How hard is ACP-420?

[mrollf]

Hi, I just took and passed ACP-120, and the company I am working with wants me to take ACP-420, but I wanted to know if it was as hard as ACP-120 was? We work Extensively with JSM where I work and we have a sandbox for me to muck around with, but I just get worried about taking test, and would like to hear what worked for others who have passed it. What should I expect? 

I plan to take the $39 dollar course and review over the Topics pdf. I did not see an exam success course like ACP-120 had. 

[Tim Kopperud]

Hi @mrollf, congratulations with the ACP-120 Jira Administration for Cloud certification. 

To answer how hard an exam is for another person is difficult because we all have different experiences with Jira.

I have taken them both, with almost identical score. I found ACP-120 and ACP-420 at the same level of complexity. They have different focuses, but you might expect some tiny overlaps of subjects (as you can read from the prep documents).

My best tip is to study by working on a JSM Cloud instance until you are fully familiarized with it. You don't need to know every detail of JSM, but you do need to be comfortable with all the subjects mentioned in the prep documents. E.g., you might get questions about measurements in SLA reports.

Analyse the exam you just passed (ACP-120) and ask yourself questions like these:

• how was my level of knowledge before the exam and what was my score,
• how was the knowledge needed to pass the exam compared to my existing expertise of Jira administration,
• to get a higher score on my exam (if <100%) what subjects should I have studied more (with hands-on/test site)? 
• etc.

Such questions might provide you with necessary insight of how much you prepared for ACP-120. Then you simply transfer this understanding to ACP-420. Examine the subjects for this exam (ACP-420) and ask yourself:

• I'm I as good and comfortable for ACP-420 as I was with ACP-120?

If truthfully “Yes” to this, I suspect you will find them at the same level of complexity. If "No", you might find ACP-420 quite harder. 

I will suggest that you get experience with JSM Cloud to some degree. Experience from Server/DC is not the same, and with only such experience I think you might risk missing too many questions to pass. 

I recommend you establish a free site using a trial licence. Add another user account, that you will use during the study, that have only access to JSM for the subjects covered for your exam. In this case only JSM, not JSW or JSM. This to scope the site down to the features only needed for your exam. Play with it together with your training and the course you are planning to take.

I wish you best of luck with your exam when you are ready to take it.

TimK

[Joanna Thurmann]

@mrollf Congratulations on passing the ACP-120! No, the ACP-420 does not have a cert prep course. 

However, also wanted to make sure you saw our announcement about an associate-level certification and learning path: 

 New Cert Alert! Announcing ACA - ITSM with Jira Service Management Foundations

Best wishes on your learning journey!