Green Screen Project Rubric: Fill & Download for Free

Google Apps for Education is one of my best tools. I use a script called Doctopus to help manage the paperwork and control editing privileges for students, and an extension called Goobric to hand rubrics back to them.I use Blogger to post assignments each day and keep parents in the loop when they want it.I have a managed YouTube channel where I post videos for a flipped classroom model so they can go back and take notes or review the lecture whenever they need to. I also will e-mail them with TED talks and other videos of relevance, and I have a "helpful links" document that I share with my students that they can submit videos, websites, or other information to when they run across things.I use Moodle, Google Docs, and Blogger to create web forums and discussion groups for the students. This is particularly useful when class time is at a premium and they can do it outside of class.Sometimes, rather than have them do boring note-taking, I'll give them a list of search terms and have them come up with a list of notes of things they think their classmates should know about various topics through a giant group collaborative search effort.I am hoping to put together a Google Hangout panel discussion with several biotechnology experts from around the country for a unit on dystopias and biotechnology. Skype is equally useful, but doesn't play well with conference calls. Google Chat and Gmail also allows my students to get after-hours help if they can't directly come in after school. Danger: students expect you to check your email on the weekends after a while.Google Forms allows me to create surveys to rapidly gather student feedback and reduce that data so they can see their results. When we read Romeo and Juliet last year, I had my students take an introductory attitudes survey about some of the issues that come up in the play, teen romance, etc. I had them take a second survey with slightly reworded and mixed up questions at the end, reduced the data, and showed them how many of them shifted attitudes on things as a result of reading the play. They were actually kind of fascinated by it.Google Sheets is an easy way for students to track their progress towards learning objectives and course progress (provided you have things planned out in advance enough for it to be effective.) Students know what assignments are coming up and keep track of their current proficiency by changing colors in squares. I approve their sheets when they e-mail me that they have made changes or have some sort of evidence that they have reached proficiency on their learning objectives. They know they need to get all their squares green to pass the unit. Some of it is worksheets and quizzes, some defined projects, some of it is their own invention. If they want out of worksheets and busywork, they have to propose alternatives that I approve to meet the learning targets.I print out QR codes each day with the daily objective for students so they can use their phones to copy them down if they can't easily see the objective board. Relatively simple to do.Our librarian helps train the students to use databases such as EBSCO and JSTOR to help find scholarly articles, and I make them go through a "You Can't Google This" scavenger hunt to learn how to bring back old-school skills as well.I've had students create fan-fic blogs for book projects in the past, write and direct webisodes for scenes from plays or important book moments, or make their own classroom wikis about novels.I let students hold a class chat discussion using a text-messaging board that put everything up on the main screen so they could discuss without talking to their neighbors directly.Sometimes, if they need a little grammar work, I'll take them to the lab and make them spend a day on NoRedInk.com

Making sense of string theoryTranscript:00:01In the year 1919, a virtually unknown German mathematician, named Theodor Kaluza suggested a very bold and, in some ways, a very bizarre idea. He proposed that our universe might actually have more than the three dimensions that we are all aware of. That is in addition to left, right, back, forth and up, down, Kaluza proposed that there might be additional dimensions of space that for some reason we don't yet see. Now, when someone makes a bold and bizarre idea, sometimes that's all it is -- bold and bizarre, but it has nothing to do with the world around us. This particular idea, however -- although we don't yet know whether it's right or wrong, and at the end I'll discuss experiments which, in the next few years, may tell us whether it's right or wrong -- this idea has had a major impact on physics in the last century and continues to inform a lot of cutting-edge research.01:02So, I'd like to tell you something about the story of these extra dimensions. So where do we go? To begin we need a little bit of back story. Go to 1907. This is a year when Einstein is basking in the glow of having discovered the special theory of relativity and decides to take on a new project, to try to understand fully the grand, pervasive force of gravity. And in that moment, there are many people around who thought that that project had already been resolved. Newton had given the world a theory of gravity in the late 1600s that works well, describes