Background
Throughout our lives, we take tests to judge our mastery of topics. Test-taking occurs less often once you complete your formal educational training. As you advance through your career, however, opportunities for test-taking re-emerge. Sometimes these tests can be very tough and require significant amounts of preparation time.
If you are the type of person that loves to find and follow “life-hacks” or other techniques that make things easy, do not read this article. You can stop now. You will not hurt my feelings because I subscribe to the school of hard work. I was willing to spend many days thinking about this article before deciding to write it. I also spent many days writing it.
In this article, I advise people who are preparing to take the Alteryx Desktop advanced test. This article was written using some notes I assembled in the days leading up to the test and the days after taking the test in September 2020. I will tell you that there is work involved in preparing for this test. If you are willing to do the work, you will have a better chance of success. Following my advice does not mean that you will pass the test the first time you take it. The Alteryx Advanced Certification test is challenging.
Introduction
During the spring semester of 1982, I had a chemistry professor named Dr. Caskey. When I first saw him from about 100 feet away, he reminded me of an older version of Herman Munster of the TV show the Munsters (Figure 1). Dr. Caskey was large, foreboding, and had a booming voice when he chose to use it to control his classes. As you will learn, Dr. Caskey was an imposing authority figure, much like Mr. Morella was to me in sixth grade, as recounted in this story.
I vividly remember the following scene that happened during the first day of the chemistry lecture. Upon entering the 300 person lecture hall that was nearly filled, Dr. Caskey didn’t say a word for about 5 minutes as he stood at his podium, slowly scanning the room. The silence was deafening as the air molecules slowed to a standstill. At the same time, our collective heart rates were rising with each successive minute of silence. I looked around the room to see if I was in the right place because this was not like my first semester of chemistry. This lecture hall was an imposing locale that created an unsettling feeling deep in my mind and in the pit of my stomach.
Suddenly, in a very loud and deep baritone voice, Dr. Caskey roared this:
Chemistry 222B is a BBBBEEEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRRR.
The spoken word “Bear” was extended to about 20 seconds. His voice created sound waves that reflected around the room, bouncing off the startled students, walls, and furniture while causing a cacophony that felt like a mini-earthquake! All of us students were suddenly quaking and shaking in our seats.
When the final utterance of “Bear” was finished, Dr. Caskey ended his outburst with another 5 minutes of pure silence. He really knew how to use silence to fill a room with apprehension. Then, after once again stopping the air molecules, he stared each of us down while sizing us up. I now realize that it was 300 against 1, and he was the one clearly in control. Never before, and never since, have I been involved in such a display of authority coupled with fear-mongering. Finally, Dr. Caskey explained how the course would unfold, including telling us that most students in that lecture hall would not make it to the end of the semester.
Well, Dr. Caskey was right. Chemistry 222b was a bear.
Three months later, at the end of the semester, everything that Dr. Caskey predicted in his first-day rant came to fruition. About 50 people “passed” the class. I know this because back in those days, grades were posted on the professor’s office door.
As best as I can remember, the approximate grades were as follows: 1-A, 2-B’s, a handful of C’s, and the rest were D’s. As Dr. Caskey predicted on day one, over 80 percent of the people in that room never made it past the first few weeks of the class, as five out of six students sequentially dropped out of the class. I remember feeling stunned as seat after seat emptied with each passing lecture. Either I was oblivious to the danger I was in or was too stubborn to quit the class. I now realize that throughout my life, I have not been much of a quitter.
Dr. Caskey burned fear so deep into my brain during that class that I can still smell the smoldering neurons. To this day, every time I step up to a urinal to take a leak, I look at that milky-colored tablet and think: its chemical composition is paradicholorbenze. I still have nightmares about the chemistry practicum that he delivered to us.
Thanks to Dr. Caskey, I learned more practical chemistry than I care to remember. I still think of chelating agents and how they work (who does this?). I walk around wondering how EDTA (ethylene, diamine, tetra acetic acid) works its magic. I’m not even going to check the EDTA spelling because that just came out of my memory from almost 40 years ago.
Dr. Caskey was truly a brilliant man. He was one of the first people that taught me what it meant to be an expert in a field of study. He was truly remarkable, and he stamped his authority on me. I might have fought the authority, but the authority always wins (Figure 2). In seven years of college, this was the only time I received a “C” as a grade.
The Alteryx Advanced Test
Now it is my time to tell you in the deepest, loudest voice I can:
The Alteryx Advanced test is a BBBBEEEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRRR.
Ken Black, June 18, 2021, Knoxville, TN – Just messing with your mind!
