0:00Hey, it's Tim here. In today's video, I'm
0:01going to be talking about a Tableau exam
0:03I sat just last week, which is the
0:04Certified Associate Consultant exam,
0:06which is required for all Tableau partners.
0:09Essentially, if you are going to do work on
0:10behalf of Tableau
0:11and sometimes for Tableau, they need to
0:13have certain certifications.
0:15And so if you actually go to the
0:16certification page,
0:17you can see there's actually quite a few
0:19more certifications.
0:20If you haven't done certification in a
0:21while over the last couple of years,
0:23Tableau have added quite a few new ones.
0:25So they've got the specialist exam, which
0:27is the newest one.
0:28Also the easiest one out of all the product
0:30exams.
0:31And then you have a certified associate,
0:33then certified professional.
0:34Those top three are for desktop.
0:36Down here you have server exams, certified
0:39associate server,
0:39certified professional server.
0:41And then at the very bottom, you've got the
0:43partner exam,
0:43which are a requirement for partners who
0:45are working with Tableau.
0:46So certified associate consultant, which is
0:48more of a desktop
0:49sort of focused exam.
0:50And then you have certified associate
0:52architect,
0:52which is again more of a service focused
0:55exam.
0:55But essentially both exams test your
0:58knowledge of the whole entire
0:59Tableau platform, they're not just
1:01exclusively about one product.
1:03So I'm going to be giving a review of the
1:04certified associate
1:05consultant exam today.
1:07Let's get stuck in.
1:08OK, so this exam is sort of interesting.
1:10Now it's only available to Tableau partners
1:12.
1:12So you might be wondering, you know, what
1:14is a Tableau partner?
1:15A Tableau partner is essentially a company
1:16that's partnered up with Tableau
1:18in order to either sell or support Tableau.
1:21And that could mean either selling Tableau.
1:24That could also mean providing technical
1:26support
1:27or even doing something like integration
1:29services.
1:29Let's say a company wants to use Tableau.
1:32They want to deploy Tableau, but they don't
1:33have the skills and the staff.
1:35What they might do is go to Tableau and ask
1:37, hey, Tableau,
1:37do you have the skills and resources to do
1:40this on our behalf?
1:41And Tableau might then turn around and say,
1:43hey, we do,
1:44but we actually think it'd be better if you
1:45work with this organization
1:47who we trust and validate can do this
1:49really well for you
1:50because they have experience doing it for
1:51lots of other organizations.
1:53That's essentially a Tableau partner.
1:54And so one of the requirements more
1:56recently,
1:57it's actually new as of this year, I
1:59believe in January,
2:00became a requirement that all partners who
2:02have consultants working with Tableau
2:03have to have some sort of certification and
2:06in this case, a certified associate
2:08is the most sort of common one that most
2:10people will use.
2:11If you're going into server and setting up
2:13infrastructure,
2:14then the architect one will be the best
2:17exam.
2:17Now, the actual exam guide is not available
2:20to everyone here.
2:21You have to go to the partner portal.
2:23So I've actually gone ahead and downloaded
2:25it.
2:25And you can see it's here on my machine.
2:26So I'm just going to go through this very,
2:28very quickly
2:29to give you a flavor of what the exam is
2:30like.
2:31It's very different to the other Tableau
2:32exams.
2:32And that's actually the big gotcha with
2:34this one.
2:34If you're about to sit this exam, this is
2:37something just to be very aware of.
2:38And the target audience is sort of really
2:41sort of conveyed here.
2:42I kind of touched on this already, so I'm
2:43not going to sort of go over this again.
2:45But if I go down, you can sort of see what
2:48the learning resources are.
2:49So there's quite a lot of information.
2:52There's obviously the Tableau learning that
2:54they have.
2:55Some of this is e-learning.
2:56Some of this is sort of general learning
2:58they have freely available.
2:59It also suggests that you've done the
3:01desktop one fundamentals training.
3:03This is a very basic training.
