Questions about Practice Exam

[jaliu]

Could someone tell me how many versions there are of the practice exam (i.e. if we finish it will we get different questions) or does everyone have the same exam? Also do they provide solutions to the exam?

Thank you.

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:

  I checked with the Certification team. There is only one version of the practice exam. The questions do not change if you take the exam a second time. When you score the practice exam, you see your score and you can navigate back to the questions to review the ones you got wrong in order to see the correct answer to the question.

Cynthia

[jaliu]

Thank you.

[jaliu]

I don't know if you're the right person to ask, but I was wondering if challenging a score is a thing and if people do it. There's also a lot of terms thrown around that aren't really defined anywhere, so I imagine that causes a lot of confusion on the exam. For instance, the documentation uses the term  'automatic variables' while the book uses 'temporary variables', and I could not find what I was looking for until I figured this out.

[ballardw]

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@jaliu wrote:

I don't know if you're the right person to ask, but I was wondering if challenging a score is a thing and if people do it. There's also a lot of terms thrown around that aren't really defined anywhere, so I imagine that causes a lot of confusion on the exam. For instance, the documentation uses the term  'automatic variables' while the book uses 'temporary variables', and I could not find what I was looking for until I figured this out.

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Automatic variables and temporary variables are not the same thing. Some of the automatic variables may be temporary such as First. and Last in a data step using a By statement. But some such as the system macro variables that hold information about the SAS system are not temporary but are automatic.Other automatic variables are written to output data sets by different procedures (unless you specifically drop them) such as Proc Transpose will include _name_ as the original variable in the source data set, or Proc Summary  inludes _freq_ and _type_ in output data sets but they are in no way "temporary".

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
If you have taken the graded exam and you have any questions about the scoring or your experience during the exam, you can send mail to certification@sas.com and ask the Global Certification team to contact you They will need your Candidate ID in order to investigate and they will contact you via email, so please do NOT post that information here on the public forums.
I do not have any information on whether exam scores are challenged or how many times scores have been challenged in the past.
If you have issues based on when you took the Certification exam, I would recommend that you work with the Certification team. They also draft the Practice exam, so if you have questions on the Practice exam, you can also send mail to certification@sas.com.

Cynthia

[jaliu]

and i'm guessing i cannot ask the proctor for clarification regarding any exam questions?

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
Unless you take the exam at a SAS site, the proctor will be a PearsonVUE employee. I don't know where you're located, but exams are typically conducted by our 3rd party test administrator, Pearson VUE, which has global offices, but also does online proctored exams. The proctor for an online exam will be a Pearson VUE employee who can help you with exam "mechanics" but not the exam questions.
If you have gotten allowed extra time to take exams in the past and need extra time to take the certification exam, you can send your supporting documents requesting exam accommodations to certification@sas.com.
Cynthia

[jaliu]

Can you clarify what you mean by this?

If you have gotten allowed extra time to take exams in the past and need extra time to take the certification exam, you can send your supporting documents requesting exam accommodations to certification@sas.com.

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
Students sometimes need extra time to take exams. Pearson VUE cannot provide that time on the day of the exam. Students need to arrange for extra time in advance by working with certification@sas.com. The fact that you were asking about whether you could ask clarifying questions to the proctor caused me to offer information that if you have gotten extra time for exams in the past, this is also possible with our exam. It is a possibility that I mentioned. If I misunderstood your question about needing to interact with the proctor, I apologize.
Cynthia

[jaliu]

For what reason do students need extra time and is this something I can ask for? 

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
My understanding is most students who need extra time know that they need extra time and they have the documentation. Students qualify for extra time for a variety of medical or physical reasons. Typically the determination of eligibility is done by the Certification group after getting the necessary documentation from the student. Since this is private information between the student and the Certification group I only know that it is possible for qualifying reasons.

Cynthia