How to prepare for SAS Business Analyst certification

[johny9887]

Hi, 

I wanted to ask few questions regarding the path to obtain SAS Business Analyst certification. I am a complete beginner to the SAS software and want to obtain the Business Analyst certification. Here are my questions:

1) I was wondering if there are any prior knowledge/certification that I should take as a beginner prior to the business analyst certification. If there is, what pre-requisite courses or certification should i take before pursuing the certification

2) What kind of resources are sufficient to build my knowledge of SAS? I was looking into purchasing the exam prep guides and watching the free videos provided by SAS. Are there any particularly good resources that builds SAS knowledge?

3) What kind of learning paths would you suggest for a complete beginner with only basic statistical knowledge?

Thank you so much for your time, I look forward to your reply!

[Cynthia_sas · Accepted solution]

Hi:

  To answer your #1) The classes to study for the Statistical Business Analyst exam are: Statistics 1 and Predictive Modeling using Logistic Regression, as shown here on the certification page for the exam: https://www.sas.com/en_us/certification/credentials/advanced-analytics/statistical-business-analyst.... .

  However, most people who take those classes will have learned the basics of SAS in the past, to the level of Programming 1 and Programming 2 fundamentals. Here's why -- Programming 1 is the prerequisite class for Statistics 1; then Statistics 1 and Programming 2 are the prerequisite classes for the Predictive Modeling course.

  So if you are completely new to SAS (to answer your #3 question), you should start with the Programming 1 class. The good news for you is that both Programming 1 and Statistics 1 are free to any adult learner and can be practiced with our free software for learning purposes (SAS University Edition or SAS OnDemand for Academics). Then after Programming 1, you can take the free Statistics 1 or you can take Programming 2. The order of these classes doesn't matter. You should take Programming 2 before you take the Predictive Modeling class.

To answer your #2 question, I suggest you review the certification web site. Use the free classes. There's a good introduction/refresher on statistical concepts in Chapter 1 of Statistics 1. There are other resources to prepare. You'll find the complete content guide link from the certification page. And the web page also shows you other resources like the Practice Exam, available from Pearson VUE and the Prep Guide (available from the SAS Bookstore).

Hope this helps,

Cynthia

[johny9887]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!