3:04To be honest, this covers probably your
3:06first four months of Tableau.
3:07If you're a brand new user to Tableau, the
3:09Tableau blueprint,
3:10which is Tableau's guide on how Tableau
3:12should be deployed.
3:13If you haven't checked that out, I'll maybe
3:15do a separate video on that.
3:16And this is a really, really great guide.
3:18Kind of comes up with this sort of really
3:20structured path
3:21for how you should deploy Tableau
3:22successfully within the organization.
3:24But it also takes into account things like
3:26soft skills around data,
3:28literacy, proficiency, and also things like
3:31building up
3:31a community of data inside of the
3:33organization.
3:34So that's something to be vaguely aware of.
3:36I'll come back to that in a second.
3:38Then it just broadly labels every single
3:41white paper that Tableau has ever released.
3:42I wouldn't worry too much about this.
3:44I mean, the white papers are great, but
3:46there are so many of them
3:47that I think just labeling all of them is a
3:49bit of a tough ask.
3:50So when we go through sort of what's in the
3:53exam,
3:54I'll probably maybe try and highlight some
3:56of the better ones to look at.
3:57We've also got the vision analysis best
3:59practice guidebook.
4:00There's quite a few questions in this exam
4:02that just literally simply ask,
4:04hey, look at this visualization.
4:06What would make sense to make this better?
4:08What would make this easier to understand?
4:10The users ask for this.
4:11What's the best way of going around this?
4:13Taking into account best practice.
4:15OK, so that's something to be, you know,
4:17roughly brush up on this.
4:18I think this is sort of inherent knowledge.
4:20You sort of just instinctually know what
4:22the right thing to do is.
4:23But sometimes it's just worth just double
4:25checking
4:25that you're sort of down with the latest
4:28terminology.
4:29Things like pre attentive attributes.
4:31You know, that's sounds like a really
4:32complex term,
4:33but it's actually something they use in the
4:35exam.
4:35And it simply just means a bunch of basic
4:37things.
4:37OK, so if you are not familiar with his
4:39words, they will just get caught out.
4:41I'll come back to wording in Tableau exams
4:42in a minute,
4:43because that just drives me up the wall.
4:44But nevertheless, recommended additional
4:47learning resources.
4:47So if that wasn't enough, there's a whole
4:49bunch of other learning resources
4:50that they give you access to.
4:52Some of them are books, some of them
4:53obviously not going to be free.
4:55Some of them are free.
4:56Product support is another great suggestion
4:58.
4:58The whole of the support page.
5:00So it's an interesting take, essentially.
5:03So that's just something to be aware of.
5:05Now, the exam format is very different to
5:07most exams.
5:08It's actually the same in structure.
5:10So 90 minutes check in 30 minutes before
5:13questions, multiple choice,
5:15multiple response, which sounds great.
5:17Number of questions, 55 items.
5:19Now, the score is scored a bit like an AWS
5:22exam.
5:22If you've ever done one of those,
5:24essentially it's a scaled score.
5:26So there's a bunch of questions, 55 items.
5:29You get the score straight away after the
5:31exam.
5:31But the exam is is sort of out of 750.
5:36I don't know how exactly that works.
5:38But the sort of the exam is out of 1000.
5:40The past Mac is 750.
5:42OK, and the language is English.
5:45It's translated exams to follow.
5:47So because it's just this year,
5:48I think the translations won't come out for
5:50a while.
5:50And the exam delivery is Pearson V.
5:53OK, and the delivery method is a testing
5:55center
5:55and online delivery are both available.
5:57So you can do this at home, which is a
5:58great thing.
5:59You can learn more about the checking
6:01process and so on and so forth.
6:03What it doesn't say to you is that unlike
6:05other exams,
6:06this is not an open book exam.
6:08OK, so you can't have Tableau open.
6:11You can't open up a browser.
6:12You can't sort of go online and check
6:16something.
6:16You can't just quickly open up Tableau like
6:18you can in some of the other exams
6:19just to check something works to get make
6:21sure you get the right answer.
