10-week study plan for ACP-200 Confluence Administrator

[#1]

So far I have shared study plans for three of Jira-specific Atlassian University Certifications. Now it is time to turn the focus to Confluence.

The certification prep courses are guides to what you need to study not what information you need to know i.e. it gives you the questions you should be able to answer not the answers themselves. This study plan should help you learn the answers.

When you start studying refer to this page to confirm you have the most up-to-date information.

10-week study plan

This plan requires around 1-3 hours a week for 10 weeks with the exam able to be sat (and hopefully passed) in week 11. 

Week	Task
1	Enrol in 'Confluence Administrator Certification Prep', download and read Exam Topics ACP-200 Confluence Administration, and watch Course Overview. Download Atlassian product documentation.
2	Review Confluence Server Essentials
3	Review Confluence Server Administration
4	Watch Confluence Administrator Certification Prep '1: Application and Space Access and Permissions', '2: Confluence Server Administration', and '3: Configuring Global Settings'.
5	Watch Confluence Administrator Certification Prep '4: Administering and Extending Confluence', '5: Administering a Space', and '6: Confluence Content Management'.
6	Watch Confluence Administrator Certification Prep Conclusion and Course Wrap Up, and Read the Introduction of 'Case Study ACP-200 Confluence Administration'.
7	Have an hour study group session. Review Inherent Industries’ Intranet case study PDF and answer all the questions together.
8	Have an hour study group session. Review Outro Music Co. case study PDF and answer all the questions together.
9	Book 2-3 hours on Friday to work on the labs. Use the remaining lab time if needed/wanted on Friday night and Saturday morning. Complete the labs for both case studies.
10	Purchase and book your exam. Have an hour study group session. Review the exam topics PDF and answer all the questions together.
	Sit your exam.

Do I really need to all of those courses?

No, none of the courses are a prerequisite for sitting the exam. If you are already a confidant Confluence user and administrator you may want to skip Confluence Server Essentials for a shorter study plan or an extra week of study after completing the labs.

This study plan makes use of the training that is available as a suggested approach and also because access to (some) of these are a perk for being a Community Leader and/or working for an Atlassian Solution Partner.

What is my personal experience with this exam?

I have attempted the ACP-200 exam once and did not pass. I used the Confluence Administrator Certification Prep materials but I did not have a study plan like the one above to follow. I will be working through the plan above with other people in my team in 2020.

[Nathaniel Simpson]

Hi any feedback on the effectiveness of this plan?

how long it took people to complete (from scratch) and if this proposed plan is sufficient. Did it take 10 weeks - or longer - or less time? Could you do it in less time if you dedicated 1-3 hours (or more) per day - instead of per week.

Interested to hear your experiences.

[Kat]

@Nathaniel Simpson - I'd love to hear from anyone who has used this plan.

For various reasons, no one in my team has started studying towards ACP-200 since I put this plan together,

[Alex]

I loved this plan and I am following it to take my ACP-200 exam int the end of this month.

Thanks for putting this together.

Cheers,

Alex

[Yan Kai Pong Francis]

I passed ACP-200 today and I would like to share my experience here.

Reading the Confluence documentation and visit every Confluence pages is important. 

It give you deep understanding of what, why, how in different cases, for example managing content with macros, removing groups which used in page restriction. 

After taking the exam, I find some area which I did not focus on before, I will study them again.

Good luck to all who will take ACP-200.

Cheers,

Francis

[Alex]

Hi @Kat 

I want to share my experience following this study plan to take the ACP-200. 

Before I came across this plan, I started with the Confluence Administrator Certification Prep course, but there were many areas that I did not know. After giving a stepped base and reviewing Confluence Server Essentials and Confluence Server Administration, everything in the prep course started to make sense.

Additionally, I strongly recommend reading everything directly from confluence documentation and invest a great deal of time in the study cases using an addon-free lab environment.

Even though I only had 5 weeks, I compressed the 10-weeks plan and focused on the areas where my knowledge gap was bigger. Ultimately, I passed with a great score. 

One more time, thanks for sharing the study plan and good luck to all who will take ACP-200.

Cheers,

Alex

[Kat]

@Alex - thank you for sharing your experience. Congrats on your new certification.