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What do you think of the new MCE Exam? Any test tips for those taking it at Summit?

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
March 1, 2017
11 replies
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For those of you who have taken the new MCE exam, I am curious what you thought of it!

Marketo

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Best answer by Robb_Barrett

The new exam was geared towards creating a minimum level of competency for what would be considered a Marketo Certified Expert. The questions are fairly written (no "gotchas") by Marketo experts and Champions, scrutinized by Experts and Champions, and then weighted to make sure that the test would be achievable by someone who fellow experts would consider having mastered Marketo.

The test does not include questions around optional add-ons (i.e.: RCE, RTP, Calendar), nor does it include questions specific to other products such as SFDC or Dynamics. It assumes that you know your way around an instance of "Vanilla" Marketo.

As mentioned in the announcement, the test assumes about 800-1000 hours of actual Marketo usage. Gone are the questions like "What does the button say" that rely on a photographic memory, the questions now show that you know broad level knowledge of Marketo along with intricate processes and how things work.

Every question asked is backed up by the official documentation. Just about every answer can be found in the Product Docs.

I'm happy to say that the review team really thought through these questions, really taking out the "gotcha's" and considering the level of stress that a test taking environment causes. The questions are clear, thorough, and the answers are easily identifiable to someone who should be considered an expert.

Dory_Viscoglio

Level 10

The new test hasn't been released yet. I believe it is scheduled to be released prior to Summit. They're scheduling 3 hour "study sessions" prior to taking the exam if you want, but I don't believe it's a requisite to take the exam.

Dory_Viscoglio

Level 10

Ahh, just saw your other comment on the separate test thread. Looks like we'll have to wait until people start taking the newly released exam!

Michelle_Miles3Author

Level 5

@Dory Viscogliosi Actually the new MCE exam and specializations are out now along with the training sessions. We have even had team members take the new MCE Exam this week. Details are here: Marketo Certified Expert and you can register for the three hour prep courses here: Training Catalog. There will no longer be a practice exam, and I have heard that the new exam is quite different and more difficult. Team members reported that Marketo has really raised the bar on the MCE certification.

Michelle Miles

Dory_Viscoglio

Level 10

Good to know. Looks like they released it without too much fanfare, which is less common for Marketo

A

Anonymous

Just announced today - take a look: Marketo Invests in Customer Success With New Training and Certification Curriculum

Dory_Viscoglio

Level 10

@Sydney Mulligan was one of the beta testers. Maybe she can give her input?

James_Chung

Level 2

Does anyone know if the test is geared more towards gauging your Marketo-specific usability knowledge? Or more towards industry best practices/strategy?

The last MCE i took was really in the weeds with how to use the Marketo tool and had very little to do with strategy or business related questions. I know a lot of people volunteered to help provide input on this new MCE so I'm curious if they'd be willing to share the direction the MCE went with

SydneyMulligan

Level 7

MCE is definitely a certification for Marketo users, not a general marketing-best-practice cert. That said, I think this test is fairly weighted between Marketo best practices and actual Marketo user knowledge. Someone who is not very familiar with using Marketo day to day will not be able to pass the test, which I think is what we all want. It makes the certification more valuable to those who have it.

Joey_Forcelli1

Level 4

Sydney - Have you taken any of the specialization exams?

Robb_BarrettAccepted solution

Level 10

The new exam was geared towards creating a minimum level of competency for what would be considered a Marketo Certified Expert. The questions are fairly written (no "gotchas") by Marketo experts and Champions, scrutinized by Experts and Champions, and then weighted to make sure that the test would be achievable by someone who fellow experts would consider having mastered Marketo.

The test does not include questions around optional add-ons (i.e.: RCE, RTP, Calendar), nor does it include questions specific to other products such as SFDC or Dynamics. It assumes that you know your way around an instance of "Vanilla" Marketo.

As mentioned in the announcement, the test assumes about 800-1000 hours of actual Marketo usage. Gone are the questions like "What does the button say" that rely on a photographic memory, the questions now show that you know broad level knowledge of Marketo along with intricate processes and how things work.