the motion of planets, the motion of the moon and so forth, the motion of apocryphal of apples falling from trees, hitting people on the head. All of that could be described using Newton's work.01:51But Einstein realized that Newton had left something out of the story, because even Newton had written that although he understood how to calculate the effect of gravity, he'd been unable to figure out how it really works. How is it that the Sun, 93 million miles away,[that] somehow it affects the motion of the Earth? How does the Sun reach out across empty inert space and exert influence? And that is a task to which Einstein set himself -- to figure out how gravity works. And let me show you what it is that he found. So Einstein found that the medium that transmits gravity is space itself. The idea goes like this: imagine space is a substrate of all there is.02:34Einstein said space is nice and flat, if there's no matter present. But if there is matter in the environment, such as the Sun, it causes the fabric of space to warp, to curve. And that communicates the force of gravity. Even the Earth warps space around it. Now look at the Moon. The Moon is kept in orbit, according to these ideas, because it rolls along a valley in the curved environment that the Sun and the Moon and the Earth can all create by virtue of their presence. We go to a full-frame view of this. The Earth itself is kept in orbit because it rolls along a valley in the environment that's curved because of the Sun's presence. That is this new idea about how gravity actually works.03:20Now, this idea was tested in 1919 through astronomical observations. It really works. It describes the data. And this gained Einstein prominence around the world. And that is what got Kaluza thinking. He, like Einstein, was in search of what we call a unified theory.That's one theory that might be able to describe all of nature's forces from one set of ideas, one set of principles, one master equation, if you will. So Kaluza said to himself, Einstein has been able to describe gravity in terms of warps and curves in space -- in fact, space and time, to be more precise. Maybe I can play the same game with the other known force, which was, at that time, known as the electromagnetic force -- we know of others today, but at that time that was the only other one people were thinking about. You know, the force responsible for electricity and magnetic attraction and so forth.04:16So Kaluza says, maybe I can play the same game and describe electromagnetic force in terms of warps and curves. That raised a question: warps and curves in what? Einstein had already used up space and time, warps and curves, to describe gravity. There didn't seem to be anything else to warp or curve. So Kaluza said, well, maybe there are more dimensions of space. He said, if I want to describe one more force, maybe I need one more dimension. So he imagined that the world had four dimensions of space, not three,and imagined that electromagnetism was warps and curves in that fourth dimension. Now here's the thing: when he wrote down the equations describing warps and curves in a universe with four space dimensions, not three, he found the old equations that Einstein had already derived in three dimensions -- those were for gravity -- but he found one more equation because of the one more dimension. And when he looked at that equation, it was none other than the equation that scientists had long known to describe the electromagnetic force. Amazing -- it just popped out. He was so excited by this realization that he ran around his house screaming, "Victory!" -- that he had found the unified theory.05:28Now clearly, Kaluza was a man who took theory very seriously. He, in fact -- there is a story that when he wanted to learn how to swim, he read a book, a treatise on swimming -- (Laughter) -- then dove into the ocean. This is a man who would risk his life on theory. Now, but for those of us who are a little bit more practically minded, two questions immediately arise from his observation.Number one: if there are more dimensions in space, where are they? We don't seem to see them. And number two: does this theory really work in detail, when you try to apply it to the world around us? Now, the first question was answered in 1926 by a fellow named Oskar Klein. He suggested that dimensions might come in two varieties -- there might be big, easy-to-see dimensions, but there might also be tiny, curled-up dimensions, curled up so small, even though they're all around us, that we don't see them.06:29Let me show you that one visually. So, imagine you're looking at something like a cable supporting a traffic light. It's in Manhattan. You're in Central Park -- it's kind of irrelevant -- but the cable looks one-dimensional from a distant viewpoint, but you and I all know that it does have some thickness. It's very hard to see it, though, from far away. But if we zoom in and take the perspective of, say, a little ant walking around -- little ants are so small that they can access all of the dimensions -- the long dimension, but also this clockwise, counter-clockwise direction. And I hope you appreciate this. It took so long to get these ants to do this.07:03(Laughter)07:04But this illustrates the fact that dimensions can be of two sorts: big and