Getting Certified

Open CertifiedOnDemand.com Section Resources

This is not an exhaustive list; additional resources are referenced within objectives below.
ObjectiveResourcesKey Facts
Reference MaterialsSalesforce.com Cheat Sheets
[Should / Reference Cards / Salesforce.com]

Salesforce Limits Quick Reference Guide
[Should / Long / Salesforce.com]		These are great links and reference materials that will serve you well throughout your journey with Salesforce.
Exam TipsNailing the “Gotcha” Questions
[Must / Medium / CertifiedOnDemand.com]		Put yourself in the shoes of the test writer. Understand the thought process behind exam writing and you will excel.
Take the Practice ExamCertified Administrator: Practice Exam
[Must / Practice Exam / CertifiedOnDemand.com]
Take the ExamRegister for an Exam
[Must / Exam Registration / webassessor.com]		If you have the option, I would recommend taking the exam in person at a testing center.

Some people have reported issues with taking the exam online (camera positioning, internet disconnection, loss of power, the doorbell ringing, etc.). There are less distractions and less that can go wrong if you take the exam in person.
Post-Exam Guide SurveyGetting Certified: Feedback
[Must / Survey / CertifiedOnDemand.com]		Please(!) take the time to fill out this survey - your feedback is greatly appreciated!
Verify Your CertificationVerification
[Could / Verification / Salesforce.com]		Salesforce has launched an opt-in program for certification verification. Try searching John Coppedge.

160 Responses to “Getting Certified”

  1. abhatt2@yahoo.com March 5, 2018 at 9:07 pm #

    I passed the test today. Thanks for building this training program. It helped me tremendously!

  2. rajasubr February 19, 2018 at 2:06 pm #

    Hi John,

    Thanks for the wonderful site. Appeared for the exam today and managed to crake it.

    BR, Raja Subramanian

  3. PNI4Admin December 7, 2017 at 7:21 pm #

    Just passed the exam…this exam is really hard. I work as a Salesforce administrator for almost 2 years now, but in the daily business i rarely uses all of Salesforce’ potential and i guess there are just a few companies doing so.
    So working as an adminstrator of course helps, but really isn’t enough to pass this exam without learning a lot and diving throgh all the stuff.

    Anyway, thanks a lot for this site John!

  4. tomf@nxtteam.com November 16, 2017 at 10:08 pm #

    I was about to register for the Admin exam today when I discovered all the exams are down for ‘maintenance’ and returning on Monday, 11/20. I assume this means the new exam will have more Winter ’18 features in it. Does anyone have suggestions on the best way to prepare for the new stuff? Beyond the obvious like the release notes and the Winter ’18 trail head. I’m assuming sample questions on the Winter ’18 stuff are scarce.

    • JohnCoppedge November 20, 2017 at 7:04 pm #

      I’ve looked at the new study guide (certification.salesforce.com/SG_CertifiedAdministrator.pdf) and I don’t see new content in the study guide. The only mention of lightning is for Outlook. Generally, the admin exam doesn’t change tremendously over time – the fundamental platform is still the same. Will be doing additional review and will post an update with curriculum updates when complete.

  5. MichaelMoeller November 2, 2017 at 2:43 am #

    Passed my test today on the first try. Spent about three weeks getting ready, studying nights and weekends. My advise would be to focus on the areas that cover the largest percentage of the test, and make sure you go into the weeks on it, watch every video, click on every link, and know the concpets.

    I found there to be a lot of questions that were pick two answers, with one obvious answer, one throw away answer, and then two that sounded like they could be right, but were worded slightly different. Analyze the differences and which one applies to the scenario in the question. My best advise would be to take your time, read all of the answers, and then re read the question. 90 minutes is more then enough time to go through 60 questions thoroughly.

    Good luck~

  6. Svetik October 31, 2017 at 8:23 pm #

    Hi John, I passed the exam today. Thank you for the great web site and support 🙂

  7. cwc5013 October 17, 2017 at 9:46 pm #

    Hi John,

    I’ve been an IT professional for about 8 years now, but only started working with SalesForce over the past few years (as the company i joined is ran almost entirely on the SalesForce platform) I’ve had a little more down time recently so i signed up for the Admin exam and prepared using mostly this resource. I passed the admin exam this morning. I’m switching jobs again in the near future and i’m leaning towards checking out some Salesforce Implementation Partners among some other things, because i really do see the value and opportunity in SaaS (specifically Salesforce) both for customers and those looking to make a career out of it.

