Best "study for exam" source: CSA?

[Drew Dennis]

Over the weekend I have failed my first attempt at the CSA.  Took the online Fundamentals course with 18 pages of notes.  Effectively memorized 3 online practice exams I found.  Spent 1-3 hours per day for 2 weeks studying.  When I sat down to take the exam it was like I taking something I'd never seen before to the point I admit I was guessing for ~1/2 of the questions.  It wasn't "harder than I expected" or anything like that, it simply wasn't in a form that anything I studied prepared me for; especially not the Fundamentals class.  

I've been using the SN platform for 6 years.  Have been the Admin at my job and working with an offshore for code-help for 3 years.  Already making notifications, managing groups and roles, inbound actions, modifying forms, helped configure and test the CMDB, wrote the entire Knowledge base for my current company, etc.  As far as practical knowledge I had confidence going into this exam.

But I didn't learn the material in a hard-vocabulary format.  I'm not mad at myself for failing the exam because I honestly felt very prepared and wouldn't have changed my way of studying because it works.  I know how to do the job and have put in the hours.  But I DON'T know how to take the test to prove that.  The CompTIA tests are the same in a way; written in a specific format people need to intentionally study for. 

How do I do that for ServiceNow?  Where is the testing material that will prepare me for the specific, vocab-only testing format?  I'm getting licensed on my own so this is money out of my pocket and if I can't complete the exams to prove my knowledge it might be a smarter idea to stop going down the SN Paths altogether and focus on mastery of other things.    

[Snehal13]

Sad to hear that. However, do not lose hope. A lot of people were taken by surprise with the new look CSA exam and have penned their tips, strategies, ref questions here - https://www.reddit.com/r/servicenow/comments/o7hnu1/my_2_cents_regarding_csa_exam_wrt_discussion/

[unknown user]

Hey Andrew,

Now Platform course is helpful enough to pass CSA. Still, you are unsure then I would recommend you to either refer to the CSA e-book or you can prefer the following udemy course which I found really helpful while passing my CSA certification recently on the first attempt:

It consists of 5 question paper sets (the 5th one is not necessary although) which are very helpful to practice.

ServiceNow Certified System Administrator(CSA) Practice Test

Latest ServiceNow Certified System Administrator Questions from actual test and detailed explanation

https://www.udemy.com/course/servicenow-certified-system-administrator-practice-tests/

Don't go for Quizlet or classmarker because most of the time they have the wrong answers. You can Take the question set and find your own answers from the Product Documentation.  

Hope my answer helps. 
All the best.

Regards
Srashti 

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[Snehal13]

CSA exam is a HOTLY discussed topic off late for all of us given the changes of questions..

See this page where people have expressed themselves on how they prepared and their actual CSA exam experiences.

I think no course anywhere on the web can NOW say that it covers the new styled CSA exam and the questions that may be asked in the exam. You are expected to be hands on and smart enough to choose the right answer(s) based on your experience and skills. Test prep courses are just validators of that. The major problem is situational questions which are very hard to get answers for. Please study with course manual, exam blue print and build stuff in PDI. Get hands on, dive deep into the instance internal, know the terms and you will be good for the exam.

Try doing the labs from just the course/PDI/ learning path exercises. It will make you explore and by doing so will reinforce concepts. Brace yourself for some tricky real use cases. Cert exams are a game of margins so do well. each answer is important in the final outcome.

DM if you need additional tips/inputs. Good luck in your quest for the exam. 

[Drew Dennis]

"Hotly" is indeed a good word for this one.  I hotly disagree that the "Now Platform course is helpful enough to pass CSA."  Matter of fact I'd like you to retract that statement entirely and challenge you to actually test this unsubstantiated theory in a controlled environment.  As stated above I've been a platform user for 6 years and an admin for 3.  The Fundamentals course is spoonfeeding the most basic concepts of the platform and if anything gives a false sense of confidence going into the exam because the exam format is PURELY vocabulary-based and has what many would consider "trick questions" based off an s here or an abbreviation there that people do not need to memorize to use or administrate this wonderful platform.    

I started the udemy course the Monday following my failed exam and while it is just a series of practice tests it is written in the exact same format as the actual exam and has helpful links to documentation and explanations for the trickier questions.  I am making good progress towards the level of pedanticism needed to pass the exam.  

Please hire whoever wrote the udemy tests.  What I paid extra for there should be the final portion of the Fundamentals course and I legitimately believe would have saved me several hundred dollars and a small pile of frustration and disappointment.