I got Tableau Certified… You can too!!!
Tableau is an industry leading BI tool that focuses on data visualization, dashboarding and data discovery. Tableau provides various products like Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Online etc. each serving various purposes to ‘make your data make an impact’. I would be concentrating on Tableau Desktop in this article and walk you through my journey towards getting Certified as a ‘Tableau 10 Desktop Qualified Associate.’
I have taken the Tableau 10 Desktop QA (Qualified Associate) exam in February 2018 and attained 89%. I would not say the exam is easy or difficult because surprisingly various people find the exam either extremely easy or extremely difficult. I din’t have much difficulty while attempting the exam because my preparation agenda helped me a lot. So I would like to share my preparation process with everyone. Hope this helps.
Baby Steps:
Start off by exploring the Tableau Official website. Make sure that it is what you are seeking. To enhance your career or start a career, I would suggest Tableau as a great tool. Explore various features and applications of Tableau. Tableau’s free videos are a great start. Go through the videos for a basic understanding of Tableau and it’s features. Please note that completing all the videos under the ‘Tableau Desktop’ section is a great help if you are planning to attempt the ‘Tableau Desktop Qualified Associate’ certified exam. But if you are just trying to gain a basic understanding of Tableau then I would say you would get pretty much what you need by watching 2–3 videos from each Topic.
Certification Exam Details:
Tableau offers 4 different types of certification exams.
1)Tableau Desktop Qualified Associate
2)Tableau Desktop Certified Professional
3)Tableau Server Qualified Associate
4)Tableau Server Certified Professional
More information about the exams can be found here. Please do keep in mind that these exams are to have a proof of your abilities but not test them. So please don’t take the exam to test your capability in Tableau. Take it after you are confident. Else it’s just waste of money.
Step 1: Go through the Exam prep guide
Stick to the Prep Guide. Go through the exam pattern thoroughly. Make sure all the topics are covered. While most of the topics are covered in free training videos rest can always be found online, Tableau Help is a great source to find all the topics. (or just google each topic)
Passing score is 75%. That does not mean you have to prepare only 75% of the syllabus. Questions can be really tricky. You never know what mistake you make. Prepare for the worst and Hope for the best.
Step 2: Complete all the free Training Videos
If you are planning on taking the exam seriously, then I would say completing the free training videos is mandatory. Tableau suggests you to finish the Desktop 1:Fundamentalsand Desktop 2: Intermediate courses. I would say you can still pass the exam without paying for those courses (which are very expensive by the way), but its totally up to you. Make note of points that you think are important and exam worthy. Going through these points 2 days before the exam will help you revise instead of watching the whole videos again. There is no use if you don’t practice what you see in the videos. Unless until you are experienced in tableau and worked on a similar case, I would highly suggest practicing in local Tableau workbook. (at least those topics in the exam prep guide).
Tip: I felt the pace of the videos is really slow. If you think so too, you can download the videos, open them in VLC (or any player of your choice) and increase the speed. Make sure you can still follow the video and understand the concept right.
Steps to download a video: 1) Click on the video. 2) Click on watch now. 3) Click on Mp4 below the video 4) Click on the download button at the right bottom corner of the video.
Step 3: Solve the questions from Exam Prep Guide
After watching the free videos (or before if you want to test your capability based on your previous experience) solve the questions from the exam prep guide. Few questions have solutions. You can find all the solutions for the prep guide here.
Make sure you keep track of time. Make note of how much time you are taking for each question. Make sure you finish it faster next time you solve it and faster the time after that. (Yes! you will have to solve those questions from scratch so many times until you get perfect and doesn’t have to think a second to solve it). Remember:
- Read the question very carefully before starting to answer it. Translate the question in your mother tongue in mind (if necessary). They trick you by giving the answer you get by making a very common mistake (like forgetting to add the year in the filter) as one of the options. So don’t rush to start solving the question before you make sure you understood it right.
- You don’t have to submit your workbook in the exam. Visualizing the question beautifully should be your least concern. Choose the best method that gives you the answer faster.
- Some questions have more than one right answers. (Multiple answer questions are mentioned)
- You can also use more than one worksheets to solve one question.
- Do not forget you can use google. If you are doubtful about a calculation like ‘Is profit ratio: sum(profit)/sum(sales) or sum(profit/sales). Don’t waste time thinking about it. Just Google it. (You can also use Tableau Help and access free videos in the exam)
- While some knowledge based questions can be answered using your own Tableau workbook. Example: which of the following connections does Tableau support. (Can be directly searched in the workbook itself).You can also google for some knowledge based questions. Google the question or sometimes options. Click on the most relevant link and search for the word again (click CTRL+F and type the word) through the webpage. Don’t waste your time trying to read the whole article.
- There are more than one ways to solve a question. Some questions can be solved using LOD calculation. Sometimes it can be solved without using the LOD calculation. (This DOES NOT imply that LOD calculations are optional to learn. I sincerely suggest to learn the concept.)