6:22You've got to be able to read the question,
6:25look at what's in the vase,
6:26look at sort of the different options and
6:28be able to sort of process
6:29some of that in your head.
6:30And they don't ask questions that sort of
6:32catch you out as a result of that.
6:34It's just sometimes some of the knowledge
6:36you have is confidence
6:38that you can open up Tableau and go check
6:40the answer
6:41by using the product because you know your
6:43way around the product.
6:43Well, you can't do this with this exam.
6:45You have to sort of have a much stronger
6:47feel for what you can and can't do,
6:49which I guess is important as a consultant.
6:51After all, it's testing consultants.
6:53But a lot of the other exams, especially if
6:55you go all the way to even
6:56a certified professional, they're
6:57technically open book.
6:58So with enough time, you can sort of work
7:01your way
7:02through difficult questions and eventually
7:04arrive at the right answer.
7:05So it goes into a little bit more
7:07information about scoring
7:09and how it works, things that are on score.
7:11There are some items that are unscored, and
7:13these are basically things
7:14to test the questions.
7:15So depending on the exam you get, everyone
7:18gets a different mix of these things.
7:19And there's a bit of you kind of, you know,
7:22additional exam details.
7:24So exam items are written at a recall.
7:27Understand the apply level.
7:28The exam is administered without access to
7:30the Tableau platform, the Internet.
7:31So it does actually say to you here that
7:33you don't get access to the world.
7:35Essentially, you can only, you know, use
7:37what's in your head.
7:38And the way it works is you log in to
7:41Pearson V.
7:42I'll close that in a second.
7:43You log into Pearson V as a webcam and
7:45essentially someone's
7:46someone can watch you if they want to.
7:48Your mic's on.
7:50The exam screen fills your entire window,
7:52so you can't really exit it
7:53without them knowing.
7:54And that's it. That's you and your exam.
7:57They get you to take a video of your whole
7:58entire exam environment.
7:59I had an iPad on my desk and, you know, I
8:02got told to remove that.
8:03Essentially, I had to remove every mobile
8:04device that I can communicate with
8:06away from the desk, including my Apple
8:08Watch.
8:09So, you know, even that's on your wrist.
8:11Apple Watches these days can make phone
8:13calls,
8:13call on the Internet, do a whole bunch of
8:14stuff.
8:15So it made sense that, you know, they
8:16removed that as well.
8:17So what's the exam like?
8:20So this is the exam outline.
8:21It's actually structured in sort of
8:23different sections.
8:24You've got five domains.
8:25So they've got perform, discovery and
8:27determine scopes.
8:28This is basically just being able to
8:29understand like what you need to do,
8:31essentially, and that accounts for six
8:33percent of the exams.
8:34That's roughly one question, if that makes
8:36sense.
8:37Six percent of an exam when there's fifty
8:39five questions is about one question.
8:41So you'll get one question and perform
8:43discovery and determine scope.
8:44OK, and then they'll also
8:48look at different things like recommend
8:50table roles based on use case.
8:52So these are these are lots of different
8:54sort of scenarios.
8:55And I think Tableau have done a really good
8:58job here of actually just detailing
8:59out what they mean by each of these
9:00sections, because in some cases
9:02that can be sort of tricky.
9:04So you need to have a comfortable
9:06understanding of each of these things,
9:09because essentially, I think the way this
9:11works is that the mix of questions
9:12you get come from a pool of questions and
9:14it just makes sure
9:15there's a balanced mix of questions from
9:17each of these pools.
9:18And so you can get a whole completely broad
9:21gamut of questions
9:22and you could go to an exam and not get a
9:24question on one of these things.
9:25OK, and so it's just important to have that
9:28really solid understanding.
9:29You know, designing and developing dash
9:31boards,
9:32evaluate, prepare and connect into data,
9:34plan and implement
9:35calculations in desktop and publish,
9:37educate and enable.
9:38These are sort of the high level things
9:41that a consultant is expected to do.
