The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.  – Norman Schwarzkopf

The Salesforce Certified Technical Architect exam is an OSCAR for Salesforce geeks. It’s the pinnacle of all Salesforce Certifications.

If you pass this certification, it means that you have successfully communicated your architecture vision in less than 45 minutes to the judges, and you have survived the grilling question-answer session for well renowned CTA judges.

One of the ways to succeed Salesforce CTA exam is to practice more and more CTA Mocks exams, and that is too with the diverse group of people being your judges.

In this article, I would like to provide insights about mock exams and how I change my presentation strategy, which suites to me, but at the same time, it will make life easy for the judges to understand my overall solution.

I had started my CTA journey way back in January 2020, keeping in mind that I will be presenting my CTA review board exam in person. So I started preparing a Microsoft Powerpoint deck. If you notice my first presentation on Mock – Universal Safety, everything is digital.

Suddenly COVID stuck, and then I need to change my strategy to avoid any time delay while creating a PowerPoint deck on a virtual computer via Webex.

So I went from an entirely digital to a fully paper-based approach. Even my introduction text was handwritten.

What I realized is that when you write on paper, you can think at the same time. Your hand will do the job, but your brain can already start processing the following action.

While working on PowerPoint, you spend your brain time on when and where to click on the PowerPoint to get the desired diagram. It’s my view, and not necessarily everyone agreed to it.

Practice having the exact positioning for the objects in the diagram, so you do not need to think about how to accommodate them when drawing a data model during the exam. The same goes for the system landscape; keep the positioning of ESB or Identity static as much as possible.

I am not suggesting changing your style of preparation or presentation. Try to manage your time optimally to conclude the right solution for your exam and practice it regularly.

As far as presentation is concerned, try to have logical grouping; for example,

Introduction, Risk and Assumptions, Actors and Licenses, Role Hierarchy, System Landscape and Data Model in the first 15 Minutes

And next 15 Minutes for Solutioning, the remaining 15 minutes, Data Migration and LDV, Reporting, Data Sharing, and Development Lifecycle.

Few additional tips:

• Plan your mock exam well in advance and put it on the calendar.

• Have backup judges for last-minute meetings decline

• Make sure that you are inviting a diverse group of judges, e.g., CTA’s, CTA candidates in the final leg of the journey, Candidates just starting their CTA journey

• Respect all the questions and try to answer as if you can explain them to an 8-year-old son or daughter

• Take notes after the mock exam and write down what went right and what needs to be improved

• Read these notes before the mock exam to remind yourself not to repeat mistakes

• Try to be Concise, Precise, and Succinct (Try to finish answer in 45 seconds to 1-minute max)

I also once heard a former Olympic athlete say: “You train so hard that the event becomes easy.”  The CTA exam is an event of life, so you need to train hard.

Good Luck with your exam.

For your reference, you can find below my mock presentations available on youtube.

Thank you, Apexhours and CloudJohann, for hosting those videos on your channel.

Universal Safety – Nov 25, 2020

CTA Mock Review board and Q&A: Constructus Temporary Buildings   Feb 14, 2021

CTA Mock Review board and Q&A: Universal Containers  May 2, 2021

CTA Mock Review Board | Generic Adventuring Tours | Vinay   May 26, 2021

Judge:

CTA Mock Review board and Q&A: Universal Safety – Episode 4  Jul 29, 2021

Adam Watson