Failed your Salesforce Administrator Exam?

Updated February 2024

Failed your Salesforce Administrator exam? You studied hard, did some practice tests, had lots of practice in your developer org, and thought you had it all sorted. You got to the end of the exam and BUST – not the result you hoped 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 it’s 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 down until you get to the section: Exam Outline

Here are the % weightings that we need:

• Configuration and Setup: 20%
• Object Manager and Lightning App Builder: 20%
• Sales and Marketing Applications: 12%
• Service and Support Applications: 11%
• Productivity and Collaboration: 7%
• Data and Analytics Management: 14%
• Workflow/Process Automation: 16%

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 review the results one section at a time to see where you can improve.

This table shows how the spreadsheet will help determine what you should concentrate on for the next attempt. All you need to do is add “Your Score” and the values for “Your Marks” and “Possible Gain” columns will be automatically calculated.

Download the spreadsheet and add your scores:

Section	Weight	Maximum Marks	Your Score	Your Marks	Possible Gain
Configuration and Setup	20%	12.00	50%	6.00	6.00 *
Object Manager and Lightning App Builder	20%	12.00	50%	6.00	6.00 *
Sales and Marketing Applications	12%	7.20	80%	5.76	1.44
Service and Support Applications	11%	6.60	65%	4.29	2.31
Productivity and Collaboration	7%	4.20	90%	3.78	0.42
Data and Analytics Management	14%	8.40	85%	7.14	1.26
Workflow/Process Automation	16%	9.60	38%	3.65	5.95 *
Totals	100%	60 Marks	–	36.62	23.38
Your % Score				61.03%

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) You need 39 to pass.

How to Calculate Your Marks:
Configuration and Setup: Weighting is 20%, Your score is 50%.
20 / 100 x 60 = 12.0 Maximum Marks (if you got them all correct)
12.0 x 50% correct = 6.0 Your Marks

In this example, the student needs to earn another 3 marks or 4% to pass

If they just concentrated on the three sections highlighted, they could potentially pick up 17.95 more marks and easily pass the exam.

Step 5: What do I study next?

From the Possible Gain column, find the highest numbers. These are the sections you need to concentrate on. An additional one mark for each of the three sections highlighted would be enough for this example student pass. Spend the majority of your study time on just these sections.

Step 6: Find some different Training Material

Maybe the material you have been using did not 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 developer org? Practice the concepts you are not 100% sure about, this will help consolidate your knowledge.

Find the learning style that suits you.

Step 7: 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 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 8: Ace that Exam!

Get a good night’s 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