9:42Now, the really challenging thing is
9:45actually this.
9:45The plan, implement calculations in Tableau
9:48desktop.
9:48The reason this is challenging, not because
9:50, you know, calculations are difficult.
9:52It's because you can't actually open up the
9:54product and just do them to validate stuff.
9:56So you kind of have to do this thing where
9:58you have to read the question,
9:59understand in your head what's going on and
10:02sort of work through it in your head.
10:04And in most cases, that's fine.
10:05But there were a couple of questions which
10:06I found a little bit cumbersome
10:08because I was I was being expected to, you
10:10know, without a pen and paper, nothing.
10:12Just expected to just look at the question.
10:14And I'll be honest, like the exam screen is
10:16just one big white window.
10:18It's really, really bright with like some
10:20some text.
10:21I'd love a dark mode. Maybe that's a piece
10:23of feedback.
10:23If we could have a dark mode for the exam,
10:25that would really, really help.
10:26And essentially, just staring at this white
10:31screen.
10:31And it's just so hard to sort of envisage
10:34what's actually going on.
10:35So I don't want to make it a bigger deal
10:36than it is.
10:37It's really not that big a deal.
10:39But I'm so used to working with the product
10:41in front of me
10:41that if I want to test something, I just
10:43test it in 20 seconds.
10:44And this exam sort of challenges that
10:46philosophy a little bit.
10:48It's actually not how anyone would work
10:50with Tableau.
10:50And so that's that's sort of my only
10:52criticism of the product
10:54of this exam, sorry, because in essence,
10:57even with most sort of basic calculations,
10:59and you'd have an opportunity to test them
11:03and make sure they're doing the right thing
11:05.
11:05If you don't understand how to use them or
11:06where the functions are,
11:07that's a whole other matter.
11:09If you don't know, for example, that a
11:10function exists,
11:11that's maybe an arguable thing.
11:13But, you know, one of the questions I've
11:14just done a video on was
11:15what does the mid function do?
11:17Like, I've never had a need to go and find
11:19that out.
11:20But if I had the product in front of me, I
11:22could actually go to the calculation
11:24window and go to the assistant store in the
11:26product on the right hand side
11:28and find out and then instantly take that
11:31knowledge into a calculation and use it.
11:33So as a consultant, I think part of what
11:35you have to do
11:36is also be able to adapt and learn new
11:37things on the go.
11:38And so when this exam is testing you on
11:41things like that
11:42and not really giving you some sort of way
11:43to go and validate
11:44whether it's right answer or not, I think
11:46it's it's sort of a difficult balance
11:47to strike equally. I do think it's
11:49important that you do test knowledge
11:51away from the product so you know that
11:53people have it in their minds
11:54and it's not just someone sort of searching
11:56Google very quickly,
11:57which for the certified specialist and the
12:01certified associate exams
12:02is actually possible.
12:03You could vary if you're very great, good
12:06at like, you know, Google
12:07and you get you get to the exam and you try
12:10and do that.
12:10In some cases, you can if you're faster
12:14that you can just about
12:15get to every single answer
12:18if you know where to look on the Internet.
12:19And that essentially turns into an exercise
12:21of understanding the documentation.
12:23So I'm not discrediting the exam.
12:26I'm just I'm just I'm just sort of
12:27challenging
12:28what are these things actually testing?
12:31And it's an interesting question.
12:34You can never build a perfect test either.
12:35This is a really hard thing to do.
12:38Companies look for accreditation as well.
12:40It's really important to them to know that
12:42you've gone through
12:42some sort of benchmark.
12:43And so, you know, given that scenario, you
12:46have to just live with what you've got.
12:47And this is probably the only way I could
12:49think of, honestly,
12:50of testing the exam and also adding a
12:52little bit of validity to it.
12:54So uncommon, for example, if you do an AWS
12:56exam, that's also a closed book exam.
12:58So you're expected to know everything in
13:00your head.
13:00It just so happens that Tableau is a very
13:02different type of tool
13:04to something like AWS, which is a platform.