small. And the idea that maybe the big dimensions around usare the ones that we can easily see, but there might be additional dimensions curled up, sort of like the circular part of that cable, so small that they have so far remained invisible. Let me show you what that would look like. So, if we take a look, say, at space itself -- I can only show, of course, two dimensions on a screen. Some of you guys will fix that one day, but anything that's not flat on a screen is a new dimension, goes smaller, smaller, smaller, and way down in the microscopic depths of space itself, this is the idea, you could have additional curled up dimensions --07:44here is a little shape of a circle -- so small that we don't see them. But if you were a little ultra microscopic ant walking around, you could walk in the big dimensions that we all know about -- that's like the grid part -- but you could also access the tiny curled-up dimension that's so small that we can't see it with the naked eye or even with any of our most refined equipment. But deeply tucked into the fabric of space itself, the idea is there could be more dimensions, as we see there. Now that's an explanation about how the universe could have more dimensions than the ones that we see. But what about the second question that I asked: does the theory actually work when you try to apply it to the real world?08:25Well, it turns out that Einstein and Kaluza and many others worked on trying to refine this framework and apply it to the physics of the universe as was understood at the time, and, in detail, it didn't work. In detail, for instance, they couldn't get the mass of the electron to work out correctly in this theory. So many people worked on it, but by the '40s, certainly by the '50s, this strange but very compelling idea of how to unify the laws of physics had gone away. Until something wonderful happened in our age. In our era, a new approach to unify the laws of physics is being pursued by physicists such as myself, many others around the world, it's called superstring theory, as you were indicating. And the wonderful thing is that superstring theory has nothing to do at first sight with this idea of extra dimensions, but when we study superstring theory, we find that it resurrects the idea in a sparkling, new form.09:26So, let me just tell you how that goes. Superstring theory -- what is it? Well, it's a theory that tries to answer the question: what are the basic, fundamental, indivisible, uncuttable constituents making up everything in the world around us? The idea is like this. So, imagine we look at a familiar object, just a candle in a holder, and imagine that we want to figure out what it is made of. So we go on a journey deep inside the object and examine the constituents. So deep inside -- we all know, you go sufficiently far down, you have atoms. We also all know that atoms are not the end of the story. They have little electrons that swarm around a central nucleus with neutrons and protons. Even the neutrons and protons have smaller particles inside of them known as quarks. That is where conventional ideas stop.10:15Here is the new idea of string theory. Deep inside any of these particles, there is something else. This something else is this dancing filament of energy. It looks like a vibrating string -- that's where the idea, string theory comes from. And just like the vibrating strings that you just saw in a cello can vibrate in different patterns, these can also vibrate in different patterns. They don't produce different musical notes. Rather, they produce the different particles making up the world around us. So if these ideas are correct, this is what the ultra-microscopic landscape of the universe looks like. It's built up of a huge number of these little tiny filaments of vibrating energy, vibrating in different frequencies. The different frequencies produce the different particles. The different particles are responsible for all the richness in the world around us.11:05And there you see unification, because matter particles, electrons and quarks, radiation particles, photons, gravitons, are all built up from one entity. So matter and the forces of nature all are put together under the rubric of vibrating strings. And that's what we mean by a unified theory. Now here is the catch. When you study the mathematics of string theory, you find that it doesn't work in a universe that just has three dimensions of space. It doesn't work in a universe with four dimensions of space, nor five, nor six. Finally, you can study the equations, and show that it works only in a universe that has 10 dimensions of space and one dimension of time. It leads us right back to this idea of Kaluza and Klein -- that our world, when appropriately described, has more dimensions than the ones that we see.12:01Now you might think about that and say, well, OK, you know, if you have extra dimensions, and they're really tightly curled up, yeah, perhaps we won't see them, if they're small enough. But if there's a little tiny civilization of green people walking around down there,and you make them small enough, and we won't see them either. That is true. One of the other predictions of string theory -- no, that's not one of the other predictions of string theory.12:25(Laughter)12:26But it raises the question: are we