Expert Certification - advice on how to prepare, and are you in?

[estherb47]

Hi,

Looking for any advice on preparing for the Expert certification exam. Haven't gone for it yet, but thinking of doing so at Inspire this year.

I'll admit, I'm both intrigued and petrified.

Who all is going for it this year?

Best,

Esther

[NicoleJohnson]

Hi @estherb47 !

Well having taken it and done, well, let's just say "less spectacularly than I would have liked" the first time, I can at least tell you what NOT to do :) 

1. Don't stress about it, but DO prepare for it... you'll be given a short list of what generally *might* be on the exam ahead of time, so take those hints and study up on them in depth. Do not rely on your ability to quickly search for examples on the Community or in Sample workflows while in the middle of the test... this is NOT an efficient time-management strategy haha, and walking into it with a "let's just wing it" strategy did not pan out well (for me, at least).

2. Explore some of the less frequently used tools ahead of time - the Expert exam seems to be designed to test your knowledge of the entire platform, not just the favorite 50% of the tools that are most frequently used in the Weekly Challenges. So the more familiar you are with some of those less familiar tools, the less surprised you will be come exam day.

3. And finally, my most important piece of advice... don't take the exam at Europe Inspire on a European keyboard where all the keys are in different places than the American keyboards you are used to using. :)

I'll be taking it again in Nashville, and I hope to see you there!! 

Cheers,

NJ

[estherb47]

Thanks for all of the great advice, @NicoleJohnson ! I'm still undecided, but leaning towards trying for it. In any case, I'll definitely be seeing you in Nashville!

Best,

Esther

[Caveman88]

Good luck you two! I am planning to take it on Friday as well. I have studied a lot of the videos and weekly challenges.  I feel like I got a shot at it but will need a bit of luck too because there are definitely toolsets in the Predictive areas I have not used much and my mind just doesn't think macros lol. I understand the functionality and how to create macros but I wish I could find some better content on macro methods.

I feel nervous on Macros and Predictive Toolsets but have given it my best effort for 2 weeks of study (probably shouldn't have procrastinated so much lol). I'm hoping with things like the Predictive questions that there isn't a ton of data-prep that it is mostly on the tools themselves but... we will see.

I currently live in Nashville and was quite surprised last year to learn Inspire was coming to my home turf. I may post a Foodie Guide to Nashville or something for all you folks visiting. :)

[Ozzy_Campos]

@estherb47 

Did you end up doing the Expert exam? I did advanced a while ago, I'm looking for something to work towards - if you had any feedback on taking it, I'd be interested to hear it. 

[estherb47]

@Ozzy_Campos , I didn't have the opportunity to take the exam in Nashville. Just didn't work out timing-wise. Hoping that it will soon!!

Best,

Esther

[DawnDuong]

I'm also planning to take the Expert exam. Not super confident as I hardly venture outside my most used tools. Supposedly for a typical advanced certified, how much time should we budget to prepare for the Expert exam? Would love to hear your experience.
Dawn.

[cgoodman3]

I think this is hard to measure. I did my first attempt at Expert within a year of using Alteryx (and failed - London 2018), but I don’t think I was too far off.

Eventually passed earlier this year, so there’s more experience with the software in that time but I haven’t specifically don’t anything to ‘train’ for Expert. I understand the current exam prep guide has some recommended content, such as weekly challenges and interactive lessons, so check those out in the first instance.

plus I believe taking the exam in itself is a learning experience, so I would encourage just sitting it.

[DawnDuong]

Thank you @chris . Giving myself towards the end of the year to prepare for it. I'm getting stuck with preparing for the database tools (as my work does not involve working with database), but found some good advice on another thread on that too.