Every question asked is backed up by the official documentation. Just about every answer can be found in the Product Docs.

I'm happy to say that the review team really thought through these questions, really taking out the "gotcha's" and considering the level of stress that a test taking environment causes. The questions are clear, thorough, and the answers are easily identifiable to someone who should be considered an expert.

Robb Barrett

A

Anonymous

So glad to hear about the buttons! There were a few questions on the old test that would be obvious if I was sitting in front of my instance, but I wouldn't know the name of the buttons or areas by memory.

A

Anonymous

I was one of the last people to take the old exam (literally on February 26!), so I won't take the new test for a year. I'm interested in the specialization exams. Is there specific training for them?

It's too bad they're getting rid of the practice test. That was a good way to prepare and have an idea of what they were going to ask.

Michelle_Miles3Author

Level 5

Yes, they have prep courses out for the specialization exams, for a fee. They're located here: Preparation

Michelle Miles

A

Anonymous

That's great...the price is a little steep, though! And since there's no practice test, there's no way to gauge how well I'd do without the training class.

Grégoire_Miche2

Level 10

I went through the course today, and it was very good. A few good reminders and the questions seem really better suited to know if someone can be called a Marketo expert.

-Greg

Lynn_Ray_Pardo

Level 4

I haven't taken it yet, but after reviewing MKTO's newly released sample questions and answers, I am disconcerted to have found a mistake within MKTO's newly released sample set. Sample Questions, (One of the questions/answers has no correct answer within the multi-choice answer set. Thankfully, at least, reference url provided for their (albeit) incorrect answer is correct.)

In previous sample tests, I found many strange questions with odd or no logical multi-choice answers and sincerely hope that the actual test does not reflect similarly.

All of that said, thank you so very much for getting this thread started!

Lynn

Dan_Stevens_

Level 10

Which question specifically?

Dory_Viscoglio

Level 10

I'd take issue with this question because if they don't use an add choice to the send alert step, or a remove from flow step, then everyone would receive the alert re: the SLA.

Also, I'm ok with questions that specify that they're looking for 3 of something, but I'd hope there aren't any "select all that apply".

Carolanne_Mak

Level 2

Just took the new exam today (first year certification) after studying for the old version for almost three months - I thought it was hard.

While the spelling and general formatting of the questions have drastically improved from the old practice test, I would not say that "gotcha!" wording has been totally removed. I found the sample questions from the training to be fairly straightforward, but the actual test had reworded versions that shifted focus of the question or asked for different information, sometimes awkwardly. There were also questions that (as far as I remember) were not mentioned in the training, sample questions, or recommended reads for either test version - marketing topics like creating a scoring plan, for example.

Josh_Hill13

Level 10

The challenge with the Old test wasn't just memorization, but I encountered several "MCE" people who really had no idea how to build a whitepaper program in Marketo. So the new test that many of us helped add questions to, was designed to ask meaningful "work related questions." There were plenty of variations on similar situations because we wanted to have people who could be that flexible.

I am also unhappy with certain aspects of the test creation process that you are now seeing in how some questions are worded. It's pretty hard to build a "fair" test.

A

Anonymous

I was one of the Beta testers and this was my very first time taking a Marketo certification test. I have been using Marketo for 9 months, but had used other MAPs previously for 5 years. IMHO, the test had some gotcha wording and yes, they asked several of the same questions repeatedly in different awkward ways. I took the "practice" exam multiple times at about 105 questions and completed in about 60 mins. The beta exam had 230 questions and it took me almost the complete 3 hrs to take it. The directions stated you could read the questions out loud, yet when I did that a couple of times because they just weren't making sense to me, my proctor stopped the exam and told me it wasn't allowed. Some of the subject matter in the beta exam was not addressed at all in the practice exams. Alot of questions on reporting, some on lead scoring, some answers more obvious than others. Since I had no other MCE to compare against (I am certified on other systems), I'd say overall the test was challenging. I was ecstatic to learn I had passed!

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