I used to practice chess all the time.
Sometimes during work I’d even slack off and study chess online all afternoon.
It was almost an obsession.
One website in particular hooked me with its unique teaching style.
The site founder studied psychology in University.
Using what he learned, he created a training program based on some of the foundational learning principles he had studied.
They were:
Spaced Repetition
Testing Effects
Imitation and Implicit Learning
By designing the website’s chess training around these ideas he was able to rapidly improve the skills of those who went through the training.
Around the same time, I was starting to focus more on getting Salesforce certified.
I figured: why not try using the same techniques to study for certification exams?
It worked!
I found myself able to learn material faster. I could pass the exams more easily, with less stress.
Here’s how I applied each principle.
Spaced Repetition
Spaced repetition works by interrupting “the forgetting curve”.
As humans, we forget things over time.
Each time we learn something new, we slowly begin to forget it.
Each time we refresh our learning, it takes us a little longer to forget (and that’s good).
If we refresh our learning well enough, we can get to a place where we remember knowledge almost indefinitely.
With this in mind, I’d try to study the same exam material 1 day, 3 days, and 7 days apart, spacing out the time between study sessions to interrupt my own forgetting curve.
This really helped.
Testing Effects
When we test ourselves on material, we employ active recall to remember what we know in order to answer a question.
By retrieving information from memory, you strengthen the neural connections to that information.
The more you retrieve the information, the easier it becomes for you to access it later on.
What’s even cooler about the testing effect is that if you’re asked a question and try to remember the answer, only to find that you’ve never learned that material before, it doesn’t matter.
Your brain still practiced retrieving that information.
And even though you “can’t remember what you’ve haven’t learned”, your brain can still strengthen the information retrieval system for that information before you learn it.
For example, if I ask you right now to remember what my favorite color is your brain would quickly search for the information, not find anything, and tell you “I don’t know”.
However, this very act of looking for whether or not you know my favorite color primes you to remember my favorite color when I tell you.
It’s like you’re practicing remembering it before you even know it!
(My favorite color is blue by the way)
For Salesforce exams, taking the practice tests on FocusOnForce to study different section material, even if I had never studied that material before, rapidly improved my learning speed.
It’s like I was building a mental map of the exam, so that when I studied I could quickly fill in spots on the map that were fuzzy or unclear.
If you’re studying for any of the following exams, I recommend getting the FocusOnForce tests and start practicing them almost immediately so that your brain can start mapping the exam terrain.
Imitation and Implicit Learning
Humans are social.
We learn by seeing others do things and imitating them.
Even if we don’t know why something works, we’ll still learn it faster by copying someone else doing it.
This is why jiu-jitsu is taught in dojos.
Why business mastermind groups are effective.
And why if you buy a digital course with an instructor showing you some skill, you can learn it faster.
When studying for an exam, if there was a digital Salesforce course I could take, I would buy it and go through the course.
I also found this learning principle at work on Trailhead.
If I got stuck on a Trailhead badge I’d go to YouTube and watch a video about the topic.
Watching that person do the skill often gave me the insight I needed to solve the Trailhead challenge.
And that’s it!
Applying these learning methods helped me pass exams faster, and I bet they’ll do the same for you 🙂
Hope this helps!
Best,
Nick
Trailhead Badges
Interaction Summaries in Financial Services Cloud: Use Interaction Summaries to capture and share structured meeting notes.
List View: Quick Check: Test your ability to create, filter, edit, and share a list view.
Continuous Testing: Learn about the processes and best practices for continuous testing.
Books
No Excuses! The Power of Self Discipline: “Each time you discipline yourself to do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not, your self esteem increases.” — Brian Tracy
The Joys of Compounding: The Passionate Pursuit of Lifelong Learning: “Thus, paradoxically, as you read more books, your pile of unread books will get longer, not smaller. That’s because your curiosity will grow with every great read.” — Gautam Baid
Brief Answers To The Big Questions: “However, to a large extent we shall have to rely on mathematical beauty and consistency to find the ultimate theory of everything.” — Stephen Hawking
When you’re ready, here are three ways I can help:
1. Salesforce Flow Course – For Salesforce Professionals looking to master Salesforce Flows.
2. Salesforce Consulting – For businesses looking to offload Salesforce challenges.
3. Salesforce Contract Optimization – For businesses looking to save money on their Salesforce contract.
