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Re: CLAD Exam Experiences

SercoSteveB
Active Participant

As at least a couple of 'The Daily CLAD' regulars have now sat the NI Certified LabVIEW Associate Developer exam,  I thought I would create this post so that people can comment on their experiences.

 

Some things which I would like to know are listed below, but please feel free to comment with anything you feel is relevant:

 

  1. Comment on their experiences
  2. Views on the exam
  3. Exam format (40 questions in 1 hour, PC or Paper based etc.)
  4. Future topics to cover in 'The Daily CLAD'
 

 

CLAD 2017 Preparation Resources

CLAD Preparation Guide using LabVIEW 2017

LabVIEW and DAQ evaluation resource from mon3am

 

Training Links from Hooovahh via the Unofficial Forum Rules and Guidelines document

Hardware Basics

LabVEW Basics

DAQ Application Tutorials

3 Hour LabVIEW Introduction

 

CLD Preparation Resources

Study Guide and Sample Exams

 

Following the update to the CLAD Exam in July 2017 the links below are no longer available.

An excellent collation of the CLAD Preparation material available from NI.

Check out the Sample CLAD exams on ni.com; the Answer Sheet, at the end, includes links to information relating to each question, which is really cool (no link to 'The Daily CLAD' though....not so cool).

http://download.ni.com/pub/devzone/epd/clad_sample_exam1.pdf

http://ftp.ni.com/pub/devzone/epd/clad_sample_exam2.pdf

Lots of resources here from Jarda

More resources here from HuiRu

 

Comments
SercoSteveB
Active Participant

Congratulations LGelmi, nice one.   Thanks for your hints and tips, some useful information in there.

 

Ah the Friday Mind Bender....oh the nostalgia.

alexlim
Member

Just had my first attempt for CLAD this morning but failed mainly due to LV Environment section. Personally, I greatly recommend getting the LV Programming Fundamental Badge(https://learn.ni.com/badges/resources/987/labview-programming-fundamentals) first by taking the assessment and only after that then you proceed to schedule your CLAD test, for first-timers.

Sadly I am only exposed to the link above yesterday and didn't pass that assesment too. Other than the Core1&2, "Daily CLAD" help me in learning varies function. While for the question in the preparation guide, it is more direct and easier compared to the CLAD test.    

I believe as long you can pass the fundamental assesment and have also covered most of the topics in the preparation guide, should be sufficient. Will try the CLAD test again after I have more practice.     

OliviaMcCafferty
Member

Hi, all! I sat for my CLAD exam for the first time yesterday. It was online, 65 minutes (5 of which were to look over and sign the NDA), and 40 questions. I passed! I really, really recommend taking the badge assessments, specifically the following:

These assessments are 15 questions and you need an 85% to pass. The more times you take it, the more questions you get to see as they are drawn from a question bank. Because of this I wouldn't recommend passing your 1st or 2nd time. Once you pass you can no longer take the assessment, the more times you take it, the more questions you get to see. Some of the questions in these assessments are in the Prep Guide and I definitely saw similar if not identical ones on the actual exam.

 

Other than the assessments, I also took the Core 1 and Core 2 classes as well as studying the prep guide and The Daily CLAD questions.

 

Thanks, Steve for the work you put into The Daily CLAD, it definitely served as a great resource during my studying!

DeXteR_INIT
Member

Greetings Steve,
Passed my CLAD exam yesterday. Just wanted to drop in and say Thank You. Your posts helped me a lot.

SercoSteveB
Active Participant

Congratulations DeXter_INIT, nice one!  Do you have any hints and tips to add to this thread?

SercoSteveB
Active Participant

Hi alexlim, apologies for not responding to your post.  Thanks for the tip about the LV Programming Fundamentals Badge.  Good luck next time with the CLAD.

SercoSteveB
Active Participant

Congratulations OliviaMcCafferty, nice one! 

 

Apologies for not responding to your post.  Thanks for the tip about not passing the badge assessments first time (😉).

EddyMcIntosh
Member

I have just passed CLAD yesterday as well. 

What I prepared myself is similar to  OliviaMcCafferty

 

All 6 badges were taken a month before the exam, I would say 80% of the questions are similar to the badges exam.

 

 

 

SercoSteveB
Active Participant

Congratulations EddyMcIntosh, nice one!

 

You did six badges whereas OliviaMcCafferty lists five, what was your additional badge?

EddyMcIntosh
Member

Thank you, SercoSteveB

Yeh, an additional badge is LabVIEW Syntax. 

 

And, this is a link https://www.exam-labs.com/exam/CLAD  to the example examinations, there are 80 questions to try, at least you will know how far you can pass the real exam. Please note that those questions in the link is much easier than the real exam. You need to get an 80% pass at least just in case. 

 

Have a nice day 🙂

ibrncfe
Member

Thanks, Steve, SercoSteveB
I have passed my exam CLAD two days ago, Your questions helped me a lot in my work and exam too. Now I can see my experience became different from the past.

 

https://www.youracclaim.com/earner/earned/badge/8f14d3e8-14f6-4452-8c43-37140535d15b 

avega
Member

Hello guys,

I have been practicing for my CLAD exam and I would like to know if anyone had a problem taking the online test with PSI. I will use my laptop for the test from home.

 

 

crossrulz
Knight of NI

There have been issues that are supposedly now resolved.  Due note that you will have to use Chrome and you will have to install the plugin when you start the sign in process.


GCentral
There are only two ways to tell somebody thanks: Kudos and Marked Solutions
Unofficial Forum Rules and Guidelines
"Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God" - 2 Corinthians 3:5
ibrncfe
Member

Hello avega,
I passed exam 6 days ago with PSI, they took long time when checking and connecting to proctor, but you should wait and never give up and everything will be ok.
thanks
 

LANDCO
Member

Hi, just wanted to thank you Steve for all the examples that you have posted. 
Also, I want to ask if anyone knows where I can see my official CLAD certificate with the serial number, I only recived a Acclaim badge. 

Thank again for the support!

certified-labview-associate-developer.png

User002
Not applicable

I just passed the CLAD exam (Happy CLAD! - It sounds like a cheesy holiday greeting.). Here are the details:

  • 40 questions in 1 hour (once the actual exam had started). I took the test online via PSI.
    • Spoiler
      • I had to do 3-4 camera sweeps of the room because some things needed to be cleared off the desk (some were taped in place...that was a pain). I was in a conference room at work, and the proctor had me turn off/unplug the "always on" devices: phone, TVs, and touchscreen controller for the room. (The IT department hasn't come after me yet, but if I never post here again, you'll know why. 😉)
      • I took the exam on a 15" laptop - I had to stoop when looking close to my screen to make sure my whole face was in the webcam view the whole time. (That hurt my neck a little.) I was allowed to keep my laptop charger plugged in to my laptop the whole test.
      • To answer a question, I had to click the answer I wanted and then click "Answer" at the bottom of the question.
      • I was able to review any question at any throughout the exam by clicking on the question number on a navigation bar at the bottom.
      • If I had already answered a question, the question would show with a dark overlay. To change my answer, I had to push the "Edit" button in the bottom right. To clear an answer, I had to push "Clear" (same place as "Edit") after clicking "Edit" (or before clicking "Answer").
      • After I clicked "Answer" on the last question, a pop-up came up allowing me to exit the exam or return to it. If I wasn't paying attention, I could have clicked out on accident. Instead, if to review some questions, I clicked to return to the exam.
      • To review a question I had flagged, I had to manually use the navigation bar to go back to them - It didn't automatically jump me to my flagged questions (which I've seen on some other testing software).
  • These are the resources I would recommend for studying:

 

Spoiler
  • (These resources help a lot, too)
    • The Daily CLAD (Like, seriously. It gets you "Thinking" in LabVIEW. Go through these and try to answer them on your own before reviewing the posted answers.)
    • Online training (If you have access to it)
    • Experience!
      • There's a reason the CLAD exam recommendation is to have 6 months of experience, or three months with Core 1 and Core 2 (AND Data Acquisition Using NI-DAQmx and LabVIEW!!!!!)
      •  If you think you don't have anything to do that will give you experience, try these:
        • Make up some projects (especially at home using LabVIEW Community edition)
        • Read through the questions on the LabVIEW forum and try answering a few. Even if you don't know the answers, seeing what the experts there say will help you learn best practices, which will teach you to be better at LabVIEW.

 

 

SercoSteveB
Active Participant

Congratulations ibrncfe, nice one!

SercoSteveB
Active Participant

Congratulations LANDCO, nice one!

 

I have no idea where the certificates can be found (in my day NI emailed them).  Maybe ping an email to certification@ni.com?

SercoSteveB
Active Participant

Congratulations joeorobob, nice one!

 

Thanks for the detail in your post, that'll be useful to a lot of people I am sure....and welcome to The Daily CLAD marketing team!

 

 

User002
Not applicable

I forgot to mention one more thing about my online testing experience, but it's more applicable in another thread, so here's a link to my other post.

 

TL;DR - For my online test, I needed two chrome extensions: One for video streaming, another for remote proctoring.

User002
Not applicable

Hi everyone, 

 

Four days ago, I took the online CLAD exam via PSI and I also passed it. joeorbob already provided some details about what it is like to take the online exam, e.g. initially presenting your room via webcam to really make clear that your desk is cleared. Nevertheless, everything went fine in my case and I did not experience e.g. technical difficulties.

 

I really would like to thank SercoSteveB and all the other people that were involved in creating "The Daily CLAD" blog, and in keeping it running. It helped me a lot in preparing for the CLAD exam (and in boosting my LabVIEW-knowledge). 

 

A special tip for the people who usually struggle with finishing exams in time (including myself):

Try to simulate the exam. Set a timer to 1 hour and then try to solve as many questions from e.g. the "The Daily CLAD" blog as possible. Practice that a few times. The aim is to answer as many question as possible (at least: 40) within 1 hour, and to have as may answers correct as possible (at least: 70%).

SercoSteveB
Active Participant

Congratulations Yannic_R, nice one!

 

That is a good tip about practising for the exam, being comfortable under the time pressure is a big advantage.

nschluep1
Member

Thanks to @SercoSteveB I was able to pass the CLAD exam!!!

To practice for the exam I mainly did questions from The Daily CLAD and went through Cores 1 & 2. Around a week before the exam I did some of the badges recommended by people on this thread (If I were to do it again I would probably have started practicing those earlier). 

 

Thank you again @SercoSteveB for putting so much work into The Daily CLAD!

diarmaede
Active Participant

Hi nschluep1. Great job! Thanks for the update. Could you let us know a few of the badges you did? It would be handy to have a list in one location.

Forbes Black
Lapsed CLAD, LV 5 - LV 2022 (Yeah, I'm that old...)