13:07So therefore, you know, what you understand
13:09in AWS is more to do with concepts
13:12and the way things sort of integrate and
13:13work together.
13:14Whereas with Tableau, when you're testing a
13:16calculation of function,
13:17you're testing sort of a more nuanced sort
13:20of part of the product.
13:21You're not testing people on the whole
13:22platform
13:23and how it comes together, what you can and
13:25can't do.
13:25And those questions actually do come up in
13:27some of the other sections.
13:28So I think it's just maybe a side effect of
13:30this particular domain.
13:31But nonetheless, once you've done the exam,
13:34you do get the sort of past max straight
13:37away.
13:37I'll show you what that looks like in a
13:39second.
13:39They do have some sample questions just to
13:40give you a feel of what to expect.
13:42So, for example, this is a really good
13:43question.
13:44So this one, practice question two.
13:46You have the following.
13:47What is the result of the calculation?
13:49Now, this is easy.
13:49OK, this is a very easy one to do.
13:51And this one, I do know what absolute
13:53ceiling and floor does.
13:54I've also just done a video on those
13:56because I thought I haven't done a video.
13:57I better do that.
13:59So these are fairly easy.
14:01But when you get slightly more complex
14:03functions, then it can sort of be
14:05a little bit weird.
14:05So they do actually give you an example of
14:08how those answers work
14:09and what's the correct answer so you can go
14:11in here and understand.
14:12But what you have to do with no pen and
14:14paper, just looking at a white screen
14:16is figure out the answer and that that can
14:19that can be a little bit tricky
14:20in some use cases.
14:21But all in all, I think I really enjoyed
14:23the exam.
14:24I think it was really, really good.
14:25It was nice to have it done by Pearson Vue.
14:27Pearson Vue have this page.
14:30Once you go to this page, you sign up,
14:32you get the ability to sign in and go to
14:34your account.
14:35Once you're in your account, you go to your
14:36dashboard.
14:37Your dashboard will tell you which tablet
14:38exams you've passed
14:39and which ones you haven't.
14:40So I've actually completed this exam.
14:43You can't see here that I've passed it.
14:44It's once you click into that, you can see
14:46the actually outcome of the exam.
14:48What I wanted to show you is the score
14:50report.
14:50So the score report actually comes in by
14:52email as soon as it's available.
14:54But you do get an email straight away to
14:56tell you that it's available essentially.
14:58So very quickly after the exam, you do get
15:01this.
15:01So it's kind of nice to know instantly that
15:03you pass and not have to wait
15:04like the certified professional exams,
15:06which can be a long way.
15:08So I mean, I've heard horror stories of
15:09people sitting in them in January,
15:11and I think it's because of Covid and
15:13generally, you know,
15:14taking up to three or four months to get
15:15the results.
15:15So just bear that in mind.
15:17This one, you get the results straight away
15:19.
15:19And then the last thing is, of course,
15:21the little certificate that you get to say
15:23that you passed.
15:24I've blurred out a few things on this
15:25screen
15:26just to keep some of my own details
15:27confidential.
15:28But there you can see my score.
15:30I won't hide that, which is 842.
15:32So 842 out of 1000.
15:36I'll take that as like 84 percent or run
15:38that down.
15:39And 84 percent on 55 questions.
15:42I'm trying to figure out what
15:43it doesn't work out like this because some
15:45questions have multiple responses.
15:48So you actually get a mark for each one of
15:49those.
15:49It's not like a very sort of clear cut way
15:52of doing it.
15:53But if I was to sort of generalize this and
15:55just do naught point eight
15:56four times by 55, I got 46 questions.
16:01Correct. OK.
16:03And also some of those questions don't
16:04actually count.
16:05So it's a little bit hard to know exactly
16:07what goes on.
16:07I wish it told you what actually went well.
16:11I'm just using these domains.
16:13So we saw we saw these domains up here.
16:16I think this is done in AWS.
