You studied hard, did some practice tests, had lots of practice in your own developer org and thought you had it all sorted. You got to the end of the exam and BUST – not the result you were hoping for!
Don’t despair, you are not the first or last to fail a Salesforce exam. Many students have failed the first and sometimes second time until they finally ace it. What matters now is dusting yourself off and having another crack at it!
Repeating what you just studied is probably going to produce the same result so its time to take a different strategy.
Step 1: Take some time off.
If you have been studying hard for several weeks or months, you need a break for at least a few days to relax and recharge.
Step 2: Review your Test Results.
Find the email that gave you all the details of your result. This is important to help you plan the next attempt.
Step 3: Go back to the Exam Guide
Each exam has an exam guide that contains a wealth of information. The key part we want to find is the weighting for each section of the exam – how many marks is each section worth?
The Exam Guide for the Administrator exam is here:
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/help?article=Salesforce-Certified-Administrator-Exam-Guide
Scroll all the way down until you get to the section: Exam Outline
Here are the % weightings that we need:
- Organizational Setup: 3%
- User Setup: 7%
- Security and Access: 13%
- Standard and Custom Objects: 14%
- Sales and Marketing Applications: 14%
- Service and Support Applications: 13%
- Activity Management and Collaboration: 3%
- Data Management: 10%
- Analytics—Reports and Dashboards: 10%
- Workflow/Process Automation: 8%
- Desktop and Mobile Administration: 3%
- AppExchange: 2%
Step 4: Analyze the Results
There are 60 questions on the exam and a passing score of 65% (or 39 marks out of 60).
The next step is to go through the results one section at a time to see where you can get the best improvement.
This table will help determine what you should concentrate on for the next attempt. All you need to do is add “Your Score” and calculate the values for “Your Marks” and “Possible Gain” columns.
Alternatively, just download this spreadsheet and add your scores:
| Section | Weight | Maximum Marks | Your Score | Your Marks | Possible Gain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organizational Setup | 3% | 1.8 | 0% | 0 | 1.8 |
| User Setup | 7% | 4.2 | 66% | 2.77 | 1.43 |
| Security and Access | 13% | 7.8 | 50% | 3.9 | 3.9 |
| Standard and Custom Objects | 14% | 8.4 | 55% | 4.62 | 3.78 |
| Sales and Marketing Applications | 14% | 8.4 | 62% | 5.21 | 3.19 |
| Service and Support Applications | 13% | 7.8 | 75% | 5.85 | 1.95 |
| Activity Management and Collaboration | 3% | 1.8 | 100% | 1.8 | 0 |
| Data Management | 10% | 6 | 66% | 3.96 | 2.04 |
| Analytics—Reports and Dashboards | 10% | 6 | 50% | 3 | 3 |
| Workflow/Process Automation | 8% | 4.8 | 20% | 0.96 | 3.84 |
| Desktop and Mobile Administration | 3% | 1.8 | 0% | 0 | 1.8 |
| AppExchange | 2% | 1.2 | 0% | 0 | 1.2 |
| Totals | 100% | 60 Marks | – | 32.07 | 27.93 |
| Your % Score | 53.43% |
Weight: How important this section is (from the Exam Guide)
Maximum Marks: How many marks out of 60 is this section worth? (weighting / 100 x 60)
Your Score: Your section scores (from the email you received)
Your Marks: How many marks your weighted section scores earned you (maximum of 60 in total) You need 39 to pass.
How to Calculate Your Marks:
Security and Access: Weighting is 13%, Your score is 50%.
13 / 100 x 60 = 7.8 Maximum Marks (if you got them all correct)
7.8 x 50% correct = 3.9 Your Marks
In this example, the student needs to earn 7 more marks to take their marks from 32.07 to 39.07 (or 65.01%)
If they just concentrated on the three sections highlighted, they could potentially pick up 11.52 more marks and easily pass the exam.
Remember if the calculations are too hard, just download this spreadsheet and fill in your exam scores.
Step 5: Find some different Training Material
Maybe the material you have been using did not really connect with you? Perhaps another author can explain things differently? If you are a more visual learner then video materials may help you. Do you learn best by reading the text? Could you learn better by doing more in your own developer org?
Find the learning style that suits you.
Step 6: Make a Plan
Now you have identified the sections you need to study and found some training material that better suits your learning style, make a plan to resit your exam and book in a date. Set the date within the next month and then plan learning activities for at least 30 minutes each day.
Plan to have a small celebration when you are successful. Whether it is a special dinner, posting your success to social media, or indulging in your favorite food or drink, you deserve it!
Step 7: Ace that Exam!
Get a good night sleep and go into your exam resit with confidence.
Get more great training resources with our online training material that provides everything you need to get certified in the following:
- Salesforce Administrator
- Salesforce Platform App Builder
- Salesforce Advanced Administrator
- Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant
Visit our online training site at CertifyCRM.com
