After nearly 4 months of training at the data school, my cohort and I were tasked with taking the Tableau Certified Data Analyst Exam. Fortunately, those of us in DS35 that were able to take the exam that day all passed. With that said, here’s my guide on how to prepare for it.
Know what to expect
- The exam has a 2 hour time limit (try to sit down in your testing space 30 minutes before so you can set up).
- It is made up of 3 sections which have to be completed sequentially.
- Knowledge based questions
- Hands on section in Tableau
- Knowledge based questions
- There’s around 55 questions, 15 of which won’t be scored (but you won’t know which ones so it’s best to answer all questions to the best of your ability).
- Passing score of ~75%
- You must take the exam on Pearson VUE and a Virtual Machine containing Tableau Desktop for the hands on questions (no other tabs can be open, this test is not open book!)
Study the content
This is very important since (as mentioned above) the test is not open book so if you don’t know your stuff you cannot rely on the internet or notes to help you. Since I have spent nearly every day for the past 4 months learning Tableau I only need to look at a few points from the study guide that I felt weak on to look through. If you’re new to Tableau then it’s definitely worth going over the entire study guide which you can find here.
Test your knowledge
Once you feel comfortable with the content, it’s time to test yourself. Below I have linked a few different resources you can use:
- https://learningtableau.com/data-analyst-exam-questions/
- https://gettableaucertifications.com/free-quiz/
- https://www.simplilearn.com/tableau-exam-questions-free-practice-test#what-is-included-in-this-practice-test
My thoughts on the exam and some tips
Unlike the Alteryx Core exam, time was less of an issue for this test. With just over 2 minutes to answer each question you may find you have plenty of time to spare at the end of the exam so don’t feel the need to rush. Pace yourself and read the questions carefully. The actual content behind the questions in this exam aren’t hard if you have a decent level of experience using Tableau Desktop. The reason why this exam is tricky is because they will try to catch you out if your answers don’t have perfect wording.
Good luck!