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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Prepare Data for Exploration by Google

4.8
stars
20,777 ratings

About the Course

This is the third course in the Google Data Analytics Certificate. As you continue to build on your understanding of the topics from the first two courses, you’ll be introduced to new topics that will help you gain practical data analytics skills. You’ll learn how to use tools like spreadsheets and SQL to extract and make use of the right data for your objectives, and how to organize and protect your data. Current Google data analysts will continue to instruct and provide you with hands-on ways to accomplish common data analyst tasks with the best tools and resources. Learners who complete this certificate program will be equipped to apply for introductory-level jobs as data analysts. No previous experience is necessary. By the end of this course, learners will: - Find out how analysts decide what data to collect for analysis. - Learn about structured and unstructured data, data types, and data formats. - Discover how to identify different types of bias in data to help ensure data credibility. - Explore how analysts use spreadsheets and SQL within databases and data sets. - Examine open data and the relationship between, and importance of, data ethics and data privacy. - Gain an understanding of how to access databases and extract, filter, and sort the data they contain. - Learn best practices for organizing data and keeping it secure....

Top reviews

RA

Aug 10, 2022

The lessons were easy to follow through and the explanantions were easy to understand. The hands-on practices also helped improve hands-on skills with the data analysis tools introduced in this course

DD

Jul 4, 2021

Thank you for the course! It's a nice introduction to SQL and Google Big Query as well as the concepts of data privacy and security. The course also offers some great tips for professional networking.

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51 - 75 of 3,241 Reviews for Prepare Data for Exploration

By Gabriel L

Apr 14, 2021

I really enjoy the format of the course. It was not overwhelming especially for someone who has no experience In data analytics.

By Raven D

Aug 20, 2022

The SQL section was difficult to follow because a lot of the answers included functions that were not introduced to us outside of the SELECT, FROM, WHERE functions (SUM, COUNT(*), etc.). I think the SQL section could use some work for complete beginners to understand better.

The networking section also felt completely out of place with the rest of this course's content. I believe it should be placed in a section about getting a job about a data analyst, because it kind of throws off the pace of the rest of the course.

The forced Kaggle sign up and work ins were also a drawback for me. I didn't like being forcced to sign up for a service in order to proceed with the course. I understand its a useful tool; however, it shouldn't be tied to my progression in the course.

All in all, still really great info! I enjoyed the course as a whole. I believe with some improvements, it could definitely be 5 stars.

By Patricia R

Sep 28, 2022

A lot of students have been having issues for at least a week now (today is 9-28) with regards to the dataset noaa_lightning during the BigQuery/database portion. There were a number of posts on the Discussion forums and it seems that the standard response from the Mentor was a "Sorry for your grievance...etc... we have forwarded this issue...etc...we will get back to you." It has been a week since that issue occured. Seems like the exercise is referencing a dataset that may have been removed but it doesn't seem as if anything is being done to resolve it?

Also, there were so many videos in this course. I feel like some of them could have just been plain reading material.

By Gerald E

Jan 18, 2022

A lot of substantive material. BigQuery account should be automatically included with the relevant lesson. Why does one need to provide a mobile phone number to set up a BigQuery account? Alternative services to BigQuery should be prominently listed, not buried at the bottom of the last page. Lecturers should use better grammar and not frequently say "THERE'S lots of different ways to collect it," when the sentence should be "THERE ARE lots of ways to collect it."

By Carla P

Feb 11, 2022

Creo que va muy rapido a utilizar herramientas como Kaggle y Bigquery sin antes tener explicación de los lenguajes que se utilizan en ellos. La interfaz de estas herrramientas puede ser muy abrumadora para quien recien conoce este mundo.

By Mary D

Apr 19, 2022

I will give this 2 stars because I feel like I gained some good knowledge and experience. Week 3 is completely unorganized. Please see the forum for the difficulties students have faced. Comments are several months old and the course material has still not been updated.

I had at least two major inconveniences that cost me a lot of time (and money) that could have been easily avoided had the material been corrected. One of my questions has not even been responded to by a moderator after 6 days. As for another question that I thoroughly detailed, an incorrect solution was posted, so I feel like someone didn't even take the time to thorougly read my question. The flow is also out of order for at least one of the readings.

By Raf

Aug 8, 2024

m2 is USELESS m3 couldn't be even more useless. Here they introduce bigquery to “Teach” SQL. And Bigquery is shit and it's locked inside a paywall. bigquery sandbox’s whole interface is diarrhoea. in m4 they teach you to organize files in folders. I AM NOT KIDDING! It's tough to say anything positive about this course. Obviously, they introduced new stuff and taught some new things. But I don't know how important those are in the long run.

By Autumn P

Oct 4, 2022

This is a great course for anyone that isn't sure about setting up a LinkdIn account and wanting to learn how to network. It also touches on how to properly name files and organize work as you go along. Most videos could be condensed into one longer video instead of 4-5 videos that are only a couple minutes long.