just trying to hide away these extra dimensions, or do they tell us something about the world? In the remaining time, I'd like to tell you two features of them. First is, many of us believe that these extra dimensions hold the answer to what perhaps is the deepest question in theoretical physics, theoretical science. And that question is this: when we look around the world, as scientists have done for the last hundred years, there appear to be about 20 numbers that really describe our universe.These are numbers like the mass of the particles, like electrons and quarks, the strength of gravity, the strength of the electromagnetic force -- a list of about 20 numbers that have been measured with incredible precision, but nobody has an explanation for why the numbers have the particular values that they do.13:16Now, does string theory offer an answer? Not yet. But we believe the answer for why those numbers have the values they do may rely on the form of the extra dimensions. And the wonderful thing is, if those numbers had any other values than the known ones, the universe, as we know it, wouldn't exist. This is a deep question. Why are those numbers so finely tuned to allow stars to shine and planets to form, when we recognize that if you fiddle with those numbers -- if I had 20 dials up here and I let you come up and fiddle with those numbers, almost any fiddling makes the universe disappear. So can we explain those 20 numbers? And string theory suggests that those 20 numbers have to do with the extra dimensions. Let me show you how. So when we talk about the extra dimensions in string theory, it's not one extra dimension, as in the older ideas of Kaluza and Klein. This is what string theory says about the extra dimensions. They have a very rich, intertwined geometry.14:16This is an example of something known as a Calabi-Yau shape -- name isn't all that important. But, as you can see, the extra dimensions fold in on themselves and intertwine in a very interesting shape, interesting structure. And the idea is that if this is what the extra dimensions look like, then the microscopic landscape of our universe all around us would look like this on the tiniest of scales.When you swing your hand, you'd be moving around these extra dimensions over and over again, but they're so small that we wouldn't know it. So what is the physical implication, though, relevant to those 20 numbers?14:51Consider this. If you look at the instrument, a French horn, notice that the vibrations of the air streams are affected by the shape of the instrument. Now in string theory, all the numbers are reflections of the way strings can vibrate. So just as those air streams are affected by the twists and turns in the instrument, strings themselves will be affected by the vibrational patterns in the geometry within which they are moving. So let me bring some strings into the story. And if you watch these little fellows vibrating around -- they'll be there in a second -- right there, notice that they way they vibrate is affected by the geometry of the extra dimensions.15:26So, if we knew exactly what the extra dimensions look like -- we don't yet, but if we did -- we should be able to calculate the allowed notes, the allowed vibrational patterns. And if we could calculate the allowed vibrational patterns, we should be able to calculate those 20 numbers. And if the answer that we get from our calculations agrees with the values of those numbers that have been determined through detailed and precise experimentation, this in many ways would be the first fundamental explanation for why the structure of the universe is the way it is. Now, the second issue that I want to finish up with is: how might we test for these extra dimensions more directly? Is this just an interesting mathematical structure that might be able to explain some previously unexplained features of the world, or can we actually test for these extra dimensions? And we think -- and this is, I think, very exciting -- that in the next five years or so we may be able to test for the existence of these extra dimensions.16:33Here's how it goes. In CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, a machine is being built called the Large Hadron Collider. It's a machine that will send particles around a tunnel, opposite directions, near the speed of light. Every so often those particles will be aimed at each other,so there's a head-on collision. The hope is that if the collision has enough energy, it may eject some of the debris from the collision from our dimensions, forcing it to enter into the other dimensions. How would we know it? Well, we'll measure the amount of energy after the collision, compare it to the amount of energy before, and if there's less energy after the collision than before, this will be evidence that the energy has drifted away. And if it drifts away in the right pattern that we can calculate, this will be evidence that the extra dimensions are there.17:23Let me show you that idea visually. So, imagine we have a certain kind of particle called a graviton -- that's the kind of debris we expect to be ejected out, if the extra dimensions are real. But here's how the experiment will go. You take these particles. You slam them together. You slam them together, and if we are right, some of the energy