Salesforce Certified Associate

This was the first of the lower-tier Associate certifications that was introduced earlier this year. I sat (and passed) this exam a couple of weeks back. Here are my thoughts (as well as some issues I had sitting this exam)

First of all this is a pretty easy exam. Like the Certified AI Associate exam it took my about 10 minutes once I was able to actually connect (more below). This is an entry level certification designed for those with about 6 months of Salesforce usage experience. Note this is usage - developers may not actually gain that much usage experience!

This exam is definitely more on the admin path with many of the questions being on areas of the platform I have never used as a developer. Luckily I had prepared for this exam and have been on a Superbadge kick recently which has ensure I’ve been using a lot fo the platform.

I am a little annoyed to have only got 50% on the Reports & Dashboards as I’d completed the Lightning Experience Reports & Dashboards Specialist Superbadge a few days before I sat this exam. So I should have done better than 50% there! If I ever decide to sit the Salesforce Certified Administrator exam clearly I need to study that area more.

Would I recommend this certification? It’s a cheap and easy way to get on the certification ladder. It helps ensure you actually do know something about using Salesforce which might be an eye opener for some developers! So yes, I’d probably recommend it.

Stay Calm!

I had some real troubles accessing the exam which I did not have with the previous exams I’ve sat. Recently when working from home certain internal sites have been incredibly slow to load. Unfortunately the Kryterion site seemed to be the same. Waiting 2-3 minutes for pages to load as the time ticks past being 10 minutes before the scheduled start to 10 minutes after is stressful! Thankfully I was able to take a few deep breaths once connected and answer the questions

Year of Certification

If this year was my “All Star Ranger” year I want next year to be my Certification year. I’ve got 3 certifications right now. I want to pass at least 4 more next year. We’ll see how that goes and I’ll be sure to post some thoughts on each exam as I sit them