When I graduated from college I was excited since that meant I wouldn’t have to take another exam again save things like pub trivia quiz and the occasional eye exam. Sadly, that may have been a little premature because I recently took the Google Analytics IQ (Individual Qualification) exam. Luckily, this was a topic I’m interested in and it was overall a good experience. The test is for people who want to become proficient in all things Google Analytics and while I had worked with a lot of the basics within GA, I hadn’t had a chance to look into the more involved features like goals, eCommerce tracking, etc.
To prepare for the exam, Google provides an online course of presentations which cover all of the features and functionality. They go all the way from accessing GA for the first time to detailed topics like using regular expressions in filters. If you have access to an existing Google Analytics accounts I recommend following along in it while you go through the presentations. The presentations are good but seeing the features in action can be beneficial. Another helpful hint is that within the presentations there’s a Notes tab where you can view all of the voice over text. The people doing the voice overs are perfectly fine but if you’re less likely to focus on the audio like I am or you’re attempting to go back to a presentation and review this can be helpful and faster.
The exam itself costs $50 and consists of 70 multiple choice questions. You’re given a time limit of 90 minutes to finish however the test can be paused over the course of 5 days. The pause feature is great so you don’t have to be worried about completing the exam in one fell swoop. Although, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can multitask because you may forget to pause the exam. Then you may find yourself wanting those precious seconds back that could have been spent looking over questions that you marked for review. I may or may not have done this.
The test questions themselves were definitely challenging. Many of them truly require you to apply the knowledge that you learned throughout the presentations and are not merely regurgitation of material. Granted, there were a few softball questions like what cookies are but by and large they were more difficult.
Once completed, you’re automatically given your score as a percentage and told whether or not you passed. 80% and above is passing for the exam and once you’ve passed you’re given a link that you can give out to anyone if you wish to share with them your Google Analytics proficiency level. The link can be customized to display your score or merely display the fact that you passed. The latter is useful if you may not have fared as well as you had hoped. Once again, I may or may not have done this.
I would definitely recommend watching the presentations and taking the exam to anyone who’s looking to expand their knowledge of Google Analytics. It will take you beyond the simple page view and visit metrics and hopefully lead you toward improving your websites or those of your clients.
