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Hello All,

I’m currently preparing for the Level 3 Admin Certification and wanted to reach out to see if anyone has any insights to share. After receiving a lot of feedback, advice, support and personal opinions on Level 2 certifications, I successfully passed both level 2 exams and now onto the next. 😀 If you’ve taken the exam or supported others through it, I’d greatly appreciate any best practices, tips, or general guidance. Whether it’s about study strategies, areas to focus on, or things you wish you’d known beforehand, any input is welcome!

Just to note, I’ve already gone through the official certification recommendations (Gainsight Level 3 Admin Exam Preparation and Review), so I’m now looking for practical advice from real-world experiences. I signed up for the test exam that is not proctored and allowed for 4 attempts to take. 

Thank you in advance for any comments or suggestions! 😊

​@vmasciarelli Congrats on achieving Level 2! Tagging a few admins who hold their L3 badge: ​@waynedilworth ​@heather_hansen ​@kstim ​@alizee and of course ​@romihache who shared great tips on L2! Good luck with the exam!!

​@lisa.mirth Thank you 😊

Are you currently working in a Gainsight system?  If not, do you have access to a Sandbox?  I know Gainsight provides one at times. This is probably the biggest step to me to help prepare for the exam before I took it, but….if you’re already working as an admin in the system, this step wouldn’t be needed!  I would make sure to spend a bit of time on the areas of the product you are LESS familiar with.  For example, if you are an admin and you always work in Goals and not Success Plans, spend some time in Success Plans.  This was what threw me a little bit when I took it years ago!  Also, make sure you’re familiar with NXT rather than the SFDC version!

Hi Again ​@vmasciarelli!

First off, huge congrats on crushing those Level 2 exams! Seriously, that's awesome. 🎉

It sounds like you're totally on the ball: hitting up the official guides and, crucially, signing up for that practice test. Given all that, I don't have a ton to add, but my advice is a lot like what you heard for Level 2, just with one massive difference: Level 3 isn't open book.
You've got that practice test, and you should absolutely milk all four attempts. It's your best friend for getting ready.
 

Quick Tips for the L3 Exam
· Prep Your Brain: Since you can't use a notepad (unless they've changed things, neither a physical or digital one was allowed), you need to be ready to solve problems completely in your head. (This is related to the next point)

· Date/Criteria Questions: Something that threw me for a loop, as that type of question didn't exist in the practice exam, was a question along the lines of: "If I want XYZ records, what is the criteria I should apply for a rule?" These types of questions involve manipulating dates and the <,>,=,≤,≥ operators to filter data correctly. As a visual/kinesthetic person, I had a hard time solving that type of logic problem purely in my head. Be sure to practice visualizing how different criteria (e.g., Date is less than Previous Month, Date is greater or equal than subtract N days from Run Date) will affect your resulting data set.

· Don't Get Stuck: If a question is blocking you or making you doubt yourself, flag it and move on! You can always come back to it at the end. Don't let one tricky question tank your time.
 

That's the gist of it! You're totally on the right track to ace this one too. Good luck! 🍀

Are you currently working in a Gainsight system?  If not, do you have access to a Sandbox?  I know Gainsight provides one at times. This is probably the biggest step to me to help prepare for the exam before I took it, but….if you’re already working as an admin in the system, this step wouldn’t be needed!  I would make sure to spend a bit of time on the areas of the product you are LESS familiar with.  For example, if you are an admin and you always work in Goals and not Success Plans, spend some time in Success Plans.  This was what threw me a little bit when I took it years ago!  Also, make sure you’re familiar with NXT rather than the SFDC version!

 Hello ​@manda.edmonds Thank you so much for your feedback and support on this. I am happy to say that I have passed the exam 🥳 Thank you for all your help and guidance, I greatly appreciate it! 

Hi Again ​@vmasciarelli!

First off, huge congrats on crushing those Level 2 exams! Seriously, that's awesome. 🎉

It sounds like you're totally on the ball: hitting up the official guides and, crucially, signing up for that practice test. Given all that, I don't have a ton to add, but my advice is a lot like what you heard for Level 2, just with one massive difference: Level 3 isn't open book.
You've got that practice test, and you should absolutely milk all four attempts. It's your best friend for getting ready.
 

Quick Tips for the L3 Exam
· Prep Your Brain: Since you can't use a notepad (unless they've changed things, neither a physical or digital one was allowed), you need to be ready to solve problems completely in your head. (This is related to the next point)

· Date/Criteria Questions: Something that threw me for a loop, as that type of question didn't exist in the practice exam, was a question along the lines of: "If I want XYZ records, what is the criteria I should apply for a rule?" These types of questions involve manipulating dates and the <,>,=,≤,≥ operators to filter data correctly. As a visual/kinesthetic person, I had a hard time solving that type of logic problem purely in my head. Be sure to practice visualizing how different criteria (e.g., Date is less than Previous Month, Date is greater or equal than subtract N days from Run Date) will affect your resulting data set.

· Don't Get Stuck: If a question is blocking you or making you doubt yourself, flag it and move on! You can always come back to it at the end. Don't let one tricky question tank your time.
 

That's the gist of it! You're totally on the right track to ace this one too. Good luck! 🍀

Hello ​@romihache Thank you so much for all you feedback you gave me and provided. I followed everything you mentioned and happy to say I passed the exam 🥳 So proud of this accomplishment and all the work I put in this year to obtaining all certifications 😊Thank you again for all your help and support! 

Yaaay, go you!! Goals achieved!
Congratulations ​@vmasciarelli !!! 

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