I was funemployed between signing my contract for the Data School and starting my training. (If you’re curious about what I did during that time, check out this blog post.) Hence, at the end of August, I decided to take the Tableau Desktop Specialist exam. I chose this certification because unlike the Tableau Data Analyst Certification, the Tableau Specialist Certification had no expiration date. I decided it may be handy before the start of my Data School training and the eventual Data Analyst Certification.
After reading the Tableau Desktop Specialist Exam Guide, I learned the test is:
- One hour long
- 45 multiple choice and multiple response (!) questions
- Closed-book without access to Tableau (!)
(With about 80 seconds for each question, maybe it’s for the best that the test is closed-book.)
I scheduled the test on a late Sunday afternoon at a testing center and studied for it the weekend of, using the resources below:
- Specialist study guide: https://learningtableau.com/specialist-study-guide/
- Tableau notes: https://dakshtrehan.notion.site/dakshtrehan/Tableau-Notes-c13fceda97b94bda940edbf6751cf303
- Free practice test, no strings attached: https://www.codeusingjava.com/tab/desk/quiz1
- Free practice test after providing email and phone number: https://www.simplilearn.com/tableau-exam-questions-free-practice-test
As an anxious test-taker who reviewed for only two days, I got 792/1000. The passing score is 750 - I passed, but it was harder than I anticipated. I spent 30 min going through the whole test, 20 min on flagged questions, and 10 minutes reviewing everything. I flagged about a fifth of the questions. Almost half of the questions were multiple selection questions and there were up to 6 choices; these are some of the most challenging questions.
If you do plan to take the Tableau Desktop Certification Exam, I recommend reviewing the Tableau documentation. It’s free, everything you need is in there, and the study guide listed above is great in directing you to the appropriate webpage.
