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?

Level 10

Question

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

Forum|Forum|10 years ago
March 3, 2016
4 replies
4893 views

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?

Marketo

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Grégoire_Miche2

Level 10

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

Level 10

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

Level 10

Hi Josh,

Yes, so did I with the Calendar

-Greg

Robb_Barrett

Level 10

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

Robb_Barrett

Level 10

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.

Robb Barrett

Dory_Viscoglio

Level 10

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

Level 10

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.

Robb Barrett

Dory_Viscoglio

Level 10

But (and this is not a negative towards you, because you obviously know your Marketo) you can't even become a Champion if you aren't an Expert. So forget applying to be a Champion if you haven't ponied up the $100+ to take the test, or been successful in passing. Meanwhile, you provide so much back to the community! All at no cost to Marketo! If we monetized the amount of money that we save Marketo every year by being active in the community, we would all get our tests comped.

Instead, I can get my test comped by doing random (totally non-Marketo related things) in Purple Select.

It definitely feels like there's something backwards here. But, I digress from Dan's original question

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