By Nada R

Jul 6, 2022

The Google Data Analytics courses are entry level courses, suitable for those new to the field of IT and have little work experience. They are introductory courses with very little hands on or practical learning, the learning material os highly focused on definitions and is very repetitive at times.

By Megan H

Mar 19, 2022

Instructor spoke fast at times when covering detailed information. More hands on examples of SQL would have been helpful. The task of writing SQL before providing instructing what SUM or COUNT or DEFINE is out of order. The reading should have come before the hands on activity in week three.

By Alessandra W

Jan 11, 2023

Large parts of the module seem mostly designed to sell the Google-owned BigQuery through out of date tutorials, and the actual in depth instruction on SQL is sorely lacking. Hopefully the in-depth instruction will be covered in later modules

By Beth a

Sep 29, 2022

This was the most frustrating module so far. The BigQuery modules were out of date and like many other students in the forum and on social media, we ended up guessing answers or using multiple other ways to learn.

By James P V

Aug 24, 2022

I found this particularly dry and struggled to stay motivated. Perhaps a little more SQL excercises would have made it more interesting. Too much theory and definitions to get my head around.

By Martin R

Sep 5, 2022

I found this course very redudant and slow. I don't think it was particularly useful.

By Marcelo D

Jul 13, 2021

Less than half of the content was actually about preparing data.

By Eric G

Jun 10, 2022

Not sure i'm learning anything substantial so far

By Bones V

Sep 18, 2022

Not the best course on preparing data. There are not a lot of practice problems or questions. They give you one example for each thing and then expect that you learned something. The next course isn't any better. I will have no choice than to pay for someone else to explain SQL and BigQuery to me, or search on YouTube for free resources. The course was sold to me in a way that I did not need any prior knowledge to succeed in the course material. The SQL and BigQuery education offered in this course and the other courses is not sufficient and is expensive. YouTube has some resources to supplement help where this course is lacking. I'm already almost halfway through these courses, so I do not want to stop. I want to learn this material, but the material is dated and doesn't reflect helpful information in a streamline kind of way. If the course is for math majors or computer science majors, then you need to put that in the description. The description can't say, NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED, it should say "Some SQL knowledge needed" or "Have you ever used BigQuery?" I typically have class for 4 hours a day 3 days a week, and I am skipping class today to do exploratory lessons on BigQuery that Coursera did not offer in these courses. These courses should be for free.

By Janessa J H

Feb 6, 2023

I have very much enjoyed the other classes in the Data Analytics certificate, but abut 70% of the way through this course, the learner is asked to complete SQL tasks that are much harder and more complicated than the previous SQL tasks, and there is no clear way that the learner was supposed to develop the SQL proficiency. Almost all of the practice problems on the previous SQL modules were SELECT * and then they ask you to do work problems that were never taught before such as "How many distinct bike_ids had trip durations greater than 2400 seconds?" where somehow the learner should know about SELECT COUNT (DISTINCT bike_id) AS num_of_bike_trips. This was never taught prior to this module. It's also frustrating that there's essentially nowhere to go for help when you have an issue. I'm not even sure if anyone will read this piece of feedback. I'm an instructional designer and this was really poor instructional design!

By Theresa R

Mar 6, 2024

OMG I don't even know where to start. The content of this certificate is overly bloated with ridiculous notions and concepts which are completely irrelevant to *actual* data analytics skills. I'm dropping out in course 3 after spending HOURS learning NOTHING of importance. I can now perform a small handful of incredibly basic operations in spreadsheets, but I have NO CLUE WHY I'm performing these operations or how this even remotely applies to real data analytics. I've learned a whole bunch of propogandist crap about "data" and the stupid terms theorists use to describe and categorize it. Completely useless in real-life situations. I DO NOT RECOMMEND taking this course if you are interested in learning anything worthwhile!

By mark m

Apr 29, 2021

The hands-on assignments are a dumpster fire and support isn't much better. My BigQuery Applying SQL assignment in the Sandbox looks nothing like the instructions. Maybe the instructions are obsolete. When learners post to the forums asking for prompt (prompt, so we don't fall behind schedule) technical help, replies from staff are unhelpful or ineffectual.

By Armchair S

Jan 10, 2023

Outdated video material that does not match up with the current changes with BigQuery have rendered the educational process into a standstill. No ability to contact anyone and receive help creates a major Catch-22 and now represents a waste of time and money since am unable to move forward with the education.

By Thanapol P

Aug 11, 2022

one of the worst classes I have ever learned. no recap the session. no adding text due to the different versions of the software. the example given was also bad. I don't even want to remember the name of the instructor.

By Isidoro C

Apr 8, 2021

the course is unprofessional, it has many subjective insights that are taken as the only possible answers to a problem. it also covers little relevant topics.

By Sebastian G

Dec 24, 2021

Google course lacks of the real skills that allow you to become a data analyst

By Joy I

Apr 22, 2022

Week 3 did not match with the bigquery website