Questions on how to take the Big Data Preparation exam

[odesh]

I am planning on taking the First Big Data course soon ( Big Data Preparation ). I am attaching a screen shot of my progress.

Questions:

Am I correct in assuming the all green  boxes mean that I have completed all quizzes and other requirements before the exam ?

I am now revising before I contact Pearson Vue for my first SAS exam.  Is there any special procedure that I have to follow ?

How do I request past practice exam questions from Pearson ?  Do these come with solutions also ?

Thanks very much.

Odesh Singh.

[Reeza]

I've combined these for you.

[Cynthia_sas · Accepted solution]

Hi:
Thanks for sending the screen shot of your progress. Yes, you are correct, the green boxes means that you've completed the work in the e-learning class.

As far as I know, Pearson VUE does NOT release Practice Exam questions or previous exam questions publicly. Pearson has a Practice Exam that you can purchase for the Big Data 1 exam, please refer to the web site here: https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/en_us/doc/other1/certification/exam-content/big-data-exam1.pdf for the complete content guide for the Big Data 1 exam.

There's a button on this page https://www.sas.com/en_us/certification/credentials/data-management/big-data-professional/big-data-p... (at the top of the page) to Register for the Exam at Pearson. Note that you'll need a candidate ID before you book your first exam with Pearson and then you'll want to continue to use