Within the last year I passed the Content Hub Admin and Developer exams. Being not so good at taking tests made things even more difficult. Even still for me I am sure there are others like me though so I wanted to give advice on how to give these exams your best shots. It is ok to fail, but not trying is even worst.

Get a Content Hub Sandbox and Start with one of the Available Demos.

Sitecore’s Demo Team has put together some impressive demos. I went through what they did and tried to understand everything. I went through the taxonomy, schemas, scripts etc… Not only did I learn new things it gave me ideas for future projects. If you learn by doing using the installed demo will get you a lot of hands on training.

Use the exam study guides.

Sitecore learning has study guides available that will go over what to expect in the test. These can be overwhelming because there is a lot of information in there. Try to get the overall idea of what is being explained so at least you can go back and remember if you need to retake the exam. Also the practice questions should be copied and memorized. They may not be on the exam, but be prepared just in case.

Create your own study guide.

I took notes on what I thought was important and TBH whenever I failed an exam I quickly jotted down questions I knew I struggled with. The exam results will also tell you what you should study more. Making you own study guide not only gives you something to refer to, but you can use it for future use when you are happily using the Content Hub.

Use multiple choice strategies.

This is always better said than done. However you have four answers to choose from. I found at least two answers didn’t make sense. So I tried to eliminate those. The last two you really need to figure out which one the answer should be. Look into the question for help, but also look at other questions that may also give you clues. At the end of the day if you can’t decide, choose the one that makes the most logical sense.

Understand how taxonomy and relationship works.

You have been exposed to this throughout your career. The content hub is no different. One thing though I want to stress is think of the taxonomy type as a parent to the asset. Not the other way around. This is important because you want to think about how different things relate to each other. For instance a taxonomy has a one to many relationship with assets. Think about other things that relate to each other and how many things would relate back and forth. Could be many to many. Also a rule of thumb is taxonomies and security go hand in hand.

Understand how workflows work.

You have been using workflows in Sitecore and in content hub they really are not that different. Get familiar with the way content hub does workflows. I promise it is not much different than how Sitecore does it.

Spend time in the setting settings in the content hub sandbox.

This is important as you will use a lot of the different tools here. Make sure you look at triggers, schemas, actions etc… You will need to understand why and where you would use them.

Learn about in process vs background process and when/not to use them.

In Process – is necessary when you need immediate feedback for the user interface.Nothing else will be executed until In Process is finished.

In Background – by default a script must be set to background processing. This makes it run behind the scenes without user interaction.

Look at the action scripts in the demo of Content Hub.

Try and understand how data is passed back and forth. See how the scripts interact with various internal an external components.

Take the Sitecore Training and Exam Prep

I highly recommend taking any Sitecore training offered. Make sure you make a connection to the instructor and give them any feedback after taking the exam. Not everything will be on the exam taught in the class, but you will be better prepared.

Breathe and Relax.

I am getting better at this. I tend to be nervous going into any test I take. I soon relax as the test goes on. I tend to get a little anxious when I don’t have a clear answer to questions. Just breathing and relaxing really does help. Just don’t breathe too loud because the microphone may pick it up and the exam could get paused. 🙂 The answer is there, just reread the question and again make the logical choice.

Conclusion

No matter what happens don’t give up trying. If you fail, learn from it and don’t be worried about taking the exam again. I always recommend taking the training and exam prep offered by Sitecore.