of that collision will go into debris that flies off into these extra dimensions. So this is the kind of experiment that we'll be looking at in the next five, seven to 10 years or so. And if this experiment bears fruit, if we see that kind of particle ejected by noticing that there's less energy in our dimensions than when we began, this will show that the extra dimensions are real.18:06And to me this is a really remarkable story, and a remarkable opportunity. Going back to Newton with absolute space -- didn't provide anything but an arena, a stage in which the events of the universe take place. Einstein comes along and says, well, space and time can warp and curve -- that's what gravity is. And now string theory comes along and says, yes, gravity, quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, all together in one package, but only if the universe has more dimensions than the ones that we see. And this is an experiment that may test for them in our lifetime. Amazing possibility. Thank you very much.18:44(Applause)

For someone who has been a vocal supporter of Tableau and who thinks Tableau is the best product in BI and Visualization space, it was natural for me to look at ways to enhance my tableau knowledge so that I can always be the go-to person for any tableau related query. While enhancing the knowledge there comes a moment where you are in a dilemma if you shall go for a recognition now which is more public and not just limited to your “Work Recognition” or you shall stick to just work-related recognition.While work recognitions are always good and something that we work very hard for, getting a certificate allows us to be heard in the community and contribute to constructive discussions around Data Science, Analytics and BI. Certificates are not universally vouched for when thinking it in terms of value-add to overall profile because if you talk with 10 managers about “If they value Certifications while reviewing/selecting resumes for the job interview”, pretty sure you’d get 5 as Yay’s and 5 as Nays. Hence more often then not students and entry-level professionals are in a big dilemma but I wasn’t one of them considering my love for the tableau 😊.I have been thinking about getting certified in tableau since I joined the iSchool at Syracuse University and how most of the job postings required one who knew about at least one of the standard BI tool, be it Tableau, Microstrategy, PowerBI or others. All these job postings, talks and blogs on BI Tools kindled my curiosity to keep learning and I decided that I wanted to get certified in Tableau. I decided this in September 2016 but such was the schedule and sequence of events that I failed to prioritize this over other commitments. But finally, I did it after being all rejuvenated post thanksgiving break last year(2017) and booked the dates. If you have been on the fence for some time about the value of this and whether you will get time or not, You should and just book the dates for the exam. If you DON’T book dates, YOU will never get time! Simple.What inspired me to write a blog about Tableau certificate?There are tons of blogs and resources available around the internet and having scouted through quite a bit over the last month, I feel, I have the resources which helped me secure over 90% marks in the exam. Pretty sure the following resources will not allow you to be certified in Tableau but also help you grow as a Tableau developer.Before we dive into the plans and how to learn from available free/paid resources, let's talk about housekeeping first for someone who has never heard about Tableau Certification.Here we are talking about Tableau Desktop Certifications, take a note that Tableau also as Tableau Server certificates but that is for another day.Even in Tableau Desktop suite of certifications, we have a couple of options based on the level of your understanding and expertise of the tool.1) Tableau Desktop Qualified Associate (TDQA)Recommended for people with at least 5 months of Hands on experience using the tool and someone who understands the basics of SQL and understands Databases, Joins and standard Data Analytics terminologies (Even if you don’t have prior experience of Tableau but willing to learn, you can get certified).Cost: $250 (No student discounts available, unfortunately)Time Limit: 2 hours (extra 30 mins for setup and surveys)Number of Questions: 36The split of Questions: 70 Hands on/30 Theory based on the tool itselfPassing Score: 75% (Note: Each question has different weight depending on the difficulty level, hands-on has more value)Tableau Exam Guide: Download Tableau Exam Guide2) Tableau Desktop Certified Professional:Recommended for people who have considerable Tableau Desktop experience. More than 9+ months of experience is recommended. Unlike TDQA, this certificate includes Hands-on, written response and building/saving solutions in Tableau desktopCost: $600 (again, no discounts)Time Limit: 3 hours (similarly, extra 30–45 mins for setup and surveys)Passing and grading: Manually graded based on the detailed scoring rubricPreparing for the exam:The blog safely assumes that you have never used Tableau or have limited access to the tool. If you are a student and don’t have access to the tool, tableau offers free 1 year access to their Desktop tool for