Exams can come in all shapes and sizes and we want you to be as prepared as possible when you take Esri’s Technical Certification exams. While we have worked to ensure you have the resources to prepare for the content on the exam, knowing what format to expect can also be helpful.
What type of format can I expect?
- All of Esri’s Technical Certification exams are single select multiple choice with three answer options. This means there will not be any questions that are multiple selection (i.e. ‘Select all that apply…’).
- We do not offer any practical questions on our exams, meaning no software will be used during the duration of the exam to test your application or performance of the software.
- We prevent biases by following some of the below guidelines for questions:
- Wording the question positively (i.e. Not using ‘What is not the correct option…)
- Ensure the question/scenario is clear and logical
- There are no made-up words or processes in the answer choices
- Not abbreviating software names or other words
- Ensuring that all answers can point back to our documentation
Exam Delivery
Our exams are proctored by our vendor Pearson VUE and are offered as two delivery options: in-person online (OnVUE). Both delivery formats are similar in that no breaks, software, or books are allowed.
If you feel you need any accommodations for an exam, please visit our vendor, Pearson VUE’s page for details on how to get a request started and we will work closely with you to accommodate.
Exam Types: Beta and Operational
Esri offers two types of exams – beta and operational.
- Beta: Our beta exams allow us to gather initial feedback through data on how individuals performed and reviewing comments that are provided on items during the exam. Beta exams typically consist of more than 75 items and in turn are allotted more time than operational exams. This is done so we can pick the best items moving forward. For more information on Esri’s beta exams, please visit us in Esri Community and review our blogs Esri Beta Exam Comments and Esri Beta Exam FAQs.
- Operational: Our operational exams are published after reviewing all beta feedback and narrowing our items down to those that should be on the live exam. Operational exams showcase our model of 65 scored and 10 unscored items.
Scored vs Unscored Items
A new change we’ve made in 2024 is adding unscored items to each exam. Each of our exams will continue to have 65 scored items that count toward an overall grade, but the exam will have a random assortment of 10 additional unscored items, making the exams 75 total questions.
The reason for this change is to be able to quickly update future versions of the exam, so you have the most up-to-date information on them! During the exam development process, additional questions are written to be added to the unscored ‘bucket.’ We are able to run data off how well these questions perform on the beta exam and better align with your feedback from beta comments. It allows us to shorten beta exam times and update items based on your feedback. We put that feedback into action and re-publish the question as unscored to gather new test taker data before collaborating with our exam development vendor to make it an eventual scored item. You, the test taker, will not know which questions are scored or unscored.
What preparation resources does Esri offer?
