Marketo Certified Expert Exam - did it recently change?

[Jamie_Barclay]

I just took my certified expert exam and was surprised when instead of 150 questions there were 98.  And many questions were not included in the practice exam(s) I took over the weekend.  Where my practice exams left me with a score of 94%+ I failed the exam I just took.

Has the exam changed recently? 

I would hope that a practice exam(s) would be available to include some of the new question types that appeared on the exam I just took that were not on the practice exam(s).

Please advise.  Thank you

[Anonymous]

This is frustrating to hear. I'm getting ready to take the exam. The "training" in University is a waste of time--it's very, very basic. I was told that the practice exam is the best way to prep...but now that seems to not be the case.

[Lauren_Beth]

Amy - I would say to try to get close to 100% on the practice exam to hedge your bets and you'll do fine.  I would also recommend reading the product documentation thoroughly (found above under products and support) to cover the rest.  Everything you need to know is in there.  Good luck!

[Jamie_Barclay]

I scored 94% - 97% on the practice exams and an overall 71% on the exam - so there are some significant areas that are not covered in the practice exam.  Ideally Marketo would republish the practice exam(s) so they at least cover all of the areas in the actual exam.  It as though the practice exam(s) were not updated when the exam changed 😞

[Josh_Hill13]

Yes...and they do tell you the topics on the exam...so if the practice exam isn't showing you those topics, then you may want to work on those areas.

On the 2015-16 tests, which were similar, I found weird questions on the real exam:

• Calendar pops up alot. These are hard if you don't use it everyday.
• "Where is this button" questions ...very specific, very easy to fail.
• More attribution and Program questions...which is a bit odd for a non RCE/RCA exam.

[Jamie_Barclay]

Hi Josh,

Yes that's it - lots of questions around program and calendars

Can you give expand on "attribution" ?  Also any thoughts on where we can gain insight into the Marketo caldendar so for those of us who don't use it can be prepared to answer those questions.  Thank you!

I just found a good resource for understanding attributions

https://nation.marketo.com/search.jspa?q=attribution

[Devraj_Grewal]

This should be a great place to start for concepts on the Marketing Calendar:

Marketing Calendar - Marketo Docs - Product Docs

I didn't use the marketing calendar all that much when I passed my certification, so I used this Doc as a valuable resource.

[Anonymous]

Good to know - I've never used the calendar before. Can you expand on

"attribution and program questions"?

Amy Goldfine Connor

Senior Marketing Manager

Webgility

amyg@webgility.com

www.webgility.com

On Fri, Nov 4, 2016 at 1:30 PM, Josh Hill <marketingnation@marketo.com>

[Lauren_Beth]

Hi Jamie - yes the current l test misses many of the points covered in the practice exam. The practice test seems to be the exact same that I took last year, while the test this year had several new sections completely unaddressed in the practice test. Thankfully I passed but I emailed Marketo to say that the practice test missed many points from the live version and they were setting up takers for failure.  Their response was that the live exam was supposed to be more challenging.  Marketo's own certification documentation encourages you to take the exam if you pass the practice test at just over 80% I believe - which sends the wrong message if the test is much harder than you would expect it to be. I believe they are updating the entire certification process in 2017 which hopefully improves upon the current version.

[Jamie_Barclay]

Thanks Lauren. I really appreciate hearing that it's not just me.

[Jessica_Kao3]

Hmm That's interesting.  The exame must have changed from when I took it at Summit from now because the exam at Summit was almost identical to the ones in the practice exam.  It's taking them a while to have the practice exam information catch up with the current test. 

[Anonymous]

Completely agree. I found the test that I took in April 2016 was very similar to the practice exam. The year prior I ran into this issue, though; absolutely no problem on the practice exam and very different for the real test. I am about to have a bunch of my users take their exam but I don't want to set them up for failure if the exam is off again.

[Jamie_Barclay]

I would say this is a big issue 😞  I've tried to remember the areas that I had not seen before. I've been looking them up in the community for insight.  Good luck

[Josh_Hill13 · Accepted solution]

The exam has not changed. If you read the specs, it does say there are 98 or so questions (there have always been about 100 questions).

The practice exam tends to have easier questions using a bank of 150 questions to train you on. Yes, I think the Practice does not have the visual exam questions that I believe you refer to on the real exam. Remember that

• actual test conditions are different and you can't use docs.marketo.com or your notes
• you may be more nervous
• they aren't going to ask the Practice exam questions on the real test. Similar, not the same.
• All questions are supported by docs.marketo.com.
• Try to recall visually where some buttons are.

Sorry you did not pass this time. You should be able to re-take at least once in the next two weeks.

I do know they are planning an upgrade for 2017.

[Jamie_Barclay]

I understand that - but I just wish that they would at least include a question for all areas that were asked.  I was really thrown off guard.

[Josh_Hill13]

Which area do you mean?