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What is the Excel Expert Exam?

Microsoft offers two Excel certifications: Excel Associate and Excel Associate. The Excel Expert certification is more advanced than the Excel Associate certification and requires knowledge of of tools like Macros, specialized charts, complex formulas and advanced formatting.  To receive the expert certification, you must pass the Excel Expert (or MO-201) exam. You can find a full list of the skills tested on the MO-201 exam here. 

Why I took the Excel expert exam

I have been building reports and dashboards in Excel since about 2012. By now, I have a long track record of using Excel to solve real-world problems. So why did I choose to take the excel exam in 2022?

As you can probably tell, I was quite confident in my Excel mastery, even before I took the exam. I really have been building dashboards and reports in Excel for a long time, and I have always been able to solve any problems I encountered along the way.  That said, I primarily learned Excel on the job, not through classes or workshops. This means there were some Excel features I never learned to use simply because I never needed to.

Preparing for the Excel expert exam felt like a good way to eliminate any lingering gaps in my knowledge. I also knew passing the exam would provide a nice boost to my confidence, which is never a bad things when you work as an independent consultant.  

How I prepared for the exam

Microsoft doesn’t offer any training resources for the Excel expert exam, so it is up to each individual to create their own study plan. I used a course on LinkedIn Learning called “Cert Prep: Excel Expert 2019 and office 365”.  (Sidenote: The amazing Boston Public Library has a subscription to LinkedIn Learning, so I was able to access the course for free. I love public libraries!)

The course consisted of just under 5 hours of videos. The videos were split into four 4 main sections, and each section included a included a timed practice exercise. The course also included full-length, timed practice exam.

I watched most of the videos twice and completed all the exercises – mostly successfully. As it turns out, the prep exercises that came with the course were a lot harder than the actual exam.  I still haven’t decided if that was a good thing or just very, very annoying. (Probably both.)

Was this the best way to prepare? I have absolutely no idea, but it worked for me.  The practice exercises I completed were so difficult that I went into the exam more than half convinced I would fail. In reality, the exam was a breeze, and I passed easily on my first try.

Upsides: what I liked about taking the Excel Expert exam

Overall, I really enjoyed the process of earning the Excel Expert certification. It gave me the chance to master some features I had never used and refresh some I hadn’t trotted out in a long time. It also provided a welcome boost to my confidence and  validation of my skills.

Here are some my favorite things about the process:

• Mastering some new formulas.  I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I had never used the SWITCH function until I started preparing for the exam. Why had I never heard of this glorious, wonderful function? I don’t know, but I use it all the time now. I picked up a couple of other new formulas, too. This was a definite win!

• Retiring some bad habits.  Back in the dark ages of Excel 2010, I became very very good at writing complex, nested IF statements. There’s nothing wrong with nested IF statements per se, but these days they aren't always the best option. Preparing for the exam forced me into the habit of using more intuitive alternatives like IFS instead.

• Dusting off some old skills. For reasons I won’t go into here, I don’t use pivot tables & charts very often in my work. Preparing for the exam gave me the chance to review some advanced pivot functionality that I hadn’t used in a long time. It was also great to practice using Macros, which I also don’t use very often in my day-to-day work.

• Diving deep on custom number formats. I really thought I understood custom number formats. I was wrong. In the real world, I may never need to create a highly complex custom number format, but I had a very geeky good time playing with exotic colors and crazy unit labels.

Downsides: What the exam doesn’t do so well.

• Archaic features.. Some of the features included in the Excel Expert exam are, well…not super useful in the real world. The most obvious example is the Scenario Manager. It is clunky and unintuitive, and there are much more elegant ways to toggle between different outputs.

• Newer features. I would argue that the most important update to Excel recent years is the streamlining the way it handles array functions (No more curly brackets!) Built-in array functions like UNIQUE, SORT and FILTER can operate on sets of values, not just single cells. This makes them a game changer for any Excel power user. Because they were introduced recently, they are not yet included in the Excel Expert exam. This is a big miss, and I hope they will be added soon.

• Tool knowledge does not make someone a good analyst. Yes, passing the Excel expert exam requires a deep knowledge of Excel’s functionality.  But being a good analyst requires a lot more than tool expertise. For example, knowing how to create a dual axis chart in Excel isn’t the same as knowing that using a dual axis chart is almost always a bad idea. (Seriously.)  The Excel expert exam measures an important skill set but also a very narrow one.

Verdict: was it worth it?

Yes, I am glad that I took the Excel expert exam. I learned some new features and formulas, which I was immediately able to apply to client projects. I now feel more confident that there aren’t any meaningful gaps in my knowledge of Excel. And if I spent time practicing some features that I will never use, I’m OK with that.

What’s more, Passing the exam requires real expertise in Excel. To successfully pass the exam, you must have a firm grasp of advanced features, formulas, and visualizations. The exam is timed, so you must also be able navigate Excel quickly. Passing the Excel expert exam is not easy.

Whether you are an employer evaluating a potential hire or an Excel user considering taking the Excel expert exam, know that the Excel Expert certification does have real value. At the same time, remember that it isn’t a substitute for other types of expertise like data visualization design best practices or the ability to listen and ask thoughtful questions.

Taken alongside other expertise, the Excel expert certification is a great addition to anyone’s resume. I’m very glad to be able to officially call myself and Excel expert!  🎉🎉🎉