Today I passed the ACP-300 exam with a score of 83%, which is a lot better than my first exam, where I scored 55% and failed the exam. Even though I was a bit disappointed failing the exam at first, then I realized that the exam was tough, and that I had to work harder and smarter for passing the exam.
In my first exam I scored pretty bad in the Jira Software report section and in the board configuration section, so the focus for the second exam preparation were Jira reporting and board configuration and it certainly paid off studying these areas intensively.
I already have the ACP-100 and ACP-200 certifications, and I do know from these exams, that you will have to practice a lot for passing the ACP exams, as they are challenging.
I am not a Scrum master or a Jira project lead as such but I still wanted to know and learn about Jira Software in depth in order to help my team and customers. I have learned so much preparing for this exam.
I am going for the ACP-400 next month.
Study preparations
Practice, practice and practice. You will have to practice a lot. Reading about Jira Software is not enough, you will have to gain some practical experience and hands on.
Setup a Jira Software instance that will act as your playground for practicing a lot of setups. You will create a lot of boards, believe me. I have my own Jira server at home that I used for practicing, but I do think that you can use a Jira Cloud instance for the same purpose. You MUST have a place where you can practice and play around.
I created a Jira project called “ACP-300 certification” in my Jira instance, where I created a lot of issues in order to create a battle plan for my exam preparation. A Jira issue could have a summary that would be “Read about and play with Sprint report in Jira”. Then I created Scrum and Kanban boards based on this project.
I created multiple projects and created Scrum and Kanban boards with filters that would contain issues from many projects on the same board.
Focus areas for the exam in Jira Software where you will have to practice a lot: Reporting, JQL and board configurations.
Use Jira Software PDF as your bible when preparing for the exam, it is a great resource for reading about JIra Software. Find the PDF in the Useful resources section in this article.
Take the Agile Development with Jira Software Certification Prep course. It will give a good idea of what to expect when taking the exam.
Practice, practice and practice.
Exam tips
My exam tips for this exam are based on the proctored exam where you are being monitored by an online proctor during the exam.
Read about the proctored exam and prepare your laptop for the exam software that will be launched when the exam starts.
On the day of the exam you should find a small and quiet room. I used a very small office at the company where I work. A good idea is to book the room in advance.
Let other people in the building know you are being examined so nobody can disturb you.
Do not panic if a question is difficult to answer. Flag it and jump to the next question.
Try to eliminate the wrong answers for each question. This will give you a better chance for selecting the correct answer(s).
Make sure that ALL exam questions have been answered.
Useful resources