- You need not answer questions in order. You can Flag them and come back later to answer them. Name the worksheet tab with the question number, it helps you navigate easily. (may be include ‘join’ or ‘blend’ in the worksheet name, so that you would remember to do the data joining when you come back to solve it)
- Make sure you check the data connection before you start solving a question. Especially after a Join. You don’t want to use a joined data for a question that does not need a join. This can give some false results. If you are getting unexpected ‘Null values’ this could be one of the possible reasons.
- There is no negative marking so make sure you answer all the questions before submitting your exam.
Practice, Practice and Practice. Reading the questions, answering them and rechecking the answers itself takes a lot of time. You cannot afford to waste any more time wondering why your calculation is showing an error. (or even worse… searching how to apply ‘percent to total’ function….. DUH!!!!! )
Step 4. Tableau Course on Udemy by Lukas Halim
I would highly recommend the course ‘ Tableau for beginners — Get certified accelerate your career ‘. The instructor is very clear and explained all the topics in an easy and simple way. It shouldn’t take long to complete the course. Don’t get tricked by seeing the number of modules. It also contains some quizzes and 2 full length practice papers which really gives you a test experience. Like I already said, make sure you keep track of time while attempting the full length papers. Finishing them on time is as important as finishing them right. Also keep practicing the same questions from the scratch till you can solve it in your sleep. (Well metaphorically)
If you are not interested in taking the course you can have access to the quizzes from the course and find the full length papers here. Although if you are paying for the sample papers you might just pay for the course instead. Again, totally up to you.
5. Few more links you might want to check out
https://www.edureka.co/blog/quick-guide-for-tableau-desktop-9-qualified-associate-exam/
https://www.simplilearn.com/tableau-exam-questions-free-practice-test
http://www.tableauinfo.com/frequently-asked-questions-on-tableau-certifications--.html
https://www.biztory.be/2017/02/17/ace-tableau-desktop-qualified-associate-exam/
6. Some topics to remember and make sure you are aware of
1) What are the new features in Tableau 10
2) Difference between Live and Extract connections.
3) Various publishing and sharing options.(public, server, reader etc)
4) When to join and when to blend
6) Window_avg funtion
7. Knowledge Based Questions
Though you can use online help during the exam. It’s better to know as much as you can. Time is not always your friend. Prepare a word document of all the possible questions to do a quick revision. Oh wait! you can just use mine. :)
Paste the document in a new word document un bold the answers and try answering on your own
8. Some topics to keep in mind
Trend Lines, Questions were asked on statistical concepts like R-square, p-value, standard deviation etc.
Mapping, Dashboards, Scenarios where you need to look at the graph/map and answer the questions.
Calculative fields, LOD functions really help you save time.
Data cleaning methods like split and pivot can be expected (I think at least one question can be expected based on this)
Histograms and box plots ( and one based on this).
Joins, Cross data base joins, Data blending.
Check out the Window_avg function.
9. References for some topics in prep guide
Performance optimization — https://www.tableau.com/about/blog/2015/1/90-preview-query-performance-improvements-36406
File Types — http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/environ_filesandfolders.html
Shadow Extracts — https://community.tableau.com/thread/201115
Bar in Bar charts — http://www.decisivedata.net/blog/building-bullet-chart-tableau
Sparklines — https://www.doingdata.org/blog/how-to-create-a-sparkline-chart-in-tableau
Edit Axes — http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/formatting_editaxes.html
Mark Labels — http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/annotations_marklabels_showhideworksheet.html
Calculations — https://www.tableau.com/about/blog/2017/2/top-10-tableau-table-calculations-65417
LOD Expressions — https://www.tableau.com/about/blog/LOD-expressions
Types of LOD — https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/calculations_calculatedfields_lod_overview.html
Ad-hoc calculations — https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/calculations_calculatedfields_adhoc.html
Joins in Calculations — https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/joining_tables.html
Reference Lines, Bands and distributions -http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/reference_lines.html
Summary card — http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/inspectdata_summary.html
Publishing and sharing options — http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/publish_workbooks_howto.html
drill down — https://community.tableau.com/thread/154368
Visual best practices — https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/visual_best_practices.html
10. On the exam day…
If you prepared all the topics in prep guide and practiced all the hands-on questions (till you were perfect) I think you have nothing to worry about. Make sure your system is ready for the test and choose an environment with a reliable internet connection and make sure you will be undisturbed through out the exam period. Remember time is really important for this test.
Read the questions twice before you answer it. If you have some time left after attempting all the questions, go through each question again and make sure there is no other possible way to answer that question. If you think there is try that one too.(do so only after you finish all the questions and still have time). First 2–3 questions are tricky doesn’t mean the test is going to be bad. Don’t loose your mind and confidence over it. Again Flag it and move on…..
Performance is as important as preparation. Sometimes more.
Keeping a tension free, clear mind for the exam is really important. Make sure you can concentrate on the exam and nothing else. Remember you can always flag the questions and come back to answer them. Don’t let one tricky question play mind games with you and make you loose your confidence. If the questions is taking too long to solve, flag it and come back for it at the end. If it is really taking long then probably you din’t understand the question right or you are doing something wrong.
Do your Best. Forget the Rest. Good Luck :)