    Thanks for the great resource!
    Chris

  8. asehic89 September 7, 2017 at 5:26 pm #

    I took the ADM 201 (SU17) exam this morning and was just shy of passing. I studied for roughly 60 hours over the span of about two weeks (every night and on weekends), but some of the questions on the test really threw me for a loop. I’ve rescheduled a retake in another 2 weeks, which will give me time to go over the material that I didn’t really understand (mostly record types, some standard/custom object properties, etc.). Thank you for the guide John, I wouldn’t have known the majority of what I did get right (quite a few 100%’s on the various sections!) without your expertise and the way you laid everything out.

    For anyone else taking the exam, my only advice is to really make sure to understand how security works, what affects what, etc. It encompassed a massive portion of the test, in addition to applying sales/marketing concepts as related to various business practices. The rest was a mixture of which report type would be best suited for x,y,z, scenarios related to cases (escalation, assignment), etc. The real meat/potatoes was security though.

    • JohnCoppedge September 7, 2017 at 9:28 pm #

      Hey asehic- thanks for writing and sharing your experience. Bummer you didn’t get it the first go around, but I admire your dedication and persistence, and it sounds like you have the right approach and diligence to be successful on #2.

      100% agree that understanding (as in you could explain it to someone else) is really what leads to exam success. If there is anything that you think might be helpful to expand on please let me know. Good luck!

      • asehic89 September 8, 2017 at 8:09 pm #

        Thanks John, appreciate it!

        I’m definitely going to stress that people need to know 100% how to solve a wide variety of usage cases, and when one option is favorable over the other. With that in mind, record types is a major player on the exam…know that thoroughly, when to use, vs. page layouts, etc.. I know what I’m going through again this weekend.

    • mellis October 8, 2017 at 10:49 pm #

      Thank you for letting me know what to focus on. I take mine on Oct. 21st.

  9. Linda Rawsky August 17, 2017 at 6:04 pm #

    I passed today! Thank you so much for your site! It helped a lot.

    Linda

  10. vincewlin August 11, 2017 at 2:55 am #

    Hi John, the link to the Chicago SFDC practice exams appears to be broken and links to http://www.luminositycrm.com/

  11. Alex Messinger August 8, 2017 at 12:45 pm #

    Hi John-
    I passed my Admin 201 exam in Feb of 2015 thanks to your site. I would now like to pursue the developer exam. However, I haven’t found many resources to assist in preparing. What do you recommend?

    • JohnCoppedge August 9, 2017 at 8:35 pm #

      Nice work, congrats! I don’t have any experience with developer materials I’m afraid…

  12. stephen.wan@apptech.com.hk July 10, 2017 at 4:09 am #

    Dear John,

    Thanks for the website and all the materials you have prepared, I have just passed the admin 201 exam. I am now proceeding to sales cloud consultant exam, do you have similar courses for sales cloud?

  13. jamhow July 9, 2017 at 10:08 pm #

    Hi John,

    I’ve taken the exam twice and failed both times, I’ve gone through all the material, watched all the videos, can pass all the quizzes and practice exams, but so far still can’t seem to get the passing score. Any ideas to help with this besides go through the weak areas again?

    Thanks.
    James

    • JohnCoppedge July 10, 2017 at 2:45 pm #

      Hey James,

      Sorry to hear that! I know several people that have attempted the exam multiple times unsuccessfully, and what I’ve seen in most scenarios is that spending more time in the application practicing (using trailhead, solving problems, etc.) is what helps them get over the hump. One person said that they went through every practice question and configured the different solutions in the question, which helped them really understand it.

      A few questions:
      What subjects were you strong/weak in?
      Are you an administrator today or do you have work experience in Salesforce?
      How have you preparing?
      How have you been doing on practice questions on your first attempt?

      • jamhow July 10, 2017 at 3:29 pm #

        John these are the results from my exam from this past Saturday

        My Standard and Custom Objects and Security are practically the same from my first exam, despite spending extra amounts of time on these areas since they are a large portion of the exam. I’ve completed all admin beginner and intermediate trailhead modules, I’m still working on the projects. But I feel like understand the areas but the exam shows me otherwise.

        I’ve been preparing by taking the practice exam/section quizzes on here, other practice exams online flash cards, making note cards from the Salesforce documentation pages. Yes I have done the practice questions on my first attempt and do them again after time if I didn’t get them correct before.
        Currently I’m a Business Analyst/SF admin (Need the admin and service cloud certs for my job)
        So the only thing I can think of now before I attempt the exam again is to go through the documentation and just look up the exam areas and try figure out where my lack of understanding is, but as always any advice is appreciated.

        Topic Percentage Correct
        Standard and Custom Objects 60%
        Content and Folder Management 33%
        Organization Setup 100%
        Chatter 0%
        Global User Interface 0%
        Data Management 60%
        User Setup 75%
        Sales and Marketing Applications 33%
        Service and Support Applications 16%
        Analytics, Reports and Dashboards 66%
        Security and Access 66%
        Activity Management 0%
        Workflow Automation 75%
        AppExchange 100%
        Desktop and Mobile Administration 100%

        James

        • JohnCoppedge July 13, 2017 at 1:44 pm #

          Replied offline… I have talked with a few people in similar situations and often spending more time in the application is what will help you get over the hump. One person I talked with verified every practice question they could find by going through the app and configuring it, for example. Writing your own practice questions can be very helpful as well.

          The low scores in Sales and Service are most concerning as those are heavily weighted. I would focus on the areas of SFDC in those topics that you are not using as part of your daily duties.

          • jamhow July 13, 2017 at 2:02 pm #

            Thanks for the reply, and I will take that suggestion, and go try that now

  14. t_prabhu July 2, 2017 at 10:40 am #

    Hi John, I passed the exam yesterday. Thanks for your website. I really looking forward your materials for Dev Certification!

  15. mengqinas June 20, 2017 at 11:47 pm #

    I pass my ADM201 today, Thanks for your great Website! Looking forward to your post for other Salesforce certification.

    • JohnCoppedge June 22, 2017 at 12:47 pm #

      Awesome, congrats! Stay tuned for more materials 🙂

      • mengqinas June 30, 2017 at 5:27 am #

        I find the job description requires more knowledge than examination. Apex trigger, Visualforce etc. At least XX years experience…. Long way to go….

        • JohnCoppedge July 5, 2017 at 12:48 pm #

          Sounds like you’re looking at a developer role – admin or business analyst is more aligned with the admin certification path

  16. kmkaast May 11, 2017 at 9:24 am #

    Now I am done with ADM 201 , looking to start studying for ADM 211 . Can you recommend any source same like this Study guide ?

  17. kmkaast May 2, 2017 at 9:42 am #

    I found this question and ur opinion

    Case Assignment Rules are based on elapsed time
    A. True
    B. False

  18. kmkaast April 30, 2017 at 7:40 pm #

    Hi John,
    I found this Question

    When you transfer an Account which of the following objects are automatically transferred?
    A. Contacts (on business accounts only), attachments, open opportunities owned by the
    current account owner
    B. Contacts (on business accounts only), attachments, notes, open activities, open
    opportunities owned by the current account owner
    C. Attachments, notes, open activities, open opportunities owned by the current account
    owner
    D. Contacts (on business accounts only), attachments, notes, open activities
    I searched and it says answer is B , i think its A as when i do mass transfer for accounts and i already created open recurring activity aren’t transferred. could you please help .

  19. kmkaast April 28, 2017 at 11:20 am #

    Multiple Approvers have received your request for approving a discount that was invoked
    by the approval process? Approver A rejects your request. Approver B accepts your
    request after Approver A rejects it. Is your request approved or denied. (Assume you need
    only one person to approve out of all the approvers)
    A. Approved
    B. Denied
    C. Approval process is revoked
    D. Approval changes to pending stage due to conflict within approvers

    • McFarland May 1, 2017 at 3:31 am #

      This is as good question. Based on the two ways set approvals I would say B.

      Approvals may be approved or rejected on the first response.
      OR
      Approvals may require unanimous approval from all selected approvers.

      • JohnCoppedge May 1, 2017 at 12:26 pm #

        I thought the entire approval process was rejected as soon as one person rejects the approval (meaning this scenario couldn’t happen), would have to test it out to be sure.

  20. kmkaast April 26, 2017 at 6:53 am #

    While studying for the cert. find this Question

    Which of the following is the best way to make the Field Mandatory for everyone?
    A. Page Layout
    B. Validation Rule
    C. Roles & Profiles
    D. Field Level Security

    • JohnCoppedge April 26, 2017 at 6:17 pm #

      B would be right, although the actual correct way to do this would be in the field definition

  21. kmkaast April 20, 2017 at 3:58 am #

    The marketing team at Universal Containers wants to send an email to each lead received from its website. The country of the incoming lead should determine the language of the email that will be sent to the lead. How can a system administrator automate this process?

    A) Create an email template for each language and an assignment rule to send the appropriate template
    B) Create an email template for each language and an auto-response rule to send the appropriate template
    C) Create an email template for each language and a workflow rule to send the appropriate template
    D) Create a single email template and use the translation workbench to translate and send the appropriate template

    Why B and not D ?

  22. kmkaast April 19, 2017 at 8:10 pm #

    Who can cases be assigned to when case assignment rules are being set up? (Choose 3)

    A) Case team
    B) Contact
    C) Partner Portal User
    D) Queue
    E) Internal Salesforce User

    Answer is C,D,E .. Why A is not right ?

