Esri Certification Exam Development
The purpose of this article is to introduce you to Esri Technical Certification exam development and show you how you can view, RVSP, and receive notifications to participate in future exam development opportunities through our Exam Development Participation board.
What is Exam Development?
To ensure that our certification exams are of the highest quality, align with the Esri software best practices, and meet the needs of the GIS Industry, our exams are updated routinely, every 18-24 months. To ensure we meet these standards, we seek the participation of qualified candidates within the ArcGIS community during exam development.
Additionally, as we update and publish new exams versions, old exam versions are retired 6 months later, meaning candidates can no longer register to take that exam and must pursue the latest exam version instead (please note: Esri Technical Certifications never expire, just the exam versions). You can learn more about exam retirement here.
As these exams are developed and eventually retired, they go through different exam states. These states are considered exam milestones that occur prior to and following our exams being published and made available to the public.
Esri Exam States
The state of an exam can be found on the Exam Details page. Visit Esri Academy and click an exam card to view exam details and see the exam state.
The exam states are:
- In Development – This phase is when we are completing the exam’s blueprint survey portion of our exam development process. Learn more about our Blueprint Surveys here.
- In Beta Testing – The beta exam is an exam development phase that allows candidates to part of the first group to achieve a new Esri Technical Certification. Learn more about Beta Exams here.
- Available to Public – All phases of exam development are complete and the new certification is published and ready for exam registration.
- Pending Retirement – A newer version of the exam is available, and the current version will be retired from Esri Academy and our exam proctoring vendor Pearson VUE’s website 6 months after the new version is released. Candidates are no longer able to take this exam. Learn more about exam retirement here.
Esri Exam Development Participation Opportunities
We highly encourage qualified candidates and Esri-certified individuals to participate in exam development! Individuals that participate in both phases of exam development (blueprint survey and beta exam) provide valuable feedback that directly informs the content that will be published on the exam.
In addition to this, candidates who participate in 3 exam development within a one-year period for any of our exams in development are eligible to receive an Exam Development Subject Matter Expert (SME) badge that can be added to your email signatures, LinkedIn profile, etc. Learn ore about our Exam Development SME program here!
How to Participate in Exam Development:
- Visit Exam Development Participation in Esri Community.
- Click on upcoming events to view participation details and assess whether your current knowledge and skills align to participate.
- If you plan to participate, click ‘Yes’ under “Will you be attending?” to RSVP and receive a notification when the exam development participation window opens.
- Ensure your Esri Community settings are properly configured to receive these notifications via email by following the information outlined here.
- Participate in 3 or more exam development activities within a one-year period to earn an Exam Development SME badge.
Stay Connected
We encourage you to subscribe to Esri Technical Certification in Esri Community and ask questions about our program here.