“Do NOT underestimate the curriculum! I cannot say this enough. Here is Branislav’s advice for those looking to get certified: Once he got the final confirmation that the testing center was authorized, he retook the course for good measure and aced his certification exam! However, he made the most of this time and went through the entire suite of Maven’s Excel courses and topped it off with the MO-201 Exam Prep course which came out near the end of the year. This was the case for Branislav in early 2020, as the only vendor in his country was in the process of renewing their contract with Microsoft. Many of you may know Branislav from being a remarkable teaching assistant on Maven’s Udemy courses, but what you may not know is that he is a Microsoft Certified Excel Expert and had to wait almost a full year to be able to take the exam in person.įor those unaware, the MO-201 Excel Expert exam is conducted at Certiport Authorized Testing Centers, so if you cannot find an option to have the exam proctored remotely it can be challenging to find a center near you in certain countries. These are their stories and their advice for you… Branislav Poljašević So, I reached out to these Microsoft Certified Excel Experts: The most valuable advice would come from students that decided to pursue Microsoft’s Excel Expert certification and went on to earn it. I wasn’t just preparing for the exam, I was also preparing the curriculum for an entire exam prep course! It’s because my process in getting certified was very different from the process any of the readers were going to follow. That’s valuable advice! So… why did I keep thinking about this question? Some of the topics covered are pretty specific, so winging it may lead to disappointing results even if you have years of experience working with Excel. My advice was (and still is) to make sure you understand the skills measured in the exam, and that you take the time to prepare. “What advice do you have for folks looking to pass the MO-201 exam?” We had a great discussion, but his final question has lingered in my mind ever since…

Skills are required to earn certifications, and certifications are essential to validate skills. Luckily, we had no trouble settling it… certifications AND skills go hand in hand. Last year, a few weeks before launching my Excel MO-201 Exam Prep course, I had a quick Q&A session with John in which we dove into the ‘skills vs certifications’ debate.

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