(Credit and contributing material for this post goes to Adam Olshansky, Jayvin Arora and Nicole Alford – THANK YOU!)

This blog post will focus on passing the Salesforce advanced admin exam using Trailhead and is really a continuation from a post back in January.  I want to thank Adam, Jayvin and Nicole again for allowing me to share some of their content from an awesome Dreamforce presentation they gave back in September of 2015.  The material shared today is not Salesforce official, but rather has contents of that Dreamforce session in addition to my take on aspects to best prepare for the Salesforce advanced admin certification. As you know, I am a big fan of Trailhead and what it has done for anyone looking to brush up or simply learn about Salesforce. Trailhead is fun, interactive and most importantly FREE! About one year ago, I took the Salesforce advanced admin exam shortly after a 5-day official class on the subject in Denver. This 5 day class covered all I needed to know about advanced administration. Even with a formal training class behind me, I really wish Trailhead was available back then or at least info on what to study as I was prepping for the exam. If you read this blog post from last year, you will learn my first attempt at the advanced admin exam resulted in not passing! I definitely think Trailhead would have helped me on the first try and eventually I did pass the exam (on my second try). Before we cover the Trailhead modules and badges, let’s briefly look at the Salesforce advanced admin exam overall.

The Advanced Admin Exam

The exam itself definitely assumes you know about the basics of Salesforce administration (a Salesforce admin cert is required). A few basics about this exam, which are also covered on the advanced admin study guide.

• The exam is 60 multiple choice / multiple selection questions
• You must get 39 questions correct (65% for passing)
• Time allotted is 90 minutes at a testing center or online at home
• The cost is $200 ($100 to retake) and is free for military veterans

Outside of the Trailhead modules and paths recommended below, be sure to check out the other study materials in the “Advanced Admin Study Materials” section of my blog post from last year. This post will be focused on the Trailhead recommendations from last year’s Dreamforce; however, any supplemental training will be helpful in your efforts to become advanced admin certified. In regards to how Salesforce weights the exam in percentage terms, remember these areas below are key to knowing what is actually covered on the exam.

Trailhead Badges/Modules to Secure

Here are the badges and modules recommended in the Dreamforce session as you begin your journey to secure your Salesforce advanced admin certification.

Additional Modules to Secure

Other Focus Areas for Exam

In addition to the Trailhead badges/modules above, be sure to know the subjects below. The exam will no doubt focus on these areas and assume you know your basic Salesforce admin knowledge.

• Territory Management (Account ownership implications and sharing)
• Collaborative and Custom forecasting
• Social Accounts (just know what you can do with LinkedIn contacts)
• Product pricing (know List, Standard and Sales prices)
• Salesforce Knowledge (not in the advanced admin class, but on the test)
• Joined and Custom reporting
• Know the different type of sandboxes as an admin and when to use them
• Many-to-Many relationships and when to use them
• Service Console, the basics, and what you can do
• Communities and specifically what customers and partners are related to them
• Workflows, Assignment Rules, Escalation Rules (know when to use them)
• Troubleshooting (email log, debug log, system audit trail and approval processes)
• How to submit a service request via the web
• Delegated authentication
• OWD security model

Additional Resources For You

As you continue your journey through Trailhead, don’t forget there is a whole community of resources out there to help you further your career and education in Salesforce. Below are the recommendations from the Dreamforce session on this subject, plus a few others I have added.

• http://certification.salesforce.com
• Salesforce Help and Training Catalog (Both in person and online)
• Follow Salesforce employees and MVPs on social media (a few below)
  • Chris Duarte
  • Nicole Alford
  • Adam Olshansky
  • Jayvin Arora
  • David Liu
  • Stephanie Herrera
• Join local Salesforce User Groups & Success Communities
• Salesforce Blogs
  • Salesforce Developer Blogs
  • SFDC99
  • AdamToArchitect

Lastly, as you navigate through Trailhead and become certified, share what you learned with the larger community. I encourage you to post on this blog as to what worked, what did not and share any lessons learned. Salesforce has a large community of users, developers, admins, marketers and many others who are always looking to learn the best ways to become certified and know the product.

Best of luck!

Hector Perez Jr.

• Tags: Salesforce, Salesforce Admin, Salesforce Trailhead, Salesforce Training, Salesforce.com