The Salesforce ADM-201 exam tests the ability of new admins to take over an existing Salesforce deployment or start it.

Given that this is a certification exam taken by those individuals who have already had other work responsibilities, you are highly encouraged to start your preparation earlier. Sometimes people enroll in the test being ill-prepared and fail it. Thus, the only way to ensure that you are on the safer side is proper time management and determination to get that highly coveted certification.

The prerequisites for the exam include understanding of the basic concepts and functionality of Salesforce. The instructor-led trainings are recommended.

Exam topics:

• Managing data: The admins often encounter large sets of data. As a result, you need to be skilled in data management. You should be able to use import wizards for new records, perform mass deletion of records, back up data, and ensure that records are up-to-date.
• Automation: The candidates are expected to be able to automate email templates, leads, and cases, as well as set up work rules.
• Customization fields: As you are preparing for the Salesforce ADM-201 exam, you need to make sure that you are able to maintain data quality, work with page layouts, administer standard fields, create formula fields, work with various record types, and create selection fields.
• Security and data access: One must be able to restrict logins, set up record access, manage field-level security, determine object access, control access to events, tackle record access exceptions, and implement role hierarchy to manage records.
• Standard and custom objects: The students are tested on their ability to describe relationship model and standard object architecture, as well as give the explanation of creation and customization of fields and page layouts on custom and standard objects.
• Sales and marketing applications: Among other things, a person should know how to give the description of Salesforce Content capability, campaign management and lead automation tools, as well as understand the implications and capabilities of the sales process.

As you prepare for your Salesforce Certified Administrator exam, you are strongly advised to take the Administration Essentials for New Admins course. This is a training that provides you with the right skills, so that you can pass the ADM-201 test easily. There are a couple of other online courses designed to get you ready for the certification exam. These courses can be taken in person or via a virtualized environment. You will be taught with the help of hands-on exercises and relevant demonstrations so that you are properly equipped with the necessary skills.

The cost of this exam is $200.