# NetSuite Certified Admin / SuiteFoundation Study Guide
# Introduction
Are you a user or consultant with some level of administrator privilege over a NetSuite account? Do you know your stuff and want to be able to test your knowledge? NetSuite certification might be right for you.
NetSuite offers a limited certification program that lets you test your knowledge and then display your proficiency through official NetSuite badges and signature icons. I’m not going to go to deep into the different levels of certification. NetSuite does a great job of that on their Certifications Site (opens new window).
This post will delve into my general strategies for test taking and some of the resources I used to pass the NetSuite SuiteFoundation and Certified Administrator exams.
# SuiteFoundation/Certified Admin Readiness
NetSuite recommends 6 months administering NetSuite for SuiteFoundation and 1 year managing NetSuite for Certified Admin. I agree with these assessments. If you have this level of experience, you are ready to study for the exams and more than that, you are ready to pass!
# General Exam Information
- There is a $250 registration fee to take most NetSuite exams.
- $150 retake fee. You can retake 30 days after a failed attempt
- Can be taken in person at a testing center or proctored online
- Length of time and number of questions varies per exam
- Study Guides and practice exams can be found on the Certifications Site (opens new window)
# Benefits
# Education
Studying for these exams will probably expose you to areas of NetSuite you may not have used or reveal features that you did not know about. I definitely learned things while studying for these exams. I have found that I tend to go to the same toolbox for my NetSuite solutions and studying for these exams has helped me to think outside that box a bit.
# Show off your skills
I didn’t think this would feel as good as it does, but I am pretty proud of this:
# Resume material
Qualified NetSuite people are in demand right now and certification is a useful differentiator. It might not seem like much, but many job postings have a preference for certifications.
# Training Discounts
NetSuite training can be pretty expensive, but being certified gets you a 30% discount on courses purchased directly through NetSuite.
# Study & Pass!
# Register for the exam TODAY!
I have found that I can think about something or plan to do something forever. It’s not until I take real action and create accountability that I begin to move forward towards my goals. So, the simple act of registering for the exam and paying that $250 forced me to begin studying.
You can choose your date to take the exam and move the date as long as it is more than 72 hours before your exam date.
# Read the Study Guides
The study guides found on the Certification Site are very good. They give you everything you will need to study to pass the exams. If anything, they can feel a bit too comprehensive, which leads to my next point.
# You don’t need to score 100% on the exam, you just need to PASS!
The study guides can begin to feel a little overwhelming at times. I had over 5 years of NetSuite experience when I decided to take SuiteFoundation and I found the study guide to be a bit daunting. Do I really need to know every feature in Enable Features? Probably not. If you consider that the exam is 66 questions and Enable Features is one small part of the exam, you are looking at a small number of questions in this area. Learn the broad strokes and don’t get too bogged down in trying to learn everything.
# Take the Practice Exams
The practice exams are excellent and will really help you prepare for the exams. I took the SuiteFoundation practice exam and scored very poorly. This was discouraging, but I noted the wrong answers and studied up on those areas until I felt much better about them. I also took the exam again and again until I could score 100%. This might not seem very useful, but the memorization helped me to understand the concepts.
# Use SuiteAnswers and Help
Use these two tools to look up your incorrect answers. Make sure you understand the correct answer in a way that you could easily explain it to someone who doesn’t use NetSuite. I have found that if I can teach something, I know it well.
# Don’t fall down a SuiteAnswers “rabbit-hole”
There can be a temptation in SuiteAnswers, to click link after link after link. A simple article like “Item Types” contains dozens of clickable links to other articles, many useful but you can lose some time bouncing from article to article. I have found it useful to study a specific answer and read a couple of related articles, but to move on to my next concept before I get bogged down in SuiteAnswers.
# Flashcards
There are some freely available flashcard sets on Quizlet.com (opens new window) that I found useful in studying for SuiteFoundation. Quizlet has mobile apps that allow you to study on the go, which I also took advantage of. I have some links in the Resources section of this post.
# Move your exam date
When you are ready, change your exam date to something within 72 hours. I found that I kept bumping my date out a week to study more. I finally scheduled my exam for the next morning so I could not move it without facing a financial penalty.
# Believe in yourself!
I spent the past 3 airplane rides back from SuiteWorld telling myself that I was going to take the SuiteFoundation exam. I was all pumped up from having attended SuiteWorld and felt ready to sit down, study and get certified. But when I got back to the daily business of taking care of business, I would find there was never enough time or I would feel I wasn’t ready. The truth is, I could have taken these exams a few years ago, but fear of failure held me back.
Failing these exams doesn’t mean anything other than you tried and you can try again with more perspective.
Believe in yourself and register for SuiteFoundation today.
# Your Certification Story
If this post helped you in your certification journey, I would love to hear about it. Please let me know if the advice here or the recommended resources were useful to you or helped to motivate you to get certified. If you found this useful you can let me know by sharing using the links below.
# Resources
- Certifications Site (opens new window)
- Excellent Flashcards for Foundation (opens new window)
- Foundation Sample Test – Flashcards (opens new window)
Please let me know what you think of this post and if you have any questions or comments by emailing info@mysuite.tech
By: Patrick Olson (opens new window)
01/21/2019
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