I passed a Data Science Entry Test

You read the title right. And it is not a lie! I just completed a Data Entry Online Course Entry Test and passed, with just a 1% increment point above the pass mark. Here’s how it went down.

For the past few days, I have been browsing through the Internet in such of online courses that are offered for free by various universities, and they are quite a lot of them. I realized this when I was first introduced to the first one at my current place of work in my professional field. They are courses offered by Philanthropy University but for specialization in the field of Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation. They are self-paced most of the time and when you score above the pass mark, you are immediately awarded a certificate, which is internationally recognized. It is a great way to market yourself and equip yourself with necessary skills in the professional world. I am quite sure there are other courses that are offered free in your field. All it needs from you is to look.

As I was saying, I stumbled across free online courses offered by WorldQuant University. As you can tell by the name, most of the courses specialize in quantitative data and so on. I was quite intrigued and so decided to give it a shot. Keep in mind that I have no prior knowledge on data science. I browsed through the courses and came across one which was receiving applications called ‘Applied Data Science Lab’. I read through course requirements and it was only one: pass the Entry Test with a minimum score of 66%. That was too easy, I thought. I mean, what is the hardest thing they can ask here. I had come this far and I hadn’t realized that most courses offered are to do with Data Science. I just felt that I was in said field and there were other various courses offered from other fields – I would later browse through them.

I was in a work meeting when I opened the Test tab so I decided to wait. We had some deliverables to follow up after the meeting and so, I reopened the tab again after our lunch break. It was a 45-minute test and I got a bit scared. However, it pointed out that some people do it in less that 20 minutes. I counted myself as those people. I am a genius, after all. To cut the long story short, I started the test, realized it was just 12 questions, when I set my eyes on the first question, BAM, the whole world fell on top of my head. I was like, what have I got myself into? The initial questions asked to find the value of x and I started regretting why I didn’t pay attention in subsidiary mathematics back in high school. I fidgeted with those two and when I read through the third question, I realized why the test is 45 minutes long. I took two minutes of reflection on my life. Then I decided to do what any genius in my situation would do. I partnered with artificial intelligence, BirdAI, to be more specific. I ended up scoring 67% and I’m currently enrolled in a Data Science course.

What is my main point here? First, I want to point out the power of artificial intelligence. It is something that isn’t really mentioned a lot in our setting but it is there, and it will change how things are done. If it can secure me a spot in an online course, just imagine what you can be able to achieve with it if you were to fully utilize it. Simply put, this AI revolution will be a huge stepping stone for those who will be able to fully utilize it. I personally don’t believe in the myth of it taking over jobs though.

I want to end this off with a challenge to you. Look at what you love to do, professionally in this case. How can you utilize artificial intelligence to better your work? I am not encouraging you to write essays based off AI. Just use it as a compliment. In my case, AI will get you a spot in a course but it is your resilience and brains that will keep you in it. Now I am off to see how I will manage the next 12 months in this course.