students. For non-students and professionals, tableau offers 14 days trialwhich may not be enough. But at the end of the blog post, I’ll share ways to get Tableau Desktop access for 6 months for free. Keep reading!Starting the preparation:The first thing that you are recommended to do is go through each word in Tableau Desktop Certificate Guide. The pdf does an amazingly good job listing down the know-how of the certificate, detailed skills that are measured in the exam as well as providing sample questions and solutions for you to verify your understanding of the skills asked. I cannot stress enough as to how much important that guide is for getting the grasp of the certificate. Literally, while I was preparing, I used to go through the pdf every week and tick mark the skills which I had absolute confidence in and skills which still needed work. Once you are done reviewing the exam guide, its time to note down the areas where you lack the requisite knowledge and start working through it.I have tried segmenting the resources into Beginner and Advanced level so that right resources can be accessed at the right time.Beginner Resources:1) Tableau Learning: Words won’t do justice as for how much the free training on Tableau’s official website helped me in preparation for the exam. If you have reviewed the exam guide, you’d know that the skills measured section has been divided into Data Connections, Organizing & Simplifying Data… respectively and Tableau Learning does a pretty good job of organizing their training in a similar way. Go through all the videos under Tableau Desktop TWICE, yes twice because just going through it once won’t be enough and when you re-watch like I did, you’ll learn some more tips and tricks while watching and improve your understanding of the tool.Cost: Free2) Tableau 10 A-Z Beginner by Kirill Eramenko: The beginner course by Kirill Eramenko is not very niche focused on Tableau certificate as Tableau Learning and Tableau For Beginners by Lukas Halim(description below) but the course does a pretty good job going through all the features of Tableau 10 and the best part about the course is that it’s pretty hands on. Once you are done with the course, you will have learned tableau from a perspective of a professional, not as a student who is just looking to learn tableau for certifications.Cost: Usually costs $199.99 but you always get 90–95% discount coupon for Udemy online, one of them being “JNY1202”3) Tableau for Beginners by Lukas Halim: Unlike Kirill’s course, this course is specifically designed for getting certified in Tableau Desktop. The video lectures are pretty average at best and I won’t blame Lukas because the major focus for the course was for students to get certified not become an expert in Tableau. The good thing about this course is that it follows the “Skills Measures” section from exam guide pretty closely which allows you to follow the structure of the exam and become more confident about the skills/questions that is asked.The best part of the course?Quizzes and TWO Full-Length Practice Test for Tableau Desktop Qualified Associate Exam. I’ll talk about the exams in the advanced sections because it really doesn’t make sense to talk about the Practice tests if you are yet not comfortable with the tool itself.Cost: Similar to the above suggestions, you can get access to the course for $10–12 using code like “JNY1202”4) Tips for preparing for the Tableau QA Exam by Andy Kriebel: If you follow tableau closely and don’t yet know Andy, you have been living under the rocks! Andy is the head coach at Data School and has been responsible for training more than 1000 individuals on tableau and alteryx. He is Tableau Zen Master and an amazing teacher. In this video, Andy and his team of tableau/data school students share their experiences of Tableau QA exam and talk about skills sections individually and share some tips & tricks on how to learn them quickly and what to expect in the exam. A pretty good hour-long video I must say.Cost: 1 hour of your time5) Tableau Knowledge Base: Although there ain’t a particular format for following these suggestions but I used to just copy paste one of the lines from “skills measured” into google and read articles on Tableau Knowledge Base. Considering the exam contains 30% theory questions/weight and we are allowed to use the internet for searching answers, it’s a good cultivating habit to read Tableau Knowledge Base.Cost: FreeThat’s it for beginner section. If you follow the pattern of first completing Tableau Learning then moving onto Tableau 10 A-Z by Kirill and then to Lukas Halim’s course, you shall be confident enough now and be able to attempt more than 50–60% of the questions in Tableau QA Exam guide.Advanced Resources:Once you have attempted the questions in Tableau QA Guide, its time to move on to Advanced Sections which will cover advanced topics like Level of Detail Calculations, Sets/Groups, Analytics Pane:1) Tableau 10 Advanced Training by Kirill Eremenko: I am a big fan of Kirill’s way of teaching and his hands-on approach to even the most simple of the concepts. In this Advanced training, Kirill walks you through 5 dashboards covering some pretty advanced stuff like Level of Detail Calculations, Advanced Calculations like String handling, Data handling, advanced joins, data