Some more comments about SAS V8 Certification

Subject: SAS Core Concepts V8 Exam (A00-801) - Answers
Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 01:43:40 +0000
From: "Balu Swaminathan" bswami1@hotmail.com
To: nospam@NEWSRANGER.COM, SAS-L@VM.MARIST.EDU
CC: Charles_S_Patridge@PRODIGY.NET

Hello Folks:

I have taken the SAS Core Concepts Exam V8 in August and I got through with
89%.

I prepared for less than a month. Effectively, I prepared for about 20 full
days (about 12 hours, 150 pages a day target) before I took the exam. I did
not have much experience with SAS (though, I have with other programming
languages).

The Preparation Material: I was able to lay my hands on a SAS Version 6
reference manual (it taught be from abc about SAS) and then I subscribed to
the online course from SAS Institute. The online course is worth the value
as most of the question in the exam are similar to the one you see there.
There were a couple of questions (in loops basically) which were not covered
by the online course. Of course, I used the proc guides and other tutorials
on the web.

Are there tricky questions: Yes, there are a few tricky questions, not a
lot. The average amount of code you will see may range from 5 to 10 lines
(not like the horrible SCJP where it ranges at times from 15 to 30 lines)
and they are tough code.

The score required to pass (which SAS should publish) is 72%.

Overall, the bottom line is this. If you are newbie to SAS, and you have
some other programming experience, take 20 days for preparation. Please do
understand that the part about 'some other programming experience' is very
important. I keep everything in my head relative to one other and so things
are easy at times. If you do not have a reference to any kind of loop in
your head, I would say take about 45 days for the preparation.

I would be more than happy to answer any other question you have. Please do
not respond to this email address. Mail me at bswami1@uic.edu and I will
respond to you as quickly as I can.

And Charles, you are more than free to add this information to your website.
And I will answer any questions emailed to me about the certification at
bswami1@uic.edu

From: Allie nospam@NEWSRANGER.COM
Reply-To: Allie nospam@NEWSRANGER.COM
To: SAS-L@VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: SAS Core Concepts V8 Exam (A00-801)
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 14:36:50 GMT

Good Morning SAS User,

Has anybody taken the exam(A00-801) before?  Is it hard?  I am planning to
purchase the Study Guide through SAS ($119).  Did the Study Guide help
anybody
before the exam?  Also, does anybody knows a good website to find out more
information about the exam?

Advise,
Allie

Date:	Wed, 16 Apr 2003 10:04:34 -0400	
From:	"P. Vanderwaart"  
Subject:	SAS Base Programmer Certification	
To:	Charles_S_Patridge@prodigy.net		

Charles,

I took and passed the Base Programmer Certification test last Friday, 
and I have a couple of comments to offer as an addition to the comments 
by Balu Swaminathan that are posted on the sconsig.com.

First, I assume that he took the beta version. I took the production 
version, and the passing score was 65%, rather than the 72% that he 
reports. The time allotted was very generous. I found the questions to 
be very fair.

I also used the on-line review course. I think it is the only way to be 
sure of the scope of the test. From the published summary of the scope, 
I would have expected that the material in "Step-By-Step Programming with 
the Base SAS Software" would be adequate, but it is not. The review course 
is approximately 25% on using the interface, 25% on procs (PRINT, REPORT, 
FREQ, SORT, FORMAT, MEANS/SUMMARY, )  plus ODS, and 50% on the DATA step.

There are 24 lessons. I did one each morning, and spend a couple of 
hours each afternoon inventing and solving practice questions. I found the 
lack of additional study problems to be the biggest obstacle. Repeated use 
is the only way to get the syntactic detail to sink in. Once through the 
material, I took an additional week to fly through it a couple more times 
for review.

The SAS Institute imposes fierce constraints on making much about the 
test itself public, therefore you don't get to take the test home to see 
what questions you got wrong. You do get to see a summary of percent correct 
by topic. My weakest area was 'error handling'. I guess I concentrating on 
getting things right rather than predicting what happens when things are incorrect.

Peter Vanderwaart