Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 14:57:08 -0400
Reply-To: S David Riba <dave@JADETEK.COM>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From: S David Riba <dave@JADETEK.COM>
Subject: Re: SAS Certification
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
>Is there anyone on the list who either (a) WAS consulted about test
>layout prior to the beta or (b) took part in the beta testing of the SAS
>certification test?
There were about 100 people who took the Level 1 Beta at SUGI. I don't know
how many others participated during the open beta period that ends today.
> In particular, is the focus on syntax or
>programming theory? Is it more important to remember where the
>parentheses go or how SAS actually WORKS?
My personal opinions only --
1. I did not find a lot of ambiguity in the tests. I fully expected to
find many questions with possible solutions that were "none of the above".
I found exactly ONE which I could come up with a different scenario than the
options presented.
2. Not much emphasis on "find the missing semicolon" or misplaced
parenthesis.
3. Many of the questions were along the lines of
"Given this source data" and "Given these results" which possible code
fragment was used to get the results from the source data -- ie PROC PRINT ;
VAR a b c; or PROC PRINT ; VAR b a c ;
4. You needed core understandings of how SAS operates -- program data
vector, functions, order of processing, etc.
For specifics, take a look at the abstract of each test found on the SAS
Certification website. If you can go down the list of subject matter and
say " I know this", "I know this", "I'm not sure on that", etc that will be
your best indication on whether or not you will pass or flunk the test. I
found the list of topics a very good indicator of the subject matter to be
covered.
Hope this helps.
Dave
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