    • JohnCoppedge April 19, 2017 at 9:51 pm #

      The case team can’t be the direct owner of the record – needs to be a user or a queue. The case team is added to the case after the case is created

  23. Sal March 13, 2017 at 1:34 am #

    Hi,
    Does anyone know the right answer to this question :
    Universal containers set the organization-wide defaults for cases to private. When a case is escalated, case ownership changes to Tier 2 support agent.
    How can a system administrator give the sales operation team read/write access to all escalated cases?
    A) Create a case escalation rule.
    B) Create a case assignment rule.
    C) Create a criteria-based sharing rule.
    D) Create an ownership-based sharing rule.

    In Few places it says (D) n some (C)
    Thanks.

    • JohnCoppedge March 13, 2017 at 1:32 pm #

      Probably criteria-based (“isEscalated” field) – reading the question literally, if you made it based on ownership (Tier2) this wouldn’t account for escalated cases owned by other users.

      • Sal March 13, 2017 at 10:34 pm #

        Hi,
        Thanks for replying to all my queries, today I took the adm 201 test and passed (yay!) I am glad you replied this above question so early ( I got your email on the way to the test center) and yes, this was one of the 60 Q today.

  24. ania.sredyn@gmail.com January 23, 2017 at 6:14 pm #

    Hi John,
    Thanks a lot for this valuable resource. I passed my exam today, mainly due to intensive studying programm you have provided.
    Exam is difficult. I had problems in places that I don’t fully understand (because I don’t use it – Activity Management and Workflow Automation were worst). On the other hand – some were also challenging but better known, so I got quite nice result.
    When I compare exam with certifiedondemand.com, I have 2 observations/ideas for improvement:
    1. There are quite a lot new topics with low weight on the exam. But questions are tricky. So it would be great if materials in this sections were more advanced, and with more tricky questions. Examples: Customer Portal, Outlook sync, sync with external systems, backups, Chatter, Appexchange, Mobile. I know that they count less to the final exam result, but if known well – exam points are not lost there.
    2. There is very valuable page “How to nail…”. it is great advice how to apprach the exam. But it would be great to have more examples (2-3) also covering features lauched within last 2 years (Chatter, Communities).
    Once again thanks a lot, Anna

    • JohnCoppedge January 25, 2017 at 5:02 am #

      Thanks for the feedback Anna- and congrats on passing! I am working on some ideas that will address your feedback directly so it good to hear that work being reinforced 🙂 It will probably be a little while before it is fully released, but it is on the radar. Thanks and congrats again!

  25. nathanjudely January 10, 2017 at 7:57 pm #

    Hi John,

    First off what a wonderful site you have here. It helped me understand the inner workings of Salesforce which was really useful in passing the exam last week. I’ve been unemployed since graduating in May with a degree In a field I didn’t really want to go into and decided to learn Salesforce. Now that I have my certification though I’m a little lost. I have unrelated volunteer and some work experience, but nothing related to Salesforce. How do I get into an entry level Salesforce role? What are some job titles that I should be looking at applying for? I’ve contacted Mason Frank because they seem to know what they’re doing in regards to Salesforce recruiting, but I’d like some advice from you as well. Thanks again for the wonderful site,

    • JohnCoppedge January 11, 2017 at 2:54 pm #

      Hey Nathan,

      Congrats on passing and thanks for sharing! I’ve got plans to address this topic in more detail as this is a common question.

      I would suggest taking a multi-pronged approach:

      1. Get additional certifications
      2. Get experience: volunteer, freelance sites, etc.
      -if you have the option get involved in salesforce at your current employer, do so
      3. Pivot: look for roles that have an overlap with an area that you have experience (e.g. you’ve worked in healthcare for 10 years… look at veeva positions)
      4. Get involved in your local user group- many jobs are found this way
      5. Reach out to the cloud placement agencies (Mason Frank, Resource on Demand, etc.)
      6. Get involved in the online community: start a blog, answer questions on the salesforce communities site, hop on twitter, etc.

      I did all of these (except pivot) when I rebooted my career in Salesforce, which leads me to the next point: commit. You’ve got to work hard and often put in a lot of effort to get things rolling. There are lot of fantastic opportunities out there once the ball is rolling.

      Good luck!

      John

  26. nk005347 November 25, 2016 at 4:47 pm #

    I passed ADM 201 two weeks ago. This site helped a lot, quite comprehensive and well arranged.
    Thanks a lot. Can I use this even for dev 401?