I’m just kidding! All you have to do is keep on reading this article if you want to pass this test! Luckily for you, I’m not a hard-driving professor like Dr. Caskey was. I’m happy to help you learn. In fact, if you go back seven years and read my mission statement, you will see this:
I will now give my definitive blogging mission statement. My complete mission statement is: “I simply want to help people solve problems“.
Ken Black, Nov 18, 2014 in https://datablends.us/2014/11/18/3danims-blog-is-about-solving-problems/
During timed exams, proper preparation can make the difference between passing and failing. Therefore, I will give you essential information that will increase your chances of passing this test. In addition, since everyone who attempts to pass this test will already be Alteryx Core certified, they will know how Alteryx tests are delivered. So, instead, I will help you by outlining some strategies that prepare you to take the test and what you should do once the exam is over.
The Alteryx Advanced Certification test is intentionally challenging. If the exam were easy, the certification would not have much merit. However, I found the advanced test to be easier than the core certification test in some ways. The primary reason for this is that the core certification test can contain information from any part of the Alteryx desktop program. In contrast, the advanced test is limited in scope to several categories of tools. Also, half the points on the Advanced test are earned by writing workflows to solve four problems. Problem-solving happens to be my strongest Alteryx attribute.
To keep this simple, I break test preparation down into three steps. You might be surprised what these steps include!
Step 1 – Pre-Test Preparation
Depending upon your experience using the Alteryx desktop and how much free time you have to study before taking the test, this preparation phase can take between a couple of weeks and a few months. This phase took me a couple of months because I really wanted to be prepared, and there were some tools on the test that I don’t use often.
I will give you the details of the activities I did during this time and why I did them. This step of the preparation process is the most important part of my process, and the activities contained in this section should be carefully considered.
The strategic pre-test activities include the following items.
- If you are not a member of the Alteryx community, click here to sign up and create a user account. You will need this account to perform many of the recommended activities.
- Begin your preparation by downloading the advanced certification prep guide.
- Do everything that this guide tells you to do! For example, you will need to take multiple preparation courses to learn about the topics being covered in the test. These preparation courses are essential because the instructors give you plenty of hints about items you are likely to experience during the test.
- There is an advanced certification learning path you need to complete. Take notes during the courses to reinforce your learning. Be honest with yourself if you sense you have weaknesses in any of the subjects and do the work to learn more about those topics.
- We all have weaknesses, so this is the time to identify them so that you can work on strengthening those skills BEFORE you take the test. Remember, although you can research materials during the test, doing so will slow you down and reduce your likelihood of success. Just like in sports, you only play as well as you practice, so now is your time to learn and practice your skills!
- Finally, I must compliment and thank the Alteryx employees that built the training courses. These are superb training and learning resources.
- Prepare directories to hold the four problems you will be solving on the test (Figure 3). By being ready to download the data files into separate directories, you will save time during the test, especially because the data files are named in a non-descriptive manner. Additionally, it would be best to store the workflows that you create during the test in these directories. Be sure to carefully document each problem definition to complete the problems in case you were not able to finish all four problems. You may need to do this for Step 3 of this process.
- Organize key Alteryx bookmarks in your browser (Figure 4) to create quick access to important information. By having your bookmarks organized, you can rapidly locate information needed during the test. I can’t stress how important this step is for this test. Not only does it help you during the test, but it also prepares you by forcing you to review the online content of Alteryx. I promise that you will learn much by organizing the links. This activity will significantly improve your chances of passing the test. This documentation is world-class, and you will be foolish to ignore it before taking the test.
- Once you understand the topics covered in the test (spatial, reporting, preparation, apps, data investigation, macros, parse & join), you will need to practice writing workflows containing these topics. The best way that I know how to do that is to use/practice/solve/research the Alteryx Weekly Challenges.
- I’m going to give you a huge bonus in this regard. When I got ready to practice the weekly challenges, I wrote a workflow that scraped the weekly challenges from the Alteryx website to place them on my local computer for easy access and to study.
- I will soon write an article about how I did that, but to give you a preview of my technique, I offer this short instructional video (Figure 5). A link will be placed here once that article is written and published.
Once you complete all of that preparation and feel ready to take the test, congratulate yourself. Pick a date and time to take the test. Make sure to give yourself about 4 hours, even though the test is only 2 hours. You will understand why in a moment. Secondly, make sure you are isolated from distractions, have an excellent, uninterrupted internet connection, and do not use a virtual machine! A virtual machine can cause delays during the test that can seriously impact your ability to pass the test.
Step 2 – Day of Test Preparation
The following instructions might just be what you need to pass this test. This stuff is important, so pay attention.
