you to spend more time in the Salesforce org. Keep yourself focused and don’t waste unnecessary time on weird topics that don’t matter.
Chances are, if you’re pressed for time, you can’t afford to spend a few weeks meticulously creating cheat sheets. You’re best bet is to look around online at cheat sheets that are already out there and dive into those as part of your revision, rather than waste precious time creating cheat sheets when you could have been in the Salesforce org.
Practice Reading Scenario Questions and Understanding Them
Scenario questions in the exam are infamously tricky. This is an area where it’s valuable to be spending more time on. Slow down and spend a good portion of your revision time reading and wrapping your head around scenario questions.
It helps to break them down and tackle each part individually. Once you’ve done this a couple of times, you’ll start to recognise patterns when it comes to scenario questions. Taking your time to understand exactly what they’re asking is a skill that is vital to learn for your Admin exam, even if you’re short on time.
Print Out the Exam Guide
This sounds obvious, but it’s also about how to use this that’s the trick to studying efficiently. Highlight only the areas you are least confident in, so you know that’s where you need to focus. When you’ve got limited time to revise, you can’t afford to dive into every single topic.
Focus on these areas you’ve highlighted and cross them off as you go. This way, you can ensure that you’re only focussed on what you really struggle with.
Make sure this exam guide is really visible. Someone who I spoke to a while back who was revising for their Admin exam stuck their exam guide on their fridge! I’m not saying you have to leave your exam guide everywhere around your house, but make sure that every time you sit down to revise, you have your exam guide with highlighted topics in front of you.
Create a Study Timetable and Stick to It
Yes, it’s all well and good to say you’ll spend an hour here and there revising. But how many times have you told yourself you’d study and ended up scrolling down Instagram and binging Netflix?
Study timetables are great, but they need to be clear and specific. It’s not use saying you’ll study on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evening. You’re study guide should tell you that you’re spending an hour after dinner on Monday in the Salesforce Org, 30 minutes on Wednesday lunchtime reviewing your cheat sheets, and an hour before bed on Thursday in the Salesforce org again.
This way, you can create accountability for yourself. You could even share your study timetable to someone you live with and ask them to hold you accountable. At the end of the day, the Admin exam is a tricky beast to tackle so you’ve got to have a plan!
Studying for the Admin exam is no easy feat. When you’re short on time, it’s easy to get flustered and feel overwhelmed. There’s no worse feeling than walking into an exam without feeling prepared. Follow along these tips and you’ll give yourself a massive boost!