Python Specialty Exam Questions

[Jim_Wei]

Hi @JRosalesGIS,

I had some questions regarding the Python API exams that could benefit from community discussion. I've recently taken the Python Specialty exam but did not pass. 

According to instructions found on the web, when a candidate fails on a specialty exams they do not get a score breakdown to see what they did poorly in. Which leads to a few questions:

1. Why is a score breakdown not offered to a candidate when they fail a specialty exam?
2. Will the certification team consider changing this in the future?
3. In the case of a new Python API specialty exam coming out, is there still merit in pursuing this current certification?
4. If I fail twice in the current version, will it count towards the new version of the exam?
5. Any advice on how to retake a failed specialty exam, when there's no feedback in specialty exams?

Thanks in advance,
Jim

[JRosalesGIS · Accepted solution]

Hello @Jim_Wei  -- These are great questions. Not everyone will pass an exam the first time, and I appreciate that you made this post and allowed me to support you in our Community. I hope these resources are helpful to you and answer your questions.

• Originally the Specialty exams were created with only 40 questions and without score reports, but the exams will be updated and published in 2024 with 65 questions and with the section level score reports. 
• You are able to take each exam version three times, attempts do not ‘carry-over’ to the next version. Our retake policy is outlined on our website: https://www.esri.com/training/certification/#policies. After clicking the tab for Retake Policy, additional information is available.

When deciding to take a specialty exam, we have an article: Esri Specialty Level Certification Exams and ArcGIS Developer Exams Levels Versions that could assist you in determining if an exam is right for you.

Let's ask our community of ArcGIS professionals provide their advice on going forward. 

[JacobHartle2 · Accepted solution]

Hey @Jim_Wei 

I agree that the lack of a score breakdown makes it difficult to know what to improve, but I am glad that they will be making some improvements to the exam and have one in a future version. Without having that breakdown, one way I might think about it is when you were taking the exam, were there any questions you felt you knew the answer right away or were there some where you were between a couple of answers? Were there any similarities in the subjects of those questions (e.g. sharing, visualizing, analyzing)? If you can identify those, I think that would be a good place to do some more studying in preparing to take the exam again.

I hope this helps!

Best,

Jacob