    Regds
    Nikhil

    • JohnCoppedge November 28, 2016 at 7:09 pm #

      It will definitely help you prepare for app builder, but you will need to do some additional studying (doesn’t cover all topics). Good luck!

  27. sharshbe November 21, 2016 at 4:36 pm #

    I passed my exam today! Thank you for making this study guide it was a big help. Now I just need a study guide for finding a job!

    • JohnCoppedge November 21, 2016 at 6:06 pm #

      Awesome congrats, I will have a post coming on that topic as well 🙂

      • sharshbe November 23, 2016 at 5:43 pm #

        What kind of jobs types can I apply for with this certificate besides just salesforce administrator? I dont have a ton of experience so I just want to get my foot in the door.

        • JohnCoppedge November 28, 2016 at 7:20 pm #

          Business analyst, sales (or support) operations, jr. consultant are a few ideas. I’ll see what if I can address this more thoroughly in a post

      • sharshbe December 4, 2016 at 12:06 am #

        I have my first job interview to become a salesforce administrator next week. Any tips on what I should expect in this interview? It is for a sales/ marketing company. Any help would be appreciated!

        • JohnCoppedge December 17, 2016 at 1:05 am #

          Apologies on the late reply- great question. Hope things worked out well for you.

          A few things:
          -convey your enthueasm about the platform and the type of role you are applying for
          -research the company and everyone that you are interviewing with (linked in, etc.)
          -be prepared to answer techincal questions but if you don’t know the answer communicate that… but also how you would approach finding a solution.

          Will think on this one, there’s a good opportunity to add some content on this subject.

          • sharshbe December 17, 2016 at 2:49 pm #

            Thanks for the reply! I just finished my third interview with the company and I feel like it may lead my first salesforce admin job! This website has changed my career!

          • JohnCoppedge December 22, 2016 at 8:24 pm #

            🙂

  28. Sps October 27, 2016 at 3:30 am #

    Hello John,

    Any suggestions/tips on how to take the Intermediate Release exams.

    Thanks,
    Sps

  29. tg September 20, 2016 at 8:30 am #

    Hi John , and all SF learners !

    I’ve just passed ADM201 Summer16 exam and I want to share some my thoughts . Exam is difficult. Covers a lot of topics, questions quite often are related to subjects which has the lowest percent in study guide (chaterr, files sharing, sync outlook, community). Only about half of questions is scenario based .

    My suggest to all learnes that apart from certifiedondemand quiz and materials to check flashcard in cram site http://www.cram.com/search?query=adm+201. Look for some newest sets of flash card and try to test/found out the answers in yours developer orgs. Lot of question are the same on egzam but answers are outdated or wrong. And those are often questions you know the answer or not and its hard to logically eliminate wrong answers .

    Of course mybe it was my subset of question like that and at the end I’ve passed in my first try so maybe this egxam wasnt so though !

    • JohnCoppedge September 20, 2016 at 8:03 pm #

      Awesome feedback, thanks- and congrats! Interesting to hear the question sets on very small percentage areas appear to be expanding.

  30. chrisballeto September 17, 2016 at 7:40 pm #

    Hello John,

    For your quiz questions at the end of each exam you have “Select 2 or 3” for multiple answer questions. Does the exam also specify how many correct answers there are? or go you have to go with your gut and logic?

  31. Stattman June 25, 2016 at 2:46 pm #

    Just passed the Administrator Course on this sunny Saturday afternoon. Not without some serious study work, this website certainly helped.. Thank you John!.

  32. cwestbury April 4, 2016 at 9:49 pm #

    John, thank you so much for this site! It was extremely useful.

  33. Agyasi Ampah March 1, 2016 at 6:34 pm #

    Hi John
    i passed the ADM 201 exam todays all thanks to your amazing site.
    I also got 26/30 on your exam and that made me feel real confident, and it paid off.

    I am now looking for my first job in salesforce, are there any interview tips or work related tips you can pass on.
    I am now going to pursue the developer exam, so get your skates on and sort it out already.

    thanks a lot geeza.

    • JohnCoppedge April 13, 2016 at 9:24 pm #

      Haha thanks for the word of encouragement 🙂

      And congrats! My as much exp as possible- sub contract, volunteer, do it all. Then find your dream gig.

  34. Agyasi Ampah February 8, 2016 at 2:06 pm #

    Hi John

    Will you recommend any of the exam dump sites or some of the people who have been emailing me about exam dumps

    Pls advice

  35. Sps January 5, 2016 at 3:46 am #

    Hello John,

    I am taking my ADM 201 exam o 13th January. What are the odds that my knowledge of spring 2016 will be tested next week.

