Just passed my CSA Certification exam! Sharing my own study materials and flash cards...

[JonathanHullah]

Hello everyone!

I'm very happy to share that I recently passed the ServiceNow CSA Certification exam (Vancouver release) on my first attempt and I thought if it was helpful at all I would share back the study resources I created (which in itself was an excellent method to review and prepare for the exam!) in the hopes that they will be helpful to other folks in the Community as well!  In case anyone is interested in timelines, I enrolled mid-November 2023 and completed the certification on January 31st, 2024 (so just under 3 months to complete). 😌

I found that when going through the forum myself looking for study guides and such, for the links that I tried, either the questions were poorly written, or they included content that wasn't relevant anymore (older releases), or in some cases the answers provided were wrong altogether.  Also there were many posts that stated that there were no official ServiceNow learning resource material provided by other learning platforms and that it was best to just study and familiarize with the content provided in the SNAF (ServiceNow Administration Fundamentals) course.  So, long story short, I decided to work through and create my own reference material and found a quick online solution using CRAM, which allowed me to build and review the flash cards pretty much anywhere from my mobile phone.

One other note before I share the links -- even though the SNAF course was provided in 8 modules (9 including Capstone), I re-sorted the material using the six (6) Exam Blueprint "Learning Domains" instead to align with exam requirements and make sure I was capturing everything properly.  I also included the material from the Welcome to ServiceNow module (which covered a few things not covered in the SNAF course like VTBs) and I included all material from all the bonus labs as well. 

Links

• Google Doc - ServiceNow CSA (Certified System Administrator): Study Items Checklist
  • In the beginning is a quick one-page overview in checklist form of the 6 Learning Domains.  Following that, I go into further detail within each Learning Domain, dividing each section into two sub-sections:
    • Knowledge: trying to capture all knowledge that is important to understand and familiarize with
    • Practice Tasks:  a simple step-by-step capture of what is performed in each lab for quick re-use
  • You can find the viewable version with answers included here: 
    • https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z-MI2T3bX7VCiA-p_V7UbPmzTPNHjJQfkjCNoJ43Ug0/edit?usp=sharing
  • You can find the viewable version without answers here (I used this to practice filling in the answers myself and then checking them against the Answers version for validation):
    • https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E-DmpzRsMtSg5r-YQVta2JVAubSKaW1VqccM1t_HAPc/edit?usp=sharing
• CRAM Flash Cards:
  • These were built using the freely-available Cram website, which allowed minimal formatting (i.e. Bold) and the addition of a single image, but this was fine for what I wanted.  Across all 6 Learning Domains I created around 280 Flash Cards, so here are the links broken into each LD:
    • LD1: Platform Overview and Navigation (7%)
      • https://www.cram.com/flashcards/ld1-platform-overview-and-navigation-7-public-14175419
    • LD2: Instance Configuration (11%)
      • https://www.cram.com/flashcards/ld2-instance-configuration-11-public-set-14175428
    • LD3: Configuring Applications for Collaboration (20%)
      • https://www.cram.com/flashcards/ld3-configuring-applications-for-collaboration-20-public-set-1417543...
    • LD4: Self-Service and Automation (20%)
      • https://www.cram.com/flashcards/ld4-self-service-and-automation-20-public-set-14175433
    • LD5: Database Management (27%)
      • https://www.cram.com/flashcards/ld5-database-management-27-public-set-14175434
    • LD6: Data Migration and Integration (15%)
      • https://www.cram.com/flashcards/ld6-data-migration-and-integration-15-public-set-14175436

So, there you have it -- building and using this material for the flash cards and going through the lab steps multiple times while building out the checklist helped me hugely and out of the 60 questions on the exam there were only 3 that gave me pause and I had to mark them and go back afterwards to verify; otherwise I had no issues answering 90% of them based off the learning material I put together here.

I hope some of you find this useful, and if you do, please mark this post as Helpful!!!  😁

Thanks all!

[Harriet K]

Ohh! Ok, gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. 😊

[Kelvin Ward]

@Harriet K  made an update to my custom GPT instruction:

This GPT helps users prepare for the ServiceNow Certified System Administrator (CSA) exam. It interacts by asking one multiple-choice question at a time based on the content from the provided document. The GPT waits for the user's answer before confirming if it is correct, providing feedback, and moving to the next question. If the user's answer is incorrect, the GPT provides the correct answer along with an explanation of why the chosen answer was incorrect and why the correct answer is accurate. It ensures the format aligns with exam standards and calculates performance percentages based on domain weightings specified in the CSA Exam Blueprint. The GPT references the attached document as the primary source of content. The CSA Exam Blueprint (https://nowlearning.servicenow.com/lxp/en/certified-system-administrator-mainline-exam-blueprint?id=...) is used to structure example questions and to calculate domain-specific accuracy. The GPT randomizes questions, provides four answer choices with only one correct answer, and adapts to user performance by repeating missed questions and tracking progress. After each session of 60 questions, it provides a detailed summary with accuracy percentages by domain, highlighting areas for improvement. The GPT then automatically starts a new practice cycle, prioritizing topics with lower accuracy percentages to help reinforce weaker areas. Users can still choose to focus on specific topics or restart a standard randomized session.

If you try it let me know what you think or if you adjust anything. My first iteration was very static and this feels a bit more refined. 

[Harriet K]

Thank you!

[p2pcerts]

I just passed the CSA certification, and I couldn’t be more thrilled! 🎉 The resources from P2PCerts.com were absolutely game-changing. They made complex cloud security concepts like risk management and threat detection not only easy to grasp but also fun to learn. Highly recommend to anyone aiming to crush this exam! 🚀

[Scrutable]

Thank you for doing this this is so helpful! 

Going through to see how much there is to update for Xanadu. 

Also, how did you know exactly what level of detail to focus on? (Like, what materials are actually tested and what’s too much detail?) Or did you just kind of feel it out? 

Thanks!