Preparing for the Admin Certification Exam without LCS Pass

Chelsea Jacobs

The best way to prepare for the Administrator Certification Exam is to utilize NetSuite’s existing resources including the NetSuite Administrator Sample Test, the NetSuite Certified Administrator Exam Study Guide, Sandbox, and the LCS (Learning Cloud Support) Pass which includes training courses designed to prepare you for this exam specifically.

However, some companies are unable to enroll in the LCS Pass due to budgetary constraints which limit a user’s ability to more easily prepare for the exam. While the LCS Pass is beneficial in many ways for admins and users alike, including after your exam is finished, access is not required to successfully pass the Administrator Certification.

Below is a recommended p for those without access to the LCS Pass.

1. Take the NetSuite Administrator Sample Test once. While answering each question:
   1. Pay attention to the wording! Often the wording itself indicates the correct answer if you don’t overthink or second-guess yourself. The wording of the question is critical and usually points towards the correct answer.
      1. Example: When the question says something about a feature not being turned on, the answer is usually related to “enable feature”.
   2. Star (*) any questions if you're unsure of the answer but have an educated guess
   3. Exclamation (!) the question if you have absolutely no idea and are completely guessing
   4. Grade your answers and note the following:
      1. If you knew the answer to the question and didn't struggle, don't waste time studying here
      2. If you were unsure of the answer (*) but guessed correctly, spend some time here just reaffirming your knowledge. If you were incorrect, spend more time on this topic.
      3. If you were completely unsure of the answer (!) and guessed, whether you got it right or wrong, spend your time on this topic ensuring you have a full understanding before moving on.
2. Before retaking the sample test again:
   1. Use the SuiteFoundation Study Guide to navigate within your NetSuite environment and SuiteAnswers to enhance your understanding of each section covered on the exam. If you have Sandbox access, this is the ideal environment to step through the study guide and ensure you don’t make any accidental changes to your Production environment.
      1. Pro-Tip: Change the color of your Sandbox environment as a visual indicator that you’re in your testing environment
         1. Home > Set Preferences > Appearance > Basic: Orange > Save
3. Before retaking the sample test again:
   1. If there is anything that your NetSuite instance/company does not currently use but is brought up in the SuiteFoundation Study Guide/Sample Test, educate yourself here via SuiteAnswers, Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc and your growing network of NS Administrators.
      1. This can be the hardest part of the exam. For example, you may have been using NS for years but none of your employers have ever used the Marketing features NS offers so you have little to no knowledge on this area. You’ll want to do a lot of outside research since it isn’t implemented in your NS instance to test with.
         1. Pro-Tip: Reach out to your network of fellow Admins and see if anyone would be willing to give you a quick demo of the feature to help support your research.
   2. The sample test is a good "sample" as it implies but there will be questions you have no exposure to from the study guide or sample exam so again, review areas of NS you've never used or have little experience in.
4. Only retake the sample test when you've completed the above. The reason for holding off is that the sample test becomes very easy to memorize and then you won't know if you're answering out of memory or understanding. Answering out of memory won't serve you when taking the real test as they mix up the order of questions, answers, and the way the question is asked which could have you recognizing the question but answering incorrectly because it's worded slightly differently.
   1. Theoretically your test score should have improved substantially when you take it a second time. Still follow the same process of using * and ! indicators when answering questions you struggle with until you feel confident with those areas of NetSuite.

What other tips do you recommend to a fellow NS Administrator looking to take the certification exam without access to the LCS Pass?