8 Tips for Retaking a Salesforce Certification Exam in 2022
7 min
Abraham Lincoln failed over and over. Yet, presidential historians ranked Lincoln as the best president in the history of the United States of America. Why? Well, because Lincoln showed that failure – and even failure again and again – makes you your best self.
So people can become more successful when retaking a Salesforce certification exam. Because you can retake them!
Plus, you are not alone by any stretch of the imagination if you have failed a Salesforce certification exam. Ninety-two percent of people informally polled have failed at least one certification attempt.
While you may want to read up on details of the retake policy of Salesforce certification exams and consider there is a cap on the number of attempts to pass an exam in a given season of the year, there is no limit to the number of attempts one has when taking any Salesforce certification exam. And even in any of the three release cycles in a year, you have three opportunities to take the same exam, with the opportunity to take it a second time as little as 24 hours after the first attempt and the chance for a third attempt being available 14-plus days after the second try.
Here are eight tips from PhoneIQ on retaking a Salesforce certification exam in 2022.
1) Finish the Trailhead If You Haven’t Yet
While several technical platforms have self-guided instruction, none are superior to Trailhead on Salesforce. Customized to help you get good to go, trailmixes and trails information lines up exactly with the exams’ sections. Here’s an example of the “Reports & Dashboards for Lighting Experience” module:
The modules include comprehensive scenarios and characterizations for each section of instruction. Many of the units include brief videos, besides links to more Salesforce content on the subject. Each unit ends with a quiz or an exercise that rewards you overtime and help you keep motivated.
On-demand videos by Caitlyn Nguyen on Trailhead Live are among the most helpful Trailhead resources. Caitlyn is a talented instructor who can break down complex topics while placing them in the proper framework. Besides assisting you in knowing what to hone in on for the exam, Caitlyn helps folks gain a greater knowledge of the reasons behind their roles.
2) Utilize Trailhead’s exam guide
After you click the top link to “Get the Exam Guide,” you can highlight individual subjects according to how well you understand them.
This allows you to revisit Trailhead, any Trailmix notations you have, and a playground to get additional knowledge about the subjects you need to learn more about. You may also want to explore a playground to familiarize yourself with where to find resources in it.
Hone in on most of your time spent studying the subjects that are weighted the most. You want to offer services the best you can, but your focus right now is to pass the exam.
Make flashcards from the Key Takeaways that conclude Caitlyn’s videos and the red and yellow highlights from the exam guide. Actually write on paper with a marker or pen. Research shows that writing things down assists in you recalling items better. Being digital comes with more ease and is quicker, but you’re attempting to gain knowledge.
3) Obtain Firsthand Learning
As an extension of Trailhead, these trailmixes contain Superbadges you can obtain in a Playground circumstance of Salesforce. Though they aren’t a breeze, doing these Superbadges is an excellent method to get firsthand know-how. It’s one thing to read about putting together reports, responding to some questions, or adhering to gradual guidance; and a totally distinct experience to translate a general business obligation into a practical report. A bit of the instruction may not be clear, as would probably be in a real professional circumstance.
Beyond Trailhead, real-world know-how is really beneficial. A key license is just $25/month.
Several of the projects – particularly for the first Admin Certification Exam – can be done in Essentials. Further, Salesforce provides free Developer Editions, where admins, developers, and all other Ohana hopefuls can use and practice all of the features of the system.
You can also learn a great deal by taking part in work for real businesses. Particularly, several non-profits need help without having many funds. Assisting a non-profit can be among the challenges of a real professional circumstance making the training from Trailhead really become applicable. Facing real-life scenarios in which you can apply what you learn will give you an end-user focused mindset, which will definitely help you answer the questions better and confidently.
Especially while taking different Salesforce examinations, Trailhead will be a whitty guide to adapt your thought process to an Admin, Customer Support (Service Cloud) or Development focus, for example.
4) Pay Attention to All Resources Offered
As is said in the Trailhead section, each unit offers links to more resources. Since these aren’t necessary to finish the modules, several trailblazers don’t pay attention to the links.
Pay attention to the info contained in the “More Resources” links - they offer vital knowledge, and the facts on the pages make them perfect for Certification Exam questions.
And as opposed to Trailhead units, these Salesforce Knowledge pages are a bit dull. Still, Salesforce highlights these resources offer vital knowledge, as the facts on the pages make them perfect for Certification Exam questions. Making sure you cover all the content available will help you tackle each question confidently.
