Old guide: Tableau Certified Associate Consultant Exam 2021: Certification

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.