PL-300 and Our Power BI Training

If you are looking to pass the PL-300 Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst exam, you are probably wondering:

Do Acuity Training’s Power BI courses actually prepare me for the exam?

At Acuity Training, we do deliberately map our course content to the PL-300 exam objectives, so that our delegates leave with real-world Power BI skills as well as the knowledge needed to pass the exam.

So lets dive in to how our Power BI training aligns with PL-300, what we cover, and why this approach works better than other exam-focused courses.

What Is The PL-300 Exam?

The PL-300 is the official Power BI Data Analyst certification from Microsoft. Its purpose is to test people on:

• Preparing and transforming data
• Modelling data effectively
• Building reports and dashboards
• Applying basic analytics
• Managing and deploying Power BI assets

It tests how Power BI is used at work, not just whether you’ve memorised the answers to questions! That’s exactly why our training aligns with it naturally.

Our Philosophy: Skills First, But Certification Ready

Rather than just teaching people how to pass the exam, we design our courses around real business datasets, real reporting problems, and real modelling mistakes people frequently make.

We then map that content back to the official PL-300 skills outline, to ensure nothing important is missing.

From this, our delegates gain practical Power BI confidence, the exam topics will feel familiar immediately, and revision becomes reinforcement – not new learning.

This goes for our Power BI courses in London and online, they are all built around this approach.

How Our Power BI Training Maps to Pl-300

This is a high-level view on how our course content aligns with the PL-300 exam requirements.

1. Preparing Data

• In our courses, this appears as:
• Connecting to multiple data sources (Excel, CSV, databases)
• Cleaning and shaping data in Power Query
• Handling common real-world issues:
• Incorrect data types
• Duplicates
• Poorly structured source files

You’ll learn exactly how to manipulate your data when it doesn’t come perfectly, essential for anyone using Power BI at work. This is exactly how PL-300 will ask its questions.

2. Modelling Data

This is one of the most important areas of both the exam and real Power BI work. Our training covers:

• Star schema vs flat models
• Relationships and filter direction
• Calculated columns vs measures
• Core DAX patterns used in business reporting

We focus heavily on decision-making:

“Should this be a measure or a column?”

“Why is this relationship causing incorrect totals?”

We teach our delegates how to take a decision-making approach, closely matching how PL-300 tests understanding.

3. Visualise and Analyse the Data

Unlike very simple courses that just teach you how to make visuals, we teach:

• Choosing the right visual for the message
• Using slicers and interactions effectively
• Applying drill-through and tooltips
• Designing reports that decision-makers actually trust

This directly supports PL-300 objectives around data analysis and insight, not just visual creation.

4. Deploying / Maintaining Assets 

Many learners underestimate this part of the exam, as well as implementing it back at work.

Our courses include:

• Publishing to the Power BI Service
• Understanding workspaces
• Sharing reports securely
• Basic governance and refresh concepts

This ensures learners aren’t surprised by PL-300 questions that reference Service-level behaviour, not just Desktop.

The courses that are just designed to help you pass the exam often skip over why things work at their core, and leave people knowing how to do things without the knowledge of why.

Our approach is entirely designed around making sure learners can explain their answers, not just rattle them off.

Do I Need To Sit The PL-300 After The Course?

The short answer is no – and it’s completely intentional. Most people don’t actually need this certification, and only a few will go on to take the exam.

If you are looking to apply for a job that has PL-300 as a specific requirement, then definitely go for it!

But the majority of people just need practical Power BI skills, our course serves them both.

This approach is great for all types of potential Power BI users, you’ll get real world skills, all while being confident you can pass the exam if you choose to.

Final Thoughts

PL-300 isn’t just a trivia based exam, it tests whether you understand Power BI at its core.

That’s why we aligned our training to Power BI in the real world, and then mapped it to the exam second.

With this approach, we get better analysts, better reports, and better exam outcomes all at once.