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CCAO-F - Practice Plan

Overview

A 3-4 week plan for the Claude Certified Associate - Foundations exam. It assumes you already use Claude at least casually at work. If you are brand new to Claude, add a week of daily hands-on use before starting.

Time commitment: 1-2 hours per day, 5 days per week. This is a foundational exam about applied judgment; daily hands-on practice with Claude matters more than long reading sessions.

Before Week 1:

  • Join the Claude Partner Network (free, company email required)
  • Get access to Anthropic Partner Academy and locate the CCAO-F prep courses
  • Make sure you have day-to-day access to Claude (ideally on your organization's Team/Enterprise workspace)

Week 1 - Products, Prompting, and Daily Use

Focus: Domain 5 (Product and Model Selection - 12%) and Domain 4 (Prompting and Task Execution - 14%)

Partner Academy

  • Start the official CCAO-F prep course track in Partner Academy
  • Review the official exam guide / blueprint for CCAO-F

Reading

Hands-On (use your real work where policy allows)

  • Draft 3 real work documents with Claude using the full prompt skeleton (role, task, context, constraints, format)
  • Take one weak first draft and improve it purely through iterative feedback (no restart)
  • Upload a document and a spreadsheet; try summarization, extraction, and the analysis tool
  • Create one Artifact deliverable and iterate on it 3+ times
  • Try the same task on two model tiers and compare quality, speed, and fit

Week 1 Self-Check

  • Can you name the right product surface (chat / Project / Artifact / integration / connector) for five different scenarios?
  • Can you explain Opus vs Sonnet vs Haiku trade-offs in one sentence each?
  • Can you list the six parts of a strong prompt from memory?

Week 2 - Evaluation, Validation, and Governance

Focus: Domain 1 (Output Evaluation and Validation - 21%) and Domain 3 (Governance, Risk, and Responsible Use - 15%) - together over a third of the exam

Partner Academy

  • Continue the CCAO-F prep courses (evaluation and responsible-use modules)

Reading

Hands-On

  • Ask Claude a question you know the answer to in depth; grade the output and find its weakest claim
  • Upload a source document, ask for a cited summary, and verify every citation against the source
  • Deliberately ask about something after Claude's training cutoff without web search; observe the failure mode, then repeat with web search and verify the cited pages
  • Ask Claude to list its assumptions and confidence on a real analysis task
  • Practice redaction: take a document with names/identifiers and prepare a minimized version for an AI task
  • Write the verification checklist you would apply to a client-facing deliverable

Week 2 Self-Check

  • Can you match verification depth to four different risk levels?
  • Can you name the high-risk "checkables" from memory?
  • Given a data scenario, can you decide: right workspace, minimization needed, disclosure required?
  • Do you know your retake and renewal rules for this exam? (14/30/90-day waits, 12-month validity, free on-time Partner Academy renewal)

Week 3 - Workflows, Configuration, and Troubleshooting

Focus: Domain 2 (Workflow Integration and Solution Design - 16%), Domain 6 (Configuration and Knowledge Management - 12%), Domain 7 (Troubleshooting and Optimization - 10%)

Partner Academy

  • Finish all remaining CCAO-F prep course modules

Reading

Hands-On

  • Pick one recurring task from your own work and design the Claude workflow: step, inputs, human checkpoint, output path
  • Build a real Project for it: instructions, template, 2-3 curated knowledge files
  • Run the workflow 3 times through the Project; note the reduction in prompting effort
  • Deliberately break it: add a stale file to knowledge, observe the wrong answer, then fix by curation
  • Take a bad output and walk the escalation ladder: prompt fix, input fix, restructure, fresh chat
  • Practice the long-chat reset: summarize state, restart in a fresh chat

Week 3 Self-Check

  • Can you name the four human-in-the-loop patterns and when each applies?
  • Instructions vs knowledge vs personal preferences: can you say what goes where?
  • Given a failure symptom, can you name the first move without looking at the table?

Week 4 - Scenarios, Practice Questions, and Exam Prep

Focus: All domains - consolidation, gap-filling, logistics

Practice

  • Work every scenario in scenarios.md - answer before reading the solution
  • Complete the practice question bank under time pressure (2 minutes per question)
  • Re-read fact-sheet.md end to end, including the exam traps
  • Re-read strategy.md exam-day tactics
  • Complete any practice assessment offered in the Partner Academy prep courses

Gap Analysis

  • List your three weakest domains from practice results
  • Re-read the notes file for each weak domain
  • Do one more hands-on exercise per weak domain

Domain Confidence Check

  • Domain 1 (21%) - I can choose the right validation approach for any stakes level
  • Domain 2 (16%) - I can design a Claude-assisted workflow with the right human checkpoint
  • Domain 3 (15%) - I can make the safe-and-productive call on any data scenario
  • Domain 4 (14%) - I can turn a vague request into a strong prompt and iterate effectively
  • Domain 5 (12%) - I can pick product, plan, and model tier for any scenario
  • Domain 6 (12%) - I can configure a Project (instructions + curated knowledge) for a team
  • Domain 7 (10%) - I can diagnose a failure type and pick the cheapest effective fix

Exam Logistics

  • Register via Partner Academy (Claude Partner Network membership + company email required)
  • Schedule at Pearson VUE - choose online proctored or a test center
  • If online proctored: run the Pearson VUE system test, prepare a quiet room, clear desk
  • Have government-issued ID ready
  • Remember: reschedule/cancel is allowed up to 24 hours before the appointment
  • Get a full night's sleep before exam day

Progress Summary

Week Focus Status
Week 1 Products and Prompting (D5, D4) [ ] Not Started / [ ] In Progress / [ ] Complete
Week 2 Evaluation and Governance (D1, D3) [ ] Not Started / [ ] In Progress / [ ] Complete
Week 3 Workflows, Configuration, Troubleshooting (D2, D6, D7) [ ] Not Started / [ ] In Progress / [ ] Complete
Week 4 Practice and Review (all) [ ] Not Started / [ ] In Progress / [ ] Complete

Exam Date: __ Result: __