    Thanks in advance

    Sps

    • JohnCoppedge January 5, 2016 at 10:30 pm #

      When you register for the exam, there will be a code (e.g. WI16 or SP16) – that corresponds to the version of the exam. Good luck!

      • Sps January 5, 2016 at 11:16 pm #

        Thank You John!

      • Sps January 13, 2016 at 3:41 am #

        Hey John!

        Passed my ADM 201 certification today. Thank you for this wonderful website.

        I am planning to wok for ADM 301. I understand DEV 401 has been discontinued. I would really appreciate your advise on what certification should I go for next as I am static at the moment.

        Regards,
        Sps

        • JohnCoppedge January 13, 2016 at 3:56 am #

          Awesome, congrats on the pass!

          Generally speaking, I would recommend a path based on your role-

          Consulting- CRM implementations: sales cloud or service cloud cert.
          Admin: Advanced admin
          Developer: Platform developer
          Architect (consulting custom apps): App Builder

          • Sps January 14, 2016 at 11:09 am #

            Thanks John!

  36. soraya.attia@papilioconsulting.be December 1, 2015 at 4:52 pm #

    Hi John,
    I wanted to inform you that I passed my ADM-201 certification exam thanks to your great guide! It was worth the money.
    Thanks a lot for this and for your support and helpful answers to questions.
    Best regards,

    Soraya.

  37. isullisp November 18, 2015 at 1:04 pm #

    hi John

    just wanted to say a big thank you for your essential guides and really helpful comments, which enabled me to pass ADM-201 last week! Your content is the best I found out there, and as I think you know, there is some really bad exam prep content available, out of date and sometimes clearly wrong. Keep up the great work!

    Ian

  38. MckSamG November 11, 2015 at 9:19 pm #

    John,

    Thanks a lot for this guide! Passed my exam today and this was SUPER helpful. Thanks so much!!!

  39. sayheyk27 October 28, 2015 at 4:14 pm #

    John,

    I also want to thank you for a very helpful website. I was a project manager who worked at a fortune 500 company for over 15 years and got laid off in July so I took the opportunity to make a career change and utilized your site as well as trailhead website and an instructor lead course through salesforce.com to become an administrator for salesforce.com. I passed my exam yesterday and your site was very instrumental on my passing the exam. I hope you’ll do other exam study guides in the future because I’m thinking about some other certifications as well. Thanks again.

    Marc Kelner

    • JohnCoppedge November 9, 2015 at 3:54 pm #

      That’s awesome Marc, congrats on passing the exam and a first start on a successful career transition!

  40. Kent Moir September 21, 2015 at 6:02 pm #

    Hi John,
    Wanted to thank you for creating an excellent resource to prepare for the Certified Administrator exam. Using CertifiedOnDemand.com, Salesforce’s Help & Training documentation, and Trailhead, I felt thoroughly prepared for the exam and passed the Salesforce Certified Administrator (SU15) exam last week at Dreamforce. I will definitely continue to reference and recommend this site during my Salesforce journey. Thanks!

  41. SUNITA SHRESTHA September 15, 2015 at 8:52 pm #

    Hi John,
    I am plannintg to take exam mid of october. Do you think any Course of Details will get changed ? except those in your curriculum .

  42. dustin.richard.russell@gmail.com August 29, 2015 at 12:09 am #

    Hey John, thanks again for putting this great website together. I successfully passed the 201 on my second try, and owe much of it to being able to refer to this site. I’m sure you’ve heard it before….but when can we get some additional study materials for the other certifications! 🙂

    Thanks again. – Dustin

  43. Egle July 22, 2015 at 3:50 pm #

    Hi John,

    I wanted to thank you for taking your time to create this wonderful resource for aspiring Admins. I have no prior experience as Salesforce Admin or in IT at all but with the help of your website I trained myself and passed the exam – it has taken me 3 months and 2 attempts, but I am certified now!

    Thank you!

    Egle

  44. mmckenney0404 May 21, 2015 at 12:20 am #

    John,
    Great site! I started using your site last week and passed my exam today. I am sharing this with all my co workers! Please tell me you have one in the works for other certs????

  45. mmckenney0404 May 16, 2015 at 11:57 am #

    Hi,
    Is Summer 15 going to be on the exam if i am planning on taking it this month? Or does it get put on the exam post the release? thank you.

    • JohnCoppedge May 19, 2015 at 4:46 pm #

      When you register webassessor will tell you which version – if it is summer then yes you will need to review the summer 15 and spring 15 release notes prior the exam.

  46. Raza Syed May 2, 2015 at 11:29 am #

    Hi John,

    Is this study guide is also good for force.com developer exam (DEV401)?

