Core Certification Achieved - Road to Advanced Begins

So one road ends and another begins. Its been awhile since I've posted one of these blogs so I just wanted to get you guys up to speed on how the core certification went for me and maybe impart some wisdom having come out the other side.

So going back a week now to Thursday 20th October 2022 (or 2022-10-20 if your using the Alteryx date format), as an intake we had covered all of the tools examined in the core certification. I had also completed a few Alteryx community challenges as well as some preppindata (https://preppindata.blogspot.com/) challenges using Alteryx - yes I know these are usually for tableau prep but it helps I promise.

The last thing I did before taking the test on Friday was completing the practice test as well as doing the micro credential (I will link everything I've talked about below). These will help solidify what you already know and is definitely a confidence booster going into the test. Disclaimer, they are however much easier then the actual core cert but is a good indicator of any gaps you need to fill.

You get a shiny badge for the micro credential as well so might as well have a crack at it!

One other thing I'd recommend doing before taking the test is reading some of the other blogs on here about completing the core certification ( I imagine you've already done this, and this is one of many blogs your reading to give you some insight into the test). These will have some valuable advice but for the purposes of this blog I'll try to tell you things which I found helpful which aren't mentioned in other blogs.

Lets start off with how the test went for me then on the Friday then.

I failed! For a first attempt 71.5% isn't terrible I guess but you cant help but feel a little disappointed/ annoyed. One thing I will mention which you've probably heard a million times by now is there is absolutely nothing wrong with failing these tests, the beauty lies in the fact that you can attempt it again and again without worry. Remember everyone learns at different rates and just take this attempt as another learning opportunity and use the breakdown provided by Alteryx to sure-up any gaps in your knowledge.

For me personally my biggest takeaway was timing. I had 10 minutes left with 30 questions to go and ended up having to guess all of them. So exam technique was the thing I knew I had to work on for the second attempt I just had to wait 7 days till the next attempt.

So lets fast forward 7 days and see how I did at a second attempt.

I Passed! 🎉 So what did I do that helped me pass.

1) Interactive lessons in Alteryx - These will help revise the things you already know, as well as help get you used to some of the questions the core cert askes with the tests at the end of the lesson.

2) Know how to handle the type of questions asked in the exam -

So in my experience the core exam has 3 types of questions:

  • Basic Knowledge Questions - these are just basic multiple choice questions on the tools covered in the core exam. These are usually easily googleable questions which you should not spend any more then a few seconds on. If you can't find the answer in a few seconds go with your gut, flag and move on. You can come back to these at the end if you have time but the other 2 types of questions are where you should focus your energy in my opinion.
  • Input/Output Questions (Use the manual input tool!) - The second type of question in the exam are what I call input/output type questions where they give you a basic table and give you an 'action' (i.e. a tool configured in a certain way) and ask you what the output (the resulting table/answer) would be if the workflow was run. These are the questions where you make your points!                                                                                                                                             You have Alteryx, have this open on a second monitor (Use a second monitor if possible) and just drag in a manual input tool and recreate the table as well as the 'action' and just simply get the correct answer. The time you saved on the basic MCQ questions will pay off here and you don't always have to recreate the table exactly just enough so that the result from the workflow will let you know what the answer is.
  • Practical questions - These are as the name suggests practical questions where you are given a dataset and asked to find a answer to a given question. You should have 7 of these dotted throughout the exam in no particular order. These are daunting on paper but if you reached the stage of doing this exam and have done multiple Alteryx challenges believe me you will love these questions. These will eat up a lot of your time but the ability to just have the freedom to play around with Alteryx and find the answer however you want is something I had a lot of fun with (maybe that's just me though). The more challenges you do the faster you will get at doing these.

So those were some of the things that helped me get over the line and hopefully reading what is now quite a long blog post helps you pass your core certification.

Just remember comparison is the thief of joy and while others may pick things up a little faster then you as long as your making progress and learning at your own pace that's the important thing. Good luck!

Links:

Alteryx Micro-Credential: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Certification/bd-p/product-certification

Alteryx Practice Test:  https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Exam-Prep/Core-Cert-Practice-Test/ta-p/401575

Interactive lessons: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Interactive-Lessons/tkb-p/interactive-lessons

Alteryx Challenges: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Weekly-Challenge/Weekly-Challenge-Index-amp-Welcome/td-p/48275

Author:
Shahbaz Khan
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