Is the certification exam (MCE) multiple choice or 'select all that apply'?

[Dan_Stevens_]

Last year, when I took the certification exam, I barely passed.  Yet when I took the practice exam, I missed only 1 or 2 questions.  The primary reasons were:

• The format.  The practice test was multiple choice, but MCE was 'select all that apply' (which included some answers that could go either way)
• The questions.  There were quite a few UI/labeling questions, e.g., "what is the name of the button in Admin that is used to add a new user account to Marketo: "Invite New User", "Add New User", etc.  Not really an "expert" type of question.

From what I've heard, the exam has changed once again so that more meaningful questions are being asked.  But what about the format - is it still 'select all that apply' or multiple choice like the practice exam?

[Grégoire_Miche2]

About the MCE Exam that I had to repass recently, some questions are written with nuances that are not always easy to catch for a non english native person.

-Greg

[Josh_Hill13]

this has been a prob for a long time.

I hit a snag on Calendar. Marketo is trying to push usage and not many people use it much.

But it is multiple choice and I haven't heard of a change since last April's changes.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Josh,

Yes, so did I with the Calendar

-Greg

[Dan_Stevens_]

I thought I read somewhere that due to the number of people that didn't pass last year, they took the feedback and weeded out those highly irrelevant questions?  I also wonder if it's kept up-to-date as functionality changes, such as how anonymous leads are treated.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

There are still some questions related to the naming of some buttons or menus... But all in all, I did not have the impression that the whole thing was off target. On the contrary, I had the impression that globally the questions were more relevant than in the past.

I just discovered reading this post that I also completely missed the point about the "select all that apply" and therefore if this is the case, I probably failed on a couple of questions because of this .

-Greg

[Robb_Barrett]

5% calendar my ass.  I heard they re-wrote the exam to make it less about memorizing button names but I don't know.  They only give three calendar licenses per instance and many of us purposely choose not to use it.

[Robb_Barrett]

I would love to see something that's more board certified. Let me show some examples of my work to Experts or Champions and have them determine whether I'm qualified.  I flunked the exam, but take this page for example:

http://landing1.gehealthcare.com/WB-16-02-HIT-HIT-WebinarTemplate_hcit-webinar-test.html​

It's almost completely token driven, has a lot of javascript, uses Form 2.0 advanced functionality (including mobile autofill) and it's mobile responsive via CSS (even the circles on the blue bar are CSS built ). Behind the scenes of this page is a complex set of centralized and local workflows and assets.

Those times and dates are all javascript formatted off of tokens. This is still a WIP but upon filling out the form it will have time based responses, such as a calendar invite if the event is in the future, an "In Progress" if the lead is registered and it's day of event, and a "Sorry you missed, we'll notify you when the recording is available" after the event.

The page is also formatted with schema.org microdata.

This form then leads into token driven workflows for scoring and lead processing. Upon filling out the form, it cookies the browser to allow a "free pass" on form fills for a number of days so that the user can consume numerous gated assets without needing to fill out a form every time.

I'm touching all the bases with programs like these - template creation, landing page, emails, tokens, design studio. I currently have 7 programs using either inbound or outbound API calls. I've centralized our Munchkin script in the design studio along with our forms, which are all token-referenced to avoid needless amounts of page approvals for changes.

I don't use the calendar.  Why?  Because I'm on a global instance of Marketo and I work for one of the largest companies in the world (GE Healthcare). Guess what? Someone's ALWAYS sending an email.

Furthermore, I've learned how to debug programs, have found bugs in the system and right now I'm challenging Marketo Engineers to solve problems dealing with the campaign queue getting backed up due to large list imports (and we're truly global, so there's no "good time of day" to import leads. It's always noon or midnight for my friends.)

Yet I'm not an expert.  I scored 3 points lower than the minimum.  I couldn't remember the exact verbiage on a button. I was told I could retake it but never offered a time and it was impossible to try to work with Marketo to get the re-take.

We (all of General Electric) had a Marketo guy try to pitch us on taking the exam. I responded by asking "What's the benefit for GE? Seems more like a resume booster and a way for you to advertise using our LinkedIn pages." He couldn't tell me one tangible benefit.

So I'm taking it again at summit this year, just for kicks. But don't tell me that I don't know Marketo better than several Experts I know.

[Dory_Viscoglio]

I took the exam in December and found it to be very similar to the current practice exam found in the Marketo Certified Expert Preparation Tools

I disagree with the calendar questions, but I guess that's just one of the "gotchas" that doesn't ding you too much. What does bother me about the test is the very minor differences in words that are used in some of the questions, as Greg mentioned. Aside from being challenging for someone whose first language isn't English, the words that they use are so similar that they still aren't testing anything more than memorization of the platform.

I do believe that there were one or two "pick the best" answers.

Overall, it's a little silly to me that you have to test and retest annually. And in order to be a champion, you must have a current expert certification. Seems like a shakedown, given how much we give back to Marketo as super users and Champions.

[Robb_Barrett]

Not to badmouth anyone, but IMHO Champions > Experts.  Experts is about memorizing the practice exam, Champions seem to really know the ins and outs.

But I'm neither, so there's that. I'm a lowly level 4 for now.