Google Analytics Individual Qualification

“I am qualified?”. Months of using Google Analytics and two weeks of studying “Google Conversion University” and “Google’s Help Center”, I’ve passed the Google Analytics Individual Qualification Exam.

What does it mean to be qualified though?

I’m still struggling to find out that answer as well.  However, I now
feel justified for taking the time while at work to study Google
Analytics material and the time I spent studying while at the comfort
of my own home.

(Thanks to Newfangled for always advocating personal growth and development even during work hours.)

The rest of the blog post will discuss preparation for the exam as well as what to expect before and after the exam. 

Exam details
Length: 90 minutes

Passing score: 75% out of 90 questions. (67.5/90)

Your reward?: A snazzy “protected” certificate from Google, a sense of accomplishment, and enough Google knowledge to devise new ways to measure how successful your website can/will be.

Material covered?: Google Analytics.

Cost: $50.

How I studied for the exam?

(please note : I only got a 91% on the exam, so there is definitely room for improvement.)

Step 1:

Set up a test environment for yourself. Make sure to have a test Google Analytics account available while going through the study material. The best way to learn is to do it yourself.

Step 2:

Go through Conversion University videos. (yes, all of them!) Conversion University videos

Step 3:

Pay special attention to the following topics while going through Conversion University :

High

• Types of Cookies
• Autotagging vs. Manual Tagging (relates to Adwords)
• E-commerce
• Adwords, and the subtle differences it has from Analytics

Medium

• Customizing Javascript to segment data
• How to link Domains with Subdomains?
• Setting up Goals
• Regular Expressions
• Filters

Low

• User control and managing profiles
• Various Google Reports

How do you know you’re ready?

If/when you go through Conversion University and you understand the videos, and can actually set up what they’re demo’ing yourself.

Step 4:

While taking the exam, understand that you can set questions as marked or simply leave it blank to address later. Therefore, my method was to answer
as many questions as possible while keeping a note of which questions I skipped. In the end, I had finished 55-60 questions I was positive I had answered correctly. I then had 30-45 minutes left to go back and address all the questions I had left unanswered/marked. When I had finished the exam, there were only 5 minutes left to spare.

My score? ended up as 82/90 = 91%.

Unfortunately, even after you’ve completed the exam, Google refuses to tell you exactly what answers you had gotten incorrect. Here is a screenshot of the
page you’re brought to after completing the exam.

Resources to use while taking the exam:

Tool to build a regex to filter an IP range.

Google API, the various tracking options Google offers.

Cookies, what Google uses and how they use them.

Google, of course.

If you have any questions about the material, feel free to post it as a comment and I’ll try to answer in a timely matter.