Reaching out to the Trailblazer community might be a good idea to discuss different scenarios and discuss doubts you may have. The Ohana will always be there for you and collaboration is a main characteristic of the Salesforce ecosystem.
5) Develop a killer strategy
Bottomline, your aim is obtaining the certification that shows you’ve got specific know-how according to Salesforce standards. This means that no matter how prepared and well-rounded you are in Salesforce skills, the exam instance is one to focus on passing.
In Salesforce examinations, multiple choice questions can have multiple correct answers and you will only get credit for a question if all answers are right.
So far we’ve talked about what will be assessed, where to get the info you need for that, test your abilities in mock tests and how to gain a more practical understanding of the syllabus. Now is the time to focus on how to deal with Salesforce somewhat sneaky questions.
- While weeding out right and wrong answers, there are a series of tips that may come in handy.
- Understanding what went wrong when you failed will give you insight on what you didn’t quite incorporate the first time. Look specifically into your doubts as soon as you can to avoid falling into the same traps again.
- Try to detect options that seem odd or unusual, so you can eliminate them right away. By reducing the number of potential right answers, you’ll increase the mathematical probabilities of success even when you’re not sure.
- Some questions may seem unclear or strangely worded, so try to relax and read them once again to spot what’s actually relevant and what’s just noise. Some questions may vary in one or two words, so pay attention!
- Keep a clear mindset by focusing on the exam you’re taking. It’s clear a Salesforce Architect will be required to tackle things differently than a Marketing Cloud specialist.
- It’s not all about learning the right answers by heart, it’s about really understanding how to manage Salesforce in a real life scenario. So breaking some rules to understand how the system responds will teach you how to avoid mistakes in the future.
- Combining real-life use cases with a clear understanding of the applicable Salesforce strategies will help you trust your intuition in cases where you just don’t know the answers.
6) Do Exercise Exams – at the End of Your Preparation
Doing an exercise exam may appear like a clear step to take, but that does not mean it lacks comparative importance. Still, take exercise exams near the conclusion of your exam preparation.
Taking mock exams will help you assess how ready you are for the real thing while giving you the opportunity to practice tricky detail detection skills.
Becoming familiar with the types of questions you should expect as well as how your theoretical knowledge can be applied to a real life instance will give you the edge you need to pass.
There are several excellent sites that offer exercise exam questions in comparable forms to the actual exam, like Terry’s Tidbits, Salesforce Ben, and Focus on Force. Beyond these tools, which come at no cost, there are several paid tutorials that provide instruction besides exercise exam questions.
There’s a peril to placing excessive emphasis on exercise exam performance, however. The exams permit you to see the answers after doing the test, with complete explanations of the answer. Thus, after doing the exercise exam once, a lot of folks will almost surely remember some answers. Thus, making a leap from 45% to 62% to 88% on the Salesforce Ben exam doesn’t necessarily indicate that you are learning.
7) Be Aware of the Salesforce Certification Exam Retake Costs
The price to retake an exam is half of its initial cost, so $100 or $200. Seventy-four percent of the exams are $100 to retake. Webassessor, the online test tool used by Salesforce for Trailhead Certifications, will automatically modify the cost to the retake price. The exams are taxable according to local statute. Taxes will be taken at registration.
8) Know Where You Can Retake the Exam
There are two possibilities as to where to do the exam: an onsite proctored center or with a virtual proctor.
Onsite Proctored Center
Salesforce collaborates with Kryterion, a worldwide system of testing centers, to provide exams. To find the center closest to you, go to http://www.kryteriononline.com/Locate-Test-Center. Openings can fluctuate. Salesforce advises that you sign up one-plus weeks before your favored day and time.
Online Proctored
Though this means, you can do exams from your computer. A proctor observes these exams via webcam. Virtual proctored exams are provided every day. You can both sign up and start an exam on an identical day.
To register for an exam, you need to take an initial step of making a test-taker account at www.webassessor.com/salesforce.
Eat Well, Sleep Well – and Jam You Ears?
You may have gotten really jittery for the first exam. Now that you know how the test works and how the questions are organized, you don’t need to be so worried. Ensure you’ve eaten well and go to bed earlier than normal. If commotion from other individuals taking the test distracted you in the first go-round, bring earplugs with you.
For an organized plan of four-and-a-half of these recommendations, read the conclusion of a guide from PhoneIQ on passing your next Salesforce certification exam.
When you are ready to pursue your next Salesforce certification, look into what the most valuable Salesforce certifications are. And it would be wise to earn “the baseline credential of any Salesforce professional”: the Salesforce administrator certification, according to saasguru.
