Wednesday 19 December 2012

CBIP - Last exam done - IS Core

Last Friday I passed the last of my CBIP exams - the IS Core one.
I got 71%, just above the "Mastery" threshold - great! :)

I was quite dreading this exam; however in the end I found it relatively easy. Right after the exam I thought I would get about 80% of the answers right but nevertheless I was happy with my result.

In terms of preparation material, this exam is a tricky one. It is really large in scope so you can't really prepare in-depth in all of the examination areas.

My strategy was to 1) rely on my experience, 2) make sure I knew the examination topics as per the CBIP exam guide. For the areas I didn't know, I looked up the topics on Wikipedia. I saved a bunch of exam-relevant articles as a .pdf file. You can download it here: Link


I also read one book - Laudon: Management Information Systems. The book wasn't bad but it is more of a course book for college students. The book is very broad in scope and doesn't dig too much into detail. Some chapters on the topics I haven't much touched on before were useful to me but if you have practical experience in most of them, the book will not teach you much. I went through most of it and at the end, I have to admit, I was quite glad it was over.

So there it is. I'm very happy that i did this certification. I honestly learned a lot from it and it should look nice on my CV :).
Good luck to you if you're in the process of preparing for the exams. Let me know if you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to help.

15 comments:

  1. Had a question Pete, now that it has been a while, what are your thoughts on CBIP? Would you still recommend this as the best BI certification? Or are there others that you would recommend? I am planning to jump in myself have about 15 years in SQL/DB/DW/BI so thinking that this might help me more. Thanks for your inputs and your excellent blobs.

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    1. Hi Anon,
      Yes, I'm glad I've done this certification - I did learn quite a bit in that process. Prior to doing the CBIP I had more Finance than IT background. It's therefore difficult for me to judge how useful it would be for you after 15 years in the DW/BI field. Having said that, from what I've seen I would say that the CBIP is indeed the best vendor-neutral DW/BI certification.
      Hope that helps, let me know if you have more questions.
      Pete

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  2. Ah thanks for the info, is there order in writing the Exams , i want to specialize in Bi Analytics?

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    Replies
    1. No, you can take the exam in any order you want. Good luck with it

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  3. Congrats Pete :) , Im a freshman to DWBI field, having limited experience(3yrs). So, i cant rely too much in my work experience alone, can you sggest some alternatives.?

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    1. Thanks Manoj. You actually have more experience than me when I took the exam. Just go through some of the books in the exam reading material (have a look at the ones which I recommended) and you should be find. Good luck, Pete

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  4. Hi Pete, Can u share me the CBIP Examination guide PDF...For starting teh preparation, the first step would be CBIP Examination guide right?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Mukul,
      I don't have the guide in PDF sorry. And yes, it is the first step in the preparation. It is a bit pricey but it is worth having for the exam.

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  5. Hi Pete, I'll like to congratulate you on your achievements. I'm three years old in BI and I'll like to sat for the CBIP exams. Pls kindly reshare the 'exam-relevant articles as a .pdf files' that you used for your practise. I can see its a dropbox link bt cant access it. my email is thoseen4real@gmail.com

    Regards

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  6. Congratulations Peter !!
    also thanks for sharing your thoughts and motivating for CBIP certification.

    I got to know about this certification few days back and started searching material for that .. unfortunately I didn't find recommended book locally. all are US edition.

    I would say, I am lucky to find your blog on this and trying to open the dropbox link which you shared but it seems permission issue..the message says "Disabled Link"

    Could you please share it again or grant access to aseri.mahendra@gmail.com

    Thank you in advance.

    Regards,
    Mahendra

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  7. Hello all,

    I reactivate the Dropbox link to the pdf. For some reason it went dead.

    Best, Peter

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  8. Hi Pete, I read somewhere that to be named as CBIP certified, we need to complete 3 exams. Is that how it is? Also would like to know about the recognition that you received after completing this exam.
    Regards,
    Shyam

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    Replies
    1. Hi Shyam, yes that is correct - you need to pass the 3 exams (2 mandatory ones and 1 of your choice) in order to receive the CBIP certification.

      In terms of recognition, I think it helped me with my carreer choices but mainly I would say it helped me broaden my knowledge in this area. The benefits will be dependent on your background though so you will have to judge the utility for yourself.

      Best regards,
      Pete

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  9. Hi Pete,
    Would you please reactivate the Dropbox link to the pdf.
    Thanks!

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  10. Hi Petet I am preparing for the CBIP exams. Please kindly share the 'exam-relevant articles as a .pdf files' that you used for your practice.

    ReplyDelete