How to: Prepare for APB-220 Confluence Space Administration Pro Skills Badge Exam

[#1]

Hello Everyone,

I had a few people ask me about putting this together so I thought I’d try this one for starters and if people find this helpful/beneficial, then I may put together guide for some of the other certifications as well.

Who is this guide for?

As the Atlassian University team points out: Atlassian University recommends at least 6 months to 1 year of experience administering spaces in Confluence before taking this exam.

That being said, it is possible to pass this exam without having the required experience. However, I personally would recommend that you make sure you have taken any other Atlassian Certification Exam so that you are familiar with the style that Atlassian uses when writing their questions, and that you give yourself enough time to study to the point where you can recall information listed on the exam topic list without needing to look something up.

Where should you start?

The very first thing you should do is visit the Atlassian University Page for the APB-220 Confluence Space Administration Pro Skills Badge. This is a great aggregated list of everything else that I will be covering in this guide, it will also give you information about the cost, time limit and passing score for the “proctored“ exam. If you aren’t familiar with a proctored exam, it means that you will have to go to a specific location to write your exam in person or register with a specific online site to take the test online while you are being watched via webcam. I’d recommend reading through Certification Exams via PSI (Online Exams) by Fabian Lim for more details about the online proctored exams.

How much time do I need to study?

This will depend on how much experience you have as a Confluence Space Administrator, How familiar you are with all items listed on the Exam topics list (more on that in a second), and how much time you can devote to studying each day/week.

For starters, I’d recommend reading through the entire Exam topics list. Is it all stuff you have to do on a daily basis as a part of your job? Great! You probably won’t need as much time as someone who isn’t familiar with any of the topics. As a next step (and this is a personal preference), I’d recommend trying the sample questions. Yes, even before you have started studying. If you are able to get a perfect score, you know that you probably need even less time than if you bomb it on your first try (yes I bombed my first attempt). NOTE: Just because you know all of the topics and do very well on the sample questions, please don’t under estimate the challenge level of the actual exam!

So, what do I do next?

If you are still with me, by this point you should have a rough idea of how much preparation you need to do for the exam. Again, as a personal preference, this is the point that I book my exam (please make sure that you have read the requirements for PSI before paying for the exam to ensure you have everything you need.). I book the exam before I start studying because I personally need a deadline to avoid procrastinating. At the same time, I will plan the exam date to give myself enough time to reasonably be able to study/review everything I believe I need to cover (for me that was everything).

Once you have yourself set to start studying, I would recommend taking the courses you think would be beneficial. On the APB-220 page, The University Team recommends two free courses:

• Configuring and Troubleshooting Permissions in Confluence

• Using Confluence for Documentation and Knowledge Bases

I did both of these and strongly recommend them. While they were both more of a review for me, they were a helpful refresher.

What wasn’t available when I wrote this exam but is now, is the brand new Confluence Administration course. In addition, if you are reading this guide before May 1st 2022, There is a 50% off discount available. I have not yet had the opportunity to take this course, so I can’t comment on its benefits, but the course description looks like this:

Cloud Lessons

• Course Overview (1m)

• Access and Permissions (13m)

• Configuring Global Settings (29m)

• Understanding Global Permissions (12m)

• Administering Spaces (54m)

• Managing Content (93m)

• Ongoing Confluence management (9m)

Data Center & Server Lessons

1. Course Overview (1m)

2. Global Settings (48m)

3. Global Permissions (52m)

4. Spaces Administration (51m)

5. Content Management (81m)

6. Ongoing Confluence management (30m)

In addition to the courses, you should also review the Confluence Documentation. One specific item I would like to call out, is that there is in fact a page detailing the differences between Cloud and Server/DC.

Finally, as a bonus from Team '22, there is a public Trello board with some flashcards. You will want to make sure that you know all of the information in the Confluence Macro list.

Am I ready for the exam?

By this point hopefully you are. The last piece of advice I will offer is to take your time. While there is a time limit, you should have more then enough time to answer all of the questions (be sure to flag those you aren’t sure you have answered correctly) and to go back and review your answers before ending your exam session.

I don’t guarantee that you will be able to pass the exam. But, my hope is that by following the same process I did you’ll be in a good position to give it your best shot!

Good Luck!

[G subramanyam]

Good post and please feel free to post more certifications content.

[Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_]

I have a question regarding this exam - does it count as 'active Certification' once you pass it?
I'm asking this because I currently work on becoming Certified Individual (not Atlassian Certified Expert; at least not for now).

Based on Partner Portal page it is stated:

"A Certified Individual is an individual that has two active Certifications."

However, I cannot find details of which exams/certifications count toward that title.

[Julia]

Hello @Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_ ,

It does not count as a Certification. 

Best Regards, 

Atlassian University Team

[Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_]

Thanks for the answer @Julia

An additional question then - do only ACP exams count as a Certification or are there any additional exams apart from those?
We're talking about:

• ACP-610 and/or ACP-620
• ACP-420
• ACP-120
• ACP-100
• ACP-600

So to be clear - these are the only exams that count toward Certification?

[Julia]

@Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_ ,

These are the 5 available exams that count toward Certification:

• ACP-610
• ACP-620
• ACP-420
• ACP-120
• ACP-100

These 5 retired exams count toward Certification until 2 February 2024:

ACP-300, ACP-200, ACP-600, ACP-500, ACP-400

In early 2023 we will release a new Atlassian Organization Administration certification (ACP-520).

[Kathy Hart]

I took the Configuring and Troubleshooting Permissions in Confluence course and wanted to take the ProSkills Badge exam mentioned on the course catalog page, ASB-214, but when I select the exam options, the test is not on the list. I asked Certmetrics about it, but they say that exam doesn't exist. 

Anybody else encounter this? 

[Lukasz Grobelny]

OK, so if there any training provided once I buy the exam? Like for all the certs?