Be sure to get plenty of sleep the night before taking the test and have a good meal beforehand. Be sure to take a natural break before starting and have a bottle of water handy to help you rehydrate during the test. Be sure to have comfortable airflow and air temperature because your brain is about to go into hyper-drive. If you have a “liquid-cooled, thinking jet helmet,” I’d consider wearing it! In case you’ve been lulled to sleep, that last sentence is a joke!
At least one to two hours before starting the test, you need to warm up your brain. I know that sounds crazy. Please be patient with me. I’m trying to help you.
If you have ever been in a running or bike race and failed to warm up properly, you will know the feeling of heavy legs that develop as the lactic acid buildup occurs as you go from 0 to max capacity in the first few minutes. You will also know that you have to reduce your effort to clear the acid. Not only will you be dropped by the lead group, this an unpleasant experience and is entirely avoidable by properly warming up your muscles.
This test will put your brain into the mode of full concentration and computation. This test will stress your brain starting with question #1. It would be best if you warmed up your brain before beginning the test.
There are four things that you need to do.
- First, you need to solve multiple-choice problems. This will simulate the test experience. Use the questions from the prep test, or look around to find others. Looking up answers to multiple-choice problems is a good exercise. Give yourself 1 minute for each problem. Do about 10 of them.
- Secondly, solve about 5 questions that require you to use the Alteryx desktop to check the answers. You can get these from the weekly challenges, such as regex problems or transpose problems. Then, get yourself ready to test solutions in the designer.
- Third, solve one or two complete problems by writing workflows, just like you have to do during the test. Limit yourself to 10 to 15 minutes per problem. You might consider picking a couple of beginner or intermediate-level workflows that you have not attempted from the weekly challenges.
- Fourth, open five new workflows in Alteryx that you will use during the test. The first one is your scratchpad, where you will write mini workflows to check some of your answers to problems 1 through 40. The other four workflows are for problems 41 to 44. Go ahead and name these workflows and save them to disk, so you don’t have to take the time to do it during the test. Give yourself every advantage you can before you begin the test.
By running your brain through those exercises and by preparing your testing environment, you will be ready because each exercise conditions your brain to handle the workload you are about to give it. By conditioning yourself, the test will not feel like a burden. You will be ready to fly because you have done everything to be efficient and organized during the exam. Be sure to rest about 15-30 minutes after doing the exercises. Visualize success during that time. Take some deep breaths and relax.
The test comprises 40 questions (1-40) and 4 problems (41-44) to be solved. I have read advice from some people that said to skip through the 40 questions to get to the 4 problems and then go back to the questions. I tried to do that once and ended up wasting a lot of time. So please don’t do it! Just answer the questions first, and then work the problems. Do not make any unnecessary movements or create extra work for yourself during this test.
It is good to pay attention to the time remaining during the test (there is an on-screen timer). It would be best if you aimed to finish the first 40 questions in under 50 minutes. That requires you to be efficient and that you do not get hung up on any individual question. If you can finish in under 50 minutes, you will have 70 minutes to tackle the four problems. Your goal is to solve all four of these problems.
Be very careful in reading the description of each problem. You need to make sure you know exactly what you are being asked to solve. Pay attention to problem units and the key measure definitions that are being requested.
When the time is right, and you are rested, you will know it. Get up, go to the computer, hit the start button, and try to enjoy the experience. You worked hard to prepare for this test!
Step 3 – Post-Test Homework
The good news is that you get immediate feedback from your test. You will see how you did and whether you passed. You will be given statistics on how you scored in each category being tested. The message you will receive will look like this (Figure 6):
If you do not pass the test, don’t worry. You can continue to take the test until you do. There will be a period of time that has to pass before you can retake it, but you can use that time to improve your comprehension of the tool categories that were difficult for you. For me, Reporting is an Alteryx capability that I rarely use – hence I scored a 60%.
If you didn’t pass the test because you didn’t score 100% on each practical problem, you should return to work and solve the problems you couldn’t during the exam. Ensure you understand each of these problems because you might see a similar problem the next time you take the test. If you happen to see a similar problem, always download the new data files and carefully read the problem. The key measures might change, the data might change, and the rephrased problem could fool you into thinking you already have the answer. Pay attention to all the details, and you will move closer to passing.
Final Thoughts
Good luck with your preparation for this test. Please feel free to contact me if you need any advice. I am always willing to help people succeed.
If you liked this article, consider subscribing to this blog via email or to my YouTube channel. I have been producing content on YouTube since 2006, but I haven’t told anybody about it. There are Tableau and Alteryx specific techniques there that you’ve probably never thought about or have seen anywhere else.
As always, thanks for reading!