    • JohnCoppedge May 4, 2015 at 4:21 pm #

      This guide is designed for the Admin exam, however, much of the content overlaps. You will need to review the Developer exam study guide and evaluate – there are a few topics that you will need to learn on that end, although this guide will cover most of the content.

  47. Raza Syed May 2, 2015 at 1:30 am #

    Is this study guide are also good for DEV 40 (Force.com developer exam) too?

  48. Garima Achieve March 29, 2015 at 5:55 pm #

    One question – Can we give the salesforce exam online from personal computer?

    • JohnCoppedge March 30, 2015 at 1:58 pm #

      Yes – you need to have an external webcam and install some software. When you register for the exam it will walk you through the pre-reqs.

  49. Karthik Srinivasan March 10, 2015 at 5:55 am #

    Hey John

    Planning to take the ADM 201 exam on March 20th, wanted to check if this site has updated content for Spring ’15 release? I believe that Spring ’15 release is out and all ADM 201 exams will incorporate new Spring 15 questions.

    If it’s not updated, any plans to update it soon for me to catch up before the exam, if not where to catchup and prep. for the updates. I’m guessing only parts of the updates need to be studied for the ADM-201. can you point out to which parts to study as well if you can share where to prep from (if site is not updated).

    thanks John.

    • JohnCoppedge March 12, 2015 at 8:43 pm #

      It is currently updated for Winter 15 – I would recommend that you review the release notes and release training for Spring 15 (from Salesforce directly).

  50. Poi Kuo March 9, 2015 at 11:08 pm #

    Just passed the exam today. Really appreciate for all the work John contribute on this site. And hope this site will extent to developer or further certification in the future.

    What I noticed in the exam is they don’t want exam taker to memorize those numbers on limits at least in this season. They would like you to remember what users can do or what options are available within profile, license, and different functions.

  51. Mark Weathers February 23, 2015 at 12:11 am #

    I just took the Salesforce Certified Administrator test yesterday and I passed! COD was a great help. No Spring 15 questions yet but I would guess they will be updating it to include some of the new features soon. From here I am wonder if it would be better to go after the Salesforce Certified Force.com Developer exam or to try for the Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator? From what I have hear the 401 test is very close to this one? I do some development work now and am thinking I should get the 401 cert done first before I go after the Advanced Admin. Any thoughts?

    @JohnCoppedge, again this site is a great resource and I applaud you for sharing your expertise with all of us. Thanks,

    • JohnCoppedge February 24, 2015 at 1:37 am #

      Hey Mark, thanks for the feedback. Glad the site helped, and congrats on passing! Dev401 is probably the easiest cert to get next, although I think there is more value in getting the advanced admin or sales cloud. That said, as you are also doing development work, it would make sense for you to get the cert to back it up (although advanced developer is really much more noteworthy). Cheers,

      John

  52. Alex Messinger February 16, 2015 at 2:04 pm #

    Does the exam cover Analytics Snapshots? I just set one up as practice, but I haven’t been able to find out how to create those day-over-day change reports

    • JohnCoppedge February 17, 2015 at 2:19 pm #

      It shouldn’t – it is not listed in the admin study guide, while it is in the advanced admin study guide.

  53. Greg Dimeris February 3, 2015 at 4:58 pm #

    This is such a helpful guide. Along with the Exam Outline provided in the Salesforce.com Admin Guide, you can see the weighting for each objective and really home in on your studying. Thank you for putting it together!

  54. Alex Messinger January 19, 2015 at 11:18 pm #

    Can anyone comment on the quality of the Salesforce Practice Exams (http://www.chicagosfdc.com/salesforce-com-administrator-certification-practice-exams/)?

  55. Daouda Karim January 4, 2015 at 8:25 pm #

    http://www.abetterstudyguide.com/ABSG/

    ” Unfortunately, this site has been taken down at the request of Salesforce.com. “

  56. Koam ATANLEY December 26, 2014 at 10:44 pm #

    Hello John,

    I would like now to prepare DEV 401 exam, can you please let me know how what study materials I should go through and study before doing the exam. I would also like to know if you can indicate me useful tips and preparation questions .

    Thanks in advance
    Koam

    • JohnCoppedge January 6, 2015 at 2:35 am #

      Hi Koam,

      I don’t cover Dev401 on this site yet unfortunately – although a lot of the concepts of ADM201 will overlap. Good luck in your studies!

  57. Kunal Kothari December 15, 2014 at 9:01 pm #

    Hi John,

    Thanks for putting all this so nicely together. I got my ADM 201 certification done today – thanks to you and COD. Do you have any resources that you would suggest for Sales Cloud Consultant certification?

    Cheers!
    KK

    • JohnCoppedge December 15, 2014 at 10:19 pm #

      Awesome congrats Kunal – unfortunately no I don’t have any specific advice (other than SFDC training) for sales cloud.

