10-week study plan for ACP-600 Project Administration in Jira Server

[#1]

This course is often recommended as the first certification for people to sit as the training course contains all of the information you need to pass the course. All of the other certification prep courses are actually 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.

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. 

Here are the steps referred to above:

Step 1

Start by downloading the exam topics from the page above and by watching the free webinar available here.

Step 2

Take some advice from others (or not)

• How I Aced the ACP-600
• Tips for Passing ACP-600 Certification the First Time!
• How did you learn for the certificate exam? Confluence and JIRA
• What do you do to prepare for Certification Tests?

Quick tips:

• Spend some time understanding the default reports and when you would use them. Make sure you understand the less frequently used JQL options. These are two areas where I lost a lot of my marks.
• The questions are mostly situational so it is important to know the minor differences between similar concepts and definitions. Permissions/Role and Workflows/Screens/Notifications count for the largest majority of the exam so it is best to know those very thoroughly.
• The question format is multiple choice, like the sample questions, and many answer choices will be similar and the difference between the right and wrong answer will come down to a tiny detail mentioned - so read very carefully.
• Always keep in mind that you are NOT a Jira Admin or SysAdmin, this is very important when selecting the answer in the test, many options will accomplish the requirement but you always need to look for the one you can do with Project Admin privileges.
• Make sure you understand what a project administrator can and cannot change.
• Which configurations (schemes, versions, components, etc.) are shared versus unique when new projects are (1) created from template or (2) with a shared configuration? https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/defining-a-project-938847066.html?_ga=2.54800875.1337890301.1560122417-763742926.1548817805#Definingaproject-createCreatingaproject

• How are valid JQL queries written? What operators and arguments are valid for various JQL functions (e.g. membersOf(), StartOfDay(), WAS, CHANGED, etc.) https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirasoftwarecloud/advanced-searching-764478330.html

Step 3

Purchase the course from here. 

You will get access to a lab environment for 24-hours only. Consider carefully when you activate this environment to get the best value out of it i.e. complete the course in full first, book time in your work calendar, and work through all of the labs.

IMPORTANT: You must book your exam within 60 days of purchasing the course. Do not wait until day 55+ as you may not find an available exam slot.

Study plans for other ACP exams are in the works.

[Jimmy Seddon]

@Kat Warner this is amazing!  I can't wait to see your other study guides! I'm sure they will be super helpful!

[Kat Warner]

Thanks Jimmy. To be fair this is the most detailed guide I have written. The other guides I have for internal use rely heavily on things we have access to as Solution Partners so I'll need to review them to be more accessible before publishing.

[Sharon Helms]

Thank you for this, @Kat Warner ! I will definitely be using your article as I study for my first certification!

[Kat Warner]

Please come back to this page and let me know how you found the study plan and if it worked for you.

Good luck!

[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?

Specifically I am interested if it is possible to go from novice to passing ACP-600 in 3-4 weeks (or less) by studying the materials full time.

Interested to hear your experiences. I want to do what I can to improve the effectiveness from the time I set aside for study.

[Kat Warner]

Hi @Nathaniel Simpson - I know a couple of people who have followed this plan successfully and others who have passed AC-600 (it's not an ACP) following the same process but in a shorter timeframe but putting more time into it each week.

I and one of my workmates were able to pass two Atlassian Certifications and complete requirements for the Technical Sales Partner Accreditation with no or no recent Atlassian experience in 6 months - with the accreditation taking the most time and also needing to work on other tasks.

[Nathaniel Simpson]

@Kat WarnerThankyou for the feedback very helpful. In order to achieve maximum focus I intend to dedicate 100% of my time over the coming weeks to learn the appropriate Atlassian products (and certifications).

It is helpful knowing that with the assistance of the proposed plan, that this task is attainable as it has successfully helped yourself and others :)

[Nathaniel Simpson]

An Update ... The accelerated focus and hard work paid off.

I was successful in passing ACP-600 Project Administration in Jira Server -- YaY :)

As a useful study tip -- I first watched all the lectures and completed all the labs then went back and read the transcripts (for the same lectures and labs) prior to the exam. Transcripts are available and downloadable from the Project Administration in Jira Server course preparation material.

I found the transcripts were a great way to contextualize different scenario based questions.

I also completed the additional (free) material; Learn Jira Basics (6 tutorials, 73 min), Jira Reporting Basics (8 tutorials, 26 min), Go Agile with Jira (13 tutorials, 78 min), Gain Project Insights through JQL (11 tutorials, 125 min), to improve my knowledge further (in JQL in particular).

Best of luck to the future Atlassians completing the ACP-600. It is challenging, and achievable :)

[Kat Warner]

Thanks for the update @Nathaniel Simpson and congratulations on passing ACP-600 Project Administration in Jira Server.

[Kay M]

Hi @Nathaniel Simpson

           With accelerated focus and hard work, can you please let me know how many days/weeks from start to finish it took. Thank you.

[Nathaniel Simpson]

Hi @Kay M, it took me approximately 2 weeks from start to finish (including going through and completing all the prep materials) with hard work and focus. I have been informed by a colleague that it took him about a week from start to finish (Note this is with dedicated focus i.e. 8-12 hrs a day and being accustomed to study).

I would expect this to be the exception rather than the norm....

Best of luck with your studies :) Nat

[Greg Wallace]

@Kat Warner  Thank you SO MUCH for posting this! i've been working as a jr admin for 2.5 years an it's time for my 1st cert. I will follow this to the letter! I'm nervous to say the least but with this I have concrete matierial to follow.

[Kat Warner]

Please let me know how you go. 

[Diego Siqueira]

Great post. Thanks for sharing!

[Romel]

Hello @Kat Warner ,

We are currently using Jira Cloud and I didn't had any exposure to Jira Server, do you think there's value in me taking the ACP-600 cert?

[Kat Warner]

@Romel - most of the information is the same between the 2 products though you may need to be careful about permissions - as these are handled differently.