16:17You can actually see a breakdown of how you
16:19performed across each domain.
16:21So that's another piece of feedback that I
16:23think would be really good.
16:24It'd be nice if at the end of this, it just
16:26said, OK,
16:26we won't tell you which questions you got
16:28right and wrong.
16:28But across these domains, this is how you
16:30performed.
16:31Maybe you got 100 percent on domain one and
16:33two, but didn't get that in three,
16:35four and five, partly because there might
16:37be more questions.
16:38But it's just good to know which area did
16:40you not perform the best in.
16:42And therefore, you know, if you're not
16:43performing the best in domain four
16:44and you happen to fail this, well, you know
16:46, you've got to put in some work
16:47because that's also the biggest percentage
16:49in the whole exam.
16:50So just a little information like that, I
16:52think is nice.
16:53But nonetheless, I really enjoy the exam.
16:55I passed, which is good.
16:56I think that's probably why I enjoyed the
16:58exam.
16:58It's good to know that you you achieve
17:00something.
17:00I'd love to know what your thoughts are if
17:02you've ever sat this exam,
17:03if you work for a tableau partner and you
17:05kind of done this exam.
17:07I'd love to know your thoughts.
17:09But that's pretty much it for this sort of
17:10exam review.
17:11The next one on the list, if we go back to
17:13certification,
17:14and I've got I've got a few certifications
17:16to do.
17:17So I currently don't have any valid
17:19desktop professional exam.
17:22I've got the certified associate desktop
17:24that's due to expire in January.
17:26I don't have the specialist because this
17:27was new.
17:28And for someone like me, I think the
17:30specialist is quite basic.
17:32So I have a certified associate.
17:34That's a prerequisite to sit the
17:35professional.
17:36And once you sit the professional, if you
17:38let it expire,
17:39you have to sit the associate again.
17:41The certified professional is probably next
17:43up.
17:43So I'll do that at some point this year.
17:44Very soon. Certified associate server.
17:47I don't have that because I have the
17:49certified professional server,
17:50but the certified professional server is
17:53about to run out again in January.
17:55So at some point in the next year, I have
17:56to sit the certified professional server
17:58to avoid having to sit the associate to
18:01avoid having all of them lapsed,
18:03essentially.
18:03So that's that. The architect is probably
18:06the other one.
18:07So those are the sort of three key exams I
18:08'm shooting for the certified associate,
18:10the certified professional server, renewing
18:14that before it expires,
18:15and then the certified professional desktop
18:17.
18:17And I'll make sure I do a review on each
18:19one of those.
18:20And then probably at the end of the year,
18:21when I've done all of those,
18:22I'll do one big review on certification in
18:25general, how to go about it,
18:26what you need to learn, what you don't need
18:28to learn and how to go about
18:29structuring your path so you can pass all
18:31these exams the first time. OK,
18:33that's it for this video. Very, very talky
18:36video.
18:36I was just talking to the camera here today
18:38.
18:38I've got a lot of content to get through,
18:40though,
18:40so I thought this was a nice way of doing
18:41this,
18:41just to sort of break things up from the
18:43norm.
18:43Just walk through some of this as well and
18:45show you some of the behind the scenes
18:46because this is a partner
18:48and exam is probably something that you don
18:50't get visibility of.
18:51So might not be of interest to many people.
18:53But yeah, hopefully you found it useful.
18:55If you found it useful, hit subscribe, like
18:57share this video.
18:58Check out TableauTim.com for a much nicer
19:01way to browse all my videos
19:02and also join the Discord channel, hop in
19:05there, ask questions.
19:06I must say it's a little bit quiet on the
19:07Discord channel.
19:08It's just a shame.
19:09It's an opportunity to ask questions.
19:10People may be shy, so I will do a separate
19:13video on that.
19:14I won't go into that now, but yeah, check
19:16out the Discord channel.
19:17I'll reach out and I'll hopefully catch you
19:19in the next video.
19:20Take it easy.
Tableau | Certification | Career