  58. Raghu Ramanujam December 10, 2014 at 2:28 pm #

    Hi John,

    Cleared my Adm 201 Exam today .. COD helped a lot 😉

    Thanks

  59. Tom Zimmerman October 28, 2014 at 6:13 pm #

    Hi – I tried the practice exam and would like to try it again, but the earlier answers are still marked. How can I erase them to start over?

    • Jeanne Busch November 4, 2014 at 9:09 pm #

      Hi Tom — this is a guess, but probably you need to empty your cache. If that doesn’t work probably getting out and back into your browser should do it. Hope this helps.

      • JohnCoppedge November 5, 2014 at 7:47 pm #

        That should work – or if you simply complete the exam you should be able to restart it

  60. Adriana Seijas October 11, 2014 at 4:10 pm #

    John, thank you so much for putting all of this together in the way you did and helping others get what they need to get certified. I have only been an admin for my org for about 2.5 months, I took the Admin Essentials class and I followed this study guide just as you have it in here for about 1.5 weeks and took the test yesterday morning and passed.
    Thank you so much for your help, I will be referring back to this page for more help as I continue to learn and develop my SF skills. 🙂

    • JohnCoppedge October 19, 2014 at 2:14 am #

      Awesome, congrats Adriana!

    • J Shu October 24, 2014 at 7:57 pm #

      Congrats Adriana! Way to go!

      Did you study the Winter 15 Release for the test?

      Thank you for your answer in advance!

      Jessica Shu

  61. Dan Simon September 21, 2014 at 4:16 pm #

    Hi John,
    Any info on winter 15 coming soon?

  62. Travis Clemens August 22, 2014 at 10:18 pm #

    John,

    I went to a session at Dreamforce last year (link below) about preparing for the exam and there were some good nuggets in there about tips for test day. I’m taking the exam next week for the first time and reviewing this video (after going through everything on your site for months) seemed to give me a little additional peace of mind about what the test will be like. Thought I’d share with anybody else interested as well.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L93JH9AHeRE

    Thanks for pulling this site together! It’s been an amazing help!
    Travis

    BTW, the presenter at the session comes off as extremely arrogant (in person and on the recording), but that’s the only downside to the video in my opinion.

  63. Ray Zhao July 20, 2014 at 7:05 pm #

    Thanks, John for putting all of these together.

    Not sure if any one else had asked, but I would hope to see a centralized link to ALL of the quiz questions. It makes the review of the knowledge easier.

    Cheers!

    • JohnCoppedge November 5, 2014 at 7:49 pm #

      That might be something that is done in the future, but unfortunately isn’t high on the priority list at the moment. Thanks for the feedback!

  64. Cooper Miller April 24, 2014 at 9:56 pm #

    John,

    From what I understand, the exam I plan to take next week is on the Spring 14 edition. I have been studying your site since late February. Should I expect to encounter material unique to Spring 14 that I am unfamiliar with? Should I be concerned? Thank you for any insight you can provide.

    Cheers,

    Cooper

  65. Ron Koppelmann March 8, 2014 at 11:15 am #

    The post from Tquila emphasize limits but your study guide doesn’t seem to emphasize limits as much? How much on limits can be expected on the exam, roughly?

    • JohnCoppedge March 8, 2014 at 6:17 pm #

      The best advice I can give is to understand the limitations in the context of the capabilities of the platform. For example, you need to know that there are a somewhat limited number of rollup summary fields; you couldn’t for example create a rollup summary field to calculate the total amount sold on the account for each of the last 20 years (as the max number is currently 10). You would need to think about creating a report or a report component within the layout instead, which is probably a better approach from an architecture standpoint anyway.

      That’s just an example – so long as you have a feel for what can and cannot be done in the context of limits, I think you should be fine. SF is more interested in testing your application of knowledge rather than rote memory.

  66. John Reed February 7, 2014 at 3:36 am #

    Looks the link changed again for the How to Pass ADM201 and DEV401 Salesforce Certifications.

    This link works.

    http://www.tquila.com/blog/2012/02/21/how-pass-adm201-and-dev401-salesforce-certifications

  67. Glenda Clark January 10, 2014 at 11:47 pm #

    Are you the answers to the exam is scored correctly. I took the exam a second time entering responses based on your feedback and I scored 63.3%? Can you al highlight the correct answers because some of the feedback is confusing. Thanks.

  68. Jim Mitchell December 1, 2013 at 5:21 pm #

    Hi John. The “How to Pass ADM201 and DEV401 Salesforce Certifications” link is a 404 error. Correct link is:

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