Many people have many different styles of studying for certs, some very structured, some not so much.
I’m more on the side of “not so structured”. While some have elaborate Trello Boards, all I need is Notepad++ and Powerpoint.
My goal when I study for a Cert/Topic?
– Understand the business case
– Understand the architecture
– Consult a client on best practices
– Implement a simple to medium complex project
– Understand limitations and gotchas
– Pass the Certification with >85% correct answers
My process:
NOT:
– Be the expert for a project
1) Read/Watch all marketing material
2) Trails / Partner learning camp courses
3) Read implementation guide
4) Do my own test implementation
5) Read blogs or other community-created topics
6) Focus on Force
7) 2nd time: Trails / Partner learning camp courses
8) Answer all remaining open questions
9) Create a presentation
10) Am I ready?
Pre-Work: Open Questions List
Throughout my journey, I put everything I’m not sure about into that list.
1) Read/Watch all marketing material
The first step is to understand the value proposition for a given topic. No better place than official marketing material.
2) Trails / Partner learning camp courses
The second step speaks for itself, not much to think about here.
3) Read implementation guide
The implementation guide, if available, is often quite dry but helpful. Compared to Trailhead it has more details.
4) Do my own test implementation
After the implementation guide, I come up with my own “make-believe” project and implement it.
5) Read blogs or other community-created topics
More often than not, there’s plenty of community-created content for a given cert.
6) Focus on Force
Just amazing!
7) 2nd time: Trails / Partner learning camp courses
This one I only started to do a few years ago, do all the Trails a second time. This makes a real difference. The second time around I understands so much more for a given topic.
8) Answer all remaining open questions
The open questions list has been evolving throughout the journey. Now comes the time to answer all remaining open questions.
9) Create a presentation
Most of the content I’ve put out so far is the outcome of studying. I find putting together a presentation for a certain topic is one of the best ways to uncover gaps.
10 )But when am I ready?
I go for a cert when I feel I can answer 80%-90% of all questions correctly within less than 30 minutes, my personal record is 18 minutes.
Why such a high percentage?
I don’t just want to pass, I want to be able to do a simple customer project without any surprises. Everything below 80% correct doesn’t give me enough confidence.
Why so fast?
Being able to answer questions quickly means it became muscle memory and I’ll likely hold the knowledge for a long time.
Disclaimer:
This is my personal way of doing it, others have many different approaches not less viable. Find your own way.