blending, dashboard actions, sets and groups! Again, like the previous course by Kirill, he is not teaching the course with a mindset of getting you certified, he teaches from a perspective of a professional analyst and how an analyst will tackle the data questions that are asked by end stakeholders. A must watch video course on tableau for sure.Cost: $10–122) Data Visualization and Communication with Tableau by Coursera: This course by Duke University is one of my favorite course available online for learning Tableau. The best part of this course is that the data sets that the instructor use are pretty well thought out and hands on. Data sets include H1B Work Visa application data and real business data set provided by Dognition, a dog training company which were happy to provide students the data about their company.By enrolling in the course you also get free access of tableau for 6 MONTHS, even if you don’t enroll for their paid certificate options. Go for it if you have been holding yourself because you don’t have tableau accessCost: Free if you audit it or $49 if you need certificate of completion3) Practice Tests by Simplilearn: After you are done with the advanced video course from the above link, you now are ready to test your knowledge and learn where your weakness lies. If you google online for tableau sample practice test for the tableau exam, you will be more than just disappointed. There ain’t many resources out there to test your knowledge before you attempt the final exam. Simplilearn offers 2 sample practice test, Test 1 is publicly available after you submit your personal details whereas if you need to access Test 2, you will have to signup for their free trial of Tableau Course by Simplilearn. As you are attempting the questions in this practice test, you will slowly realize that the level of the questions is a notch below the exam guide. The real exam matches the exam guide level but owing to the fact that there isn’t much practice test available, any test which allows you to test your knowledge is worth much more. Don’t get too happy if you score above 90% in these tests, the real practice test is described below.Cost: Free or 7 Days free trial4) Learning Tableau Practice Test 1: The de-facto practice test for the Tableau Desktop Qualified Associate Exam. Once you have gone through all the course links, the quiz from Lukas Halim’s course and practice test from Simplilearn and worked on your chinks after reviewing the tests, its TIME to take the REAL TEST! I’d be lying if I say this TEST is not worth it. It’s the closest you can get to Tableau exam(Practice 2 included, described below). It’s a must if you are really serious about the certification. Lukas does an amazing job by really providing datasets and questions which resonate the exam pretty well. Its challenging enough to make you think unlike Simplilearn tests but easy enough to make you feel good about your preparation. Kudos to Lukas for creating these tests.Another excellent aspect of this test is that Lukas provides an excellent solution for all the questions, which simplilearn fails to do so. These solution guides help you understand the solution for your mistakes and help you learn things in a better wayCost: Included in your purchase of Lukas Halim course, if you are not interested in buying the course, Lukas also has standalone test package(which is more expensive than the course). LearningTableau.com has the details5) Advanced Concepts:If I have to rate the tableau exam based on different level of difficulty, I’d say 25% of the questions were advanced concepts which I’d be listing below. These concepts are part of the courses mentioned above but the blogs/videos of individual concepts allow you to focus on them more and accordingly get more curious about them. Not only will you be preparing these advanced concepts for the exam, but being a heavy tableau user, I personally use some of the concepts in my daily tableau work too.a. Level of Detail Calculations: This is one of the most important concepts for the exam. You won’t get more than 2–3 questions on the concept but considering its use case and how powerful LOD’s are, you are certainly recommended to learn about them as much as you can. If you go through below links, you’ll get enough knowledge about LOD and their use case. In the exam, you can expect questions on Cohort Analysis (Or How much revenue/sales was contributed by each cohort), Customer Order Frequency, Customer Acquisition.Here is a TIP which will help you in the exam: Just study FIXED LOD, don’t even bother about INCLUDE or EXCLUDE LOD, what INCLUDE and EXCLUDE can do, FIXED can do it too. So become an expert in FIXED LOD. Here are some Good resources on themb. Top N/Nested N/Nested Sorting:Another important concept and you can easily expect a couple of questions on Top N/Nested N. It ain’t difficult but something which can easily be ignored if not given proper due respect. The following resource will help you understand it.c. Table Calculations: Most of the new tableau users know about the Calculated field which are sum, average, datediff, datepart etc but another important aspect of calculation in tableau is Table Calculation. Here are some good resources on them:d. Parameters and its use-case:Although you won’t be asked to “specifically” create a parameter to solve any of the questions, but its a feature that you will like to add in your tableau directory. End stakeholders love the ability to play with data and control the data point/parameter. Parameters in tableau gives them this SUPERPOWER.