# Failing Tableau certifications: Friday Thoughts Episode 2

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2021-08-13
- **Format:** Video · 36 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Certification, Career
- **Tools:** Tableau (certification, server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/failing-tableau-certifications-friday-thoughts-episode-2
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEF5qJXs4Y8

In this Friday Thoughts episode I talk about the less-discussed side of Tableau certification: failing. I share my own exam history, including failing the Server exam in 2015, and walk through how to own the failure, reflect on your exam technique versus your certification knowledge, sweat the details, and lean on community resources before retaking.

## Key takeaways

- A failure results sheet breaks your score into sections, so analyse it to see whether you were weak in one area or need to relearn several sections from scratch.
- Separate exam technique (time management, working through questions, handling detractors) from certification knowledge (your actual breadth of skill across topics).
- Download the exam prep guide and 'skills measured' breakdown first, then test yourself by explaining each bullet point convincingly to a colleague.
- Reflect on the exam immediately while the experience is raw, even before you know whether you passed, and book a retake as soon as you're genuinely ready.
- Treat certifications as milestones, not endpoints: they prove readiness for a level of task, not that you've seen every scenario, and the platform keeps changing.

## Chapters

- 0:00 Why talk about failing certification
- 1:06 My own exam record and first failure
- 4:52 Own the failure and talk about it
- 7:04 Reflect: exam technique vs certification
- 12:48 Using the exam prep guide
- 18:08 Sweat the details and detractors
- 21:38 Review community resources and build confidence
- 25:04 Certifications are milestones, not endpoints
- 28:23 Walking through my exam dashboard

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/failing-tableau-certifications-friday-thoughts-episode-2

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena