Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Certification Guide: Book Review

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Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Certification Guide

We are all aware that business intelligence has changed the way how data is presented nowadays. As a result, there is a huge increase in demand for BI professionals. This is because people are working toward being certified and obtaining the position. And, the top-most role in the BI field is the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst. 

The role of a Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst will help you analyze data using Power BI for discovering and unlocking data insights. You will deal with data repositories and data processes, both on-premises and in the cloud. Moreover, you will be responsible for:

  • Enabling organizations for maximizing the value of their data assets by using Power BI. 
  • Designing and building scalable data models, cleaning and transforming data, and enabling advanced analytic capabilities for providing meaningful business value. 
  • Collaborating with key vertical stakeholders for delivering relevant insights depending on identified business requirements.

If you have decided to follow this career path then data visualizations can help drive the success of your career. This role requires you to pass PL-300: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst exam. For this, we are going to have a brief review of the Power BI Data Analyst comprehensive book guide to help you become a BI Professional. 

Before that, let’s take a quick overview of the PL-300 exam.

What is the Microsoft PL-300 Exam?

Exam PL-300: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst is for those who have the ability to provide actionable insights by leveraging available data and applying domain expertise. You must have the skills to collaborate with key stakeholders over verticals for identifying business requirements, cleaning and transforming the data, and then designing and building data models by using Power BI. Further, this exam will validate your knowledge for:

  • providing meaningful business value using easy-to-understand data visualizations
  • enabling others to perform self-service analytics
  • deploying and configuring solutions for consumption. 
Knowledge requirement:
  • Microsoft PL-300 exam requires a strong knowledge of using Power Query and writing expressions by using DAX.
Exam Format:
  • There will be 40–60 questions in the PL-300: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst test.
    • The question type can be multiple-choice, scenario-based single-answer questions, and more.
  • Secondly, you need to get at least a score of 700 to pass.
  • The PL-300 test costs $165 USD and can be taken in the following languages:
    • English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Russian, Chinese (Traditional), and Italian.
Course Outline:

An updated list of topics is provided for Microsoft certification exams. Similarly for the PL-300 exam, there is a list of topics divided down into sections and subsections. Use this to establish a good study schedule so you can start your preparation immediately. However, the topics are:

  • Prepare the data (15-20%)
  • Model the data (30-35%)
  • Visualize and analyze the data (25-30%)
  • Deploy and maintain assets (20-25%)

Coming on the Power BI Data Analyst comprehensive guide!

Reviewing Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Certification Guide Book

There are many topics that must be covered in order to accomplish the objectives of a Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst. Working on a Power BI data analysis and visualization project, getting in touch with a Power BI data analyst for gaining knowledge, using Microsoft Docs, following learning paths on Microsoft Learn, or enrolling in an instructor-led training session are all examples of how to do this. But, in order to get you all these study resources to pass the PL-300 exam and become Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst, we came up with the study guide that is Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Certification Guide: A comprehensive guide by Orrin Edenfield (Author and Edward Corcoran (Author). This guide helps you through an organized preparation for the PL-300 exam. 

About the Book:

With the evolving technology sector, it is important to get advanced in the field of data to help everyone get a better understanding view. For this, Microsoft Power BI has enabled organizations in creating a rapid data-driven culture with business intelligence for all. Using this book, you will get every resource necessary for passing the PL-300 exam with confidence, and achieving the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Associate role.

Further, this book will walk you through everything such as:

  • preparing for the certification exam
  • getting started with Power BI to connect to data sources, including files, databases, cloud services, and SaaS providers
  • using Power BI’s built-in tools for building data models and producing visualizations. 

Furthermore, you will learn how to evaluate your data, prepare it for usage by business users, and maintain an enterprise environment in a safe and effective manner throughout the chapters.

Things to know:

  • The book contains 384 pages.
  • This guide is available on Amazon.
  • Thirdly, for the Kindle version, you will get typesetting and page flip options.
  • The language of the book is English.
Learning areas of the book:

This book will cover various areas such as:

Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Certification Guide Book

But, why choose this specific Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Certification Guide? Let’s find out!

Major features of the Guide

This book for Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Certification is specifically designed for data analysts and BI professionals who want to become more qualified in Microsoft Power BI. Although the information in this book will assist you in passing the PL-300 exam, there are also many more practical applications across the chapters. The main thing is there is a need for any prerequisite knowledge of Power BI. However, the other areas in which you will gain skills and knowledge include:

  • Connecting to various sources of data and preparing it.
  • Cleaning, transforming, and shaping your data for analysis.
  • Making a data model that enables the creation of insights.
  • Utilizing the features of Microsoft Power BI for analyzing data.
  • Creating visuals for making the analysis simpler.
  • Learning about managing and deploying Microsoft Power BI assets.

Editorial Reviews: Brief about the Authors

Cloud Solution Architect, Orrin Edenfield

Orrin Edenfield has 20 years of expertise developing and putting in place data & analytics solutions. Orrin contributes to Power BI problem-solving, architecture best practices, Microsoft certification exams, and more. As a Cloud Solution Architect, Orrin assists clients in overcoming technical challenges and contributes to the creation of Azure systems.

In a globally spread context, he has built and led international technical teams throughout his career. He enjoys learning about the difficulties others have because he is enthusiastic about what he does.

– Cloud Solution Architect, Ed Corcoran

Ed Corcoran has worked in data warehousing and business intelligence for the past 20 years. As a Cloud Solution Architect, Ed works with clients to design customer implementation projects that are simple to adopt and employ Microsoft data & analytics technologies to overcome technical challenges. Ed also works with product engineering to support the creation of Azure platforms and Microsoft products.

Ed has always dreamed of being a book author. The book itself is marketed as a PL-300 exam study guide by Microsoft. Further, you may use this excellent book alone to master Power BI. This book is for you if you’ve ever wanted to learn more about Microsoft’s amazing reporting tool or just wish you could do without VLOOKUP() in Excel.

Summarizing book:
Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Certification Guide

One thing that is ensured here in this book is that by the end of this book, you will be able to build and maintain reliable reports and dashboards, giving you the ability to run a data-driven business and be prepared to ace the PL-300 exam.

You can buy the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Certification Guide book from Amazon. Check here

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