Plan Your Strategy for Ranking Up

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Make a learning plan for ranking up on Trailhead.
  
• Decide which content to learn on your ranking up journey.
  
• Use filters to find the content you’re looking for on Trailhead.
  
• Follow road to ranger best practices.
  
• Share your Trailblazer rank achievement.
  

There are many ways you can rank up on Trailhead—but it’s best to start your learning journey with a plan. First, set some goals and timelines to stick to.

On average it takes around 4 months to reach Ranger status if you’re focused on your learning journey and sticking to a plan. Here’s how that looks in terms of number or days and points per day. (Note that it generally takes at least double the time to rank up by one level to Ranger rank vs ranking up to any other rank.)

Make Your Plan

What can you realistically commit time wise? We recommend earning no more than 3-5 badges a day if you really want the content to sink in. So 5 badges a day, 5 days a week (giving yourself the weekends off) gets you to Ranger in 4 weeks.

Maybe you don’t have as much time to commit. What about tackling a badge a day? Following the same pattern as above, giving yourself a break on weekends, 5 badges a week for 20 weeks (4-5 months) gets you to Ranger.

Whatever you can handle, make your plan and set your timeline. Then say it out loud to someone—that helps keep you accountable. You can ask a friend to learn along with you, share it with your team at work, post it on your social channels, or maybe you can make it a V2MOM goal. Whatever you choose, make sure you’re committed and held accountable so you don’t lose focus.

Choose Your Trailhead Content

Part of your ranking up plan is choosing the right mix of Trailhead content. You need to do a mix of hands-on challenge badges and quiz badges to reach 50,000 points close to the same time you reach the 100-badge milestone.

You earn points for each unit on Trailhead. A module includes a varying number of units (generally 1-5), each with a multiple choice quiz or a hands-on challenge at the end of it.

For a multiple choice quiz is, you earn 100 points if you get it right on the first try, 50 points if you get right on the second try, and 25 points if you get it right on the third try or beyond. You earn 100 points for each step in a project, and 500 points for each unit with a hands-on challenge.

So let’s do the math:

• 50 units x 500 points = 25K points
  
• 50 units x 100 points = 5000 points
  

So hands-on challenges are key to reaching Ranger, and they are the secret sauce of Trailhead! But how do you find the right content?

Find What You’re Looking For

There’s a lot of content on Trailhead and our badge count is always growing. So where do you start navigating and finding what you want to learn?

Once you log into Trailhead you see a global search bar at the top right of the page. You can type any term you’re interested in learning about into that global search and get results for any mention of that term in the content.

You can further refine your search by using filters. Choose some of the suggested Popular Filters at the top of your results, or click More.... Now you see filters you can play with on the top of your results.

In the sort filter you can choose from:

• Most Relevant: This give the best match to your query.
  
• Most Points: This shows any content with hands-on challenges at the top.
  
• Quickest to Complete: This is based on the estimated time on the content.
  
• Newest: This shows the latest and most recently released content.
  

Levels allows you to filter the content to your level of learning. Whether you’re looking for Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced content, this filter helps identify the best fit for you based on your level of learning.

Perhaps you’re interested in a specific Salesforce product. Use the Products filter to refine your search based on its relevance to a product.

A lot of learners on Trailhead are aligned with role-based learning and the Roles filter finds content based on a specific role. You can pick from:

• Admin
  
• Architect
  
• Business Analyst
  
• Business User
  
• Commerce
  
• Consultant
  
• Cybersecurity
  
• Designer
  
• Developer
  
• Marketer
  
• Sales
  
• Service
  

If you’re interested in multiple roles, simply choose all the ones that interest you.

Don’t miss the More Filters button at the end. This allows you to further refine your search on Content Type, choosing Modules, Projects, Superbadges, Trails, and Trailmixes.

In case you’re not familiar with Trailhead Terminology:

• Trails: Guided learning paths made up of modules and/or projects
  
• Modules: Content that teaches skills in bite-sized units
  
• Projects: Content that allows you to get hands-on with step-by-step instructions
  
• Superbadges: Content that allow you to apply skills you’ve learned to complex, real-world business problems
  
• Trailmixes: Custom learning paths you can create and share
  

Trailmixes to Get You Started

The Road to Ranger trailmixes are a tried and tested way for you to reach the rank of Ranger. They’re all based on entry-level content with a great mix of learning about Salesforce, our technology, and of course getting hands-on and learning by doing!

• Trailmix 1: Get started with the basics about Trailhead, Salesforce, and some important guiding principles.
  
• Trailmix 2: Take a look at our technology and relevant Data + AI + CRM modules.
  
• Trailmix 3: Get hands-on and earn some points.
  

Completing all three trailmixes assures you reach the rank of Ranger! We recommend you do this in sequential order to build your learning.

Road to Ranger Best Practices

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you embark on your learning—and earning—journey.

• Keep your primary focus on learning vs collecting badges. Learning is not a race, it’s a journey. Enjoy the content and take the time to read and retain it.
  
• Schedule Trailhead time on your calendar. Even if it’s 15-30 minutes a day, setting aside some uninterrupted Trailhead time is a great strategy for reaching your learning goals.
  
• Invest time in hands-on challenges and learn by doing. Not only does this help you learn—you also earn more points.
  
• Tap into the Trailblazer Community and/or the Developer Forums to troubleshoot hands-on challenges.
  
• Learn with others (even virtually). Learning with friends, community members, or co-workers makes learning fun and active—conversation can even enhance your retention and understanding on the content.
  

Reward Yourself for Learning

When you reach Ranger rank (and beyond) you might feel like giving yourself a little something nice for achieving your milestone.

You could try your luck with entering a Quest. There are quests for every rank from Ranger to All Star Ranger and all you need to do is complete the trailmix associated with the quest, achieve that rank in the entry period, and be in a participating country to enter for a chance to win fun prizes.

If you want a sure thing, head to your local Trailhead store and check out the latest Ranger swag on offer there. Head to your regional store: AMER, EMEA or APAC.

Share Your Rank

You ranked up—share your achievments! Add your rank overlay to your social pic using our easy rank avatar generator and update this across all social platforms.

You can also share your rank on the licenses and certifications section on LinkedIn alongside any other earned credentials you want to highlight.

Resources

• Blog: Become a Trailhead Ranger: Join the Road to Ranger Blog
  
• Trailblazer Community: Road to Ranger