(I revisit this video literally every other week to get ideas on how I can use Parameters in my dashboards, it is so GOOD! Just bookmark it for future purpose too)e. Analytics Pane: Analytics pane covers over 15% of your total marks in the exam and its one of those sections where it’s a crime to lose marks. If you know what mean, median, mode, standard deviation and regression means, you should not lose marks here. Some good resources:f. Other important concepts: Although I don’t have any recommended resources for the list of concepts, but courses above cover them well:Sets, Groups and Creating Combined SetsAdvanced FilteringData BlendingHow to utilize cross tablesPivot TableSplit, Custom SplitJoin CalculationsDifference between green pill and blue pill5) Learning Tableau Practice Test 2: Enough of the Learnings already, time to get ready for the exam. How do you know if you are ready for the exam or not? By attempting Lukas Halim’s practice test 2. Both the tests were the closest to the real test. If you buy the course from udemy directly, you get direct access to both tests automatically, saving you some $20 overall. When attempting this test make sure that try to replicate the real exam environment, which essentially means giving the test in one sitting of two hours, no mobile phone, no distractions. Just you and the practice test with access to the internet but NO EMAIL and CHAT apps. Once you are done, even if you score less than 75% don’t worry, I have friends who scored less than 50% in the 2nd test and yet cleared the exam. Just make sure you take things on your chin and carefully review the solution guide. You are READY now! Carpe Diem!Miscellaneous Tips:The exam is a proctored exam which can be attempted at your convenience, which means that you can give the exam from anywhere only thing is that it will be proctored.The exam will be conducted in a Virtual Machine which has relevant data files and tableau desktop installed. Make sure you review the data files.Another very important tip that I have been giving to others who studied with me is that, always RENAME your WORKSHEET with your question number. Do NOT keep it as SHEET 1, Sheet 2… when its time to review, you’ll waste time trying to find the worksheet for the question.Before you start solving the questions, add a Dashboard in your Workbook and drag a TEXT element in the view and start noting questions/points which needs review and come back later.I was surprised with the questions at the start. The difficulty level of the questions took me aback and it took me almost 20 mins to solve 3 questions. So if it happens to you too, don’t worry the questions after the initial trickiness are rather straightforward and can be easily managed.NEVER mark theory questions without googling about it, even if you are 100% confident about it. The questions are asked in a such a way that they exploit your negligence and you lose marks there.Dashboard questions are easy but minute details of the questions can so easily be ignored. Take care of that.Make use of split screen so that you save some time when you are switching between chrome and tableau. The chrome exam tab is mobile adaptive, so if you resize the exam tab, you will still read all the text in the smaller chrome tab without the need to scroll. It helped me a lot and also allowed me to read questions multiple times while executing the questions asked.Continuing your learning:Done with the exam? Certified already? CONGRATS! You did it. But what next, what if you want to keep learning Tableau and growing from this point. Following resources have been pretty helpful for me and pretty sure you can learn a lot from them too.Tableau Conference Live: #Data17 which was Tableau Conference is one of the biggest Data conferences that tableau conducts every year. It’s expensive to attend if you are a student but what if YOU could get access to the stuff that was talked about in the conference, what if you could get access to the hands on workbook that was taught in the conference?Yesss! You can! Head over to tclive.tableau.com to learn from the best! Every year they update the content with the latest #Data videos and handson workbook.#MakeoverMonday: Need some constant inspiration and data to challenge yourself? There couple of very good social projects that happens every week around the web, one of them is #MakeOverMonday by Andy Kriebel and Eva Murray, head over to #MakeOverMonday and learn more about community dashboards and get blown away!Viz for social good: Similar to #MakeOverMonday, but with unique challenges. Learn more about them hereTableau Tips Tuesday: Weekly blog post on some advanced Tableau concepts explained by the man himself, Andy Kriebel! Some of their amazing blog posts include KPI’s and Sparklines, Creating Lollipop ChartsThat should be enough to fulfill your curiosity to learn more about Tableau. If you found the blog post valuable enough, Click on that Share Button, or Clap if reading on Medium or Add me on LinkedIn, let’s create a #DataCommunity here and learn from each other.