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In this blog, we're going to be discussing the Administrator Certification Exam. So you understand, the levels of certification in NetSuite go SuiteFoundation at the bottom and then the Administrator Certification. These two are considered like two parts of the same certification from NetSuite's standpoint. When you complete the admin certification and you pass, they will send you documentation that you are a fully certified administrator, which, for people that are making a career out of NetSuite, is a very valuable document.
The first thing that people think about in relation to the Administrator Certification is that it's a harder version or the next up in difficulty from SuiteFoundation, but I actually do not think that's the case.
SuiteFoundation is a tricky test for a new user. If you're a seasoned consultant, you might not have had any hard time doing your SuiteFoundation, but most people have very little experience and it is a tough test for that type of person.
The reason it's tough is because the SuiteFoundation test covers a very wide range of topics. They have all kinds of different things from order to cash, returns, accounting procedures, support, roles & permissions. They cover this wide range, and even though the questions are considered quite shallow, it's still tough to know that many unrelated topics.
Additionally, the SuiteFoundation test has a significant amount of trick questions, so even though the topic might not be difficult, they've worded the question to make you think they're going in one direction, but a totally different answer is actually correct. They try to trip you up repeatedly on the SuiteFoundation test.
Then you have the Administrator Certification Exam. The number of topics covered in it is limited to those things that an administrator would need to know. It's far fewer topics and less trick questions included in the exam.
The exam tends to be more, "What is this feature? How do you do this? What's the best practice for that?" They're upfront questions. You're either going to know them or you won't. These things, combined with a few different smaller factors, in my opinion, make the Administrator Certification Exam somewhat easier.
However, just because the test is easier doesn’t mean there isn't additional information you will need for the Administrator exam,
In terms of the subject matter itself, it’s obviously related to administrators, but more specifically the topics of roles and permissions, customizations, and saved searches. Those three topics cover at least half of the exam. The lion's share of questions is just on those three topics, and then 15 other topics get the other half of the exam. If you're going to spend your time on something, you really should be familiar with roles and permissions, customizations, and saved searches.
In terms of the logistics of the test, there are 60 questions, and you've got 90 minutes to do the test. You can either do it on-site or you can do it online as a proctored test, which is just like the SuiteFoundation, although you have fewer questions and more time. So with a minute and a half per question, you should have no problem doing the whole test within that reasonable amount of time.
The best advice I can give is to utilize the process of elimination. Keep in mind that this test is a multiple-choice test, and the way to approach these tests is not to try and hone in on the correct answer, but instead to try to eliminate every wrong answer.
If you can take all the wrong answers off the table, you give yourself a much higher likelihood of selecting the correct answer. Even if it's a question you don't know, if you can take two answers off the table, you now have a 50% chance of answering that question correctly. Make sure you're marking off the answers that you do not think are correct, and then narrow that field of view to a possible correct answer.