Tips for successfully clearing SAP Certification exams

Tips for successfully clearing SAP Certification exams:

An SAP certification is a passport to success in your SAP career. SAP certification is widely viewed as a credential for SAP expertise. Recruiters generally prefer consultants with SAP certification as they have the requisite skills certified by SAP. Having successfully cleared 4 SAP certification exams recently ( 1 professional and 3 associate) , I clearly see a methodology by which we can succeed in our attempts to crack the test. You have the choice to take the exam on cloud or in the training center for few exams.

The list of available certifications are available in the link : https://training.sap.com/certification/validity

In this blog, I will try to explain the methodology along with few tips as I followed and implemented.

1. Focus on your basics : While this is an undenying fact that strong basics will lay the foundation for your understanding of SAP configuration both from business perspective and configuration point of view. Understanding the configuration and its business rationale will have a profound impact on the test result.
2. Practice on the real system : There is no substitute to practice. Practice .. Practice.. Practice on a SAP system with the relevant configuration and theoretical concepts will make your understanding deeper and stronger. As you are experiencing what you studied in reality, you are more tend to remember it. SAP provides live access with a preconfigured system to practice or experiment. For more details see link : https://training.sap.com/live-access
3. Theoretical / Conceptual questions : These questions are tricky ones. Even if your basics are strong and you practiced enough, you will not be able answer them. You need to go through the SAP Certification material thoroughly . These questions will help you reinforce your understanding and expertise of the system. You can refer to the SCN community forum discussions and WIKI.
4. Go through Sample Questions : Sample questions provided by SAP gives you an idea of the level of complexity or type of questions being provided. Attempt them without any help in a fixed time frame. Check your answers and that gives you an indicator of your preparedness. The PDF is embedded in the link to the respective certification exam. For example, for certification on “SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP S/4HANA for Financial Accounting Associates (SAP S/4HANA 1610), the link for PDF is here : https://cdn2.training.sap.com/cdn/sample-question-pdf/C_TS4FI_1610_Sample-Questions_v3.pdf/G/EN
5. Professional exam Vs Associate exam : While the there is a great deal of difference between professional / associate level exams. Associate level exam will as a starting point to clear the professional certification. Professional certification demands expertise and more practical knowledge, therefore focuses on more your practice on the real system. So those who plan to appear for professional exams must practice on a SAP system to get a practical understanding. Most of the questions are based on the knowledge gained through practice only. Associate exams can be cleared with little practice on the SAP system, provided the other aspect are taken care of and basics are strong. It is , however, recommended to attempt associate exam first and then professional exam, though it is not always hard and fast rule. In case you have strong hands on experience in a module, you can attempt professional exam directly.

I suggest the below certifications to the FI/CO community.

1. C_S4CFI_1705 – SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP S/4HANA Cloud – Finance Implementation (1705)
2. C_S4CFI_1705 – SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP S/4HANA Cloud – Finance Implementation (1705)
3. C_TFIN22_66 – SAP Certified Application Associate – Management Accounting (CO) with SAP ERP 6.0 EhP6
4. C_TFIN22_67 – SAP Certified Application Associate – Management Accounting with SAP ERP 6.0 EhP7
5. C_TFIN52_65 – SAP Certified Application Associate – Financial Accounting with SAP ERP 6.0 EHP5
6. C_TFIN52_66 – SAP Certified Application Associate – Financial Accounting with ERP 6.0 EhP6
7. C_TFIN52_67 – SAP Certified Application Associate – Financial Accounting with SAP ERP 6.0 EhP7
8. C_TS4FI_1610 – SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP S/4HANA for Financial Accounting Associates (SAP S/4HANA 1610)
9. P_S4FIN_1610 – SAP Certified Application Professional – Financials in SAP S/4HANA 1610 for SAP ERP Finance Experts

Other module consultants can look for their respective ones in the link provided above. SAP training continuously updates these courses and few courses will be retiring. Therefore watch out for those retiring soon.

Additional Tips :

1. For Cloud certification , check your network settings , Internet connectivity and volume settings before you start the exam. Even if you prepare well, these may force you to reschedule the exam.
2. Spend your time wisely during exam. Don’t just bog down to any tough question. Just mark it and move on to the next question. Questions may be intentionally kept hard to test your patience J
3. Skip lengthy questions initially, then can be looked into later, if you mark it. Also mark the questions , if you are doubtful of your answer.
4. Don’t leave any question unmarked, as there is no negative marking. You can still go for an intelligent guess or atleast a wild guess. Just start knocking out the obvious or most likely incorrect ones, so that you have fewer choices to choose from to improve your chances in case of wild guess.
5. You have sufficient time to go through all the questions. Once done, revise the questions which you have marked for revision later.
6. Cloud certifications allow you flexibility to choose your timing. Early morning is the best time to take an exam for obvious reasons. So schedule accordingly at your convenience.

I hope these tips are useful to help you with successfully clearing the certification exam. Good Luck.

I welcome any comments on my blog. Any additional tips from the expert community members are also welcome.