Certified Solidworks Associate & Professional

I have 10 years of professional experience using Solidworks. In constructing large-scale custom-designed cryogenic UHV (ultra-high-vacuum) experimental probe stations. Which involves thousands of components of varying length scale from fraction of inches to a few feet, as well as actual assembly / testing / trouble-shooting of each components into intermediate modules, and finally to a final station.

Dassault Systèmes, manufacturer of 

Solidworks, offers certificate exam for user proficiency in three levels: certified associate / professional / expert, of course in increasing difficulty. According to Solidworks, as of today, there are 226007 associate, 98971 professional, and 3642 experts worldwide.

I was long aware of the the certificates. I also already reached levels to pass professional exams with little additional preparation, but only recently attempted.

In my experience, associate exam was quite easy. Parts were relatively straightforward to design. I finished the exam in a little over half of the given time. But professional exam demanded much higher level of proficiency. You have to pass three sections: parts / configurations / assemblies. The later two sections were not that hard, although you need to be familiar with minor functions. But parts section was quite difficult. In fact I failed the first attempt particularly because I had not much experience with equation-driven designs. I had to do a bit of practice, and passed the second attempt.

I am just one of the ~100K professionals. But I suspect only a few of them has a Physics Ph. D. degree from Ivy League university. Furthermore, I feel almost obligation toward challenges when I see an immediate next goal: a certified Solidworks Expert. There are a few prerequisites and I need some self-training for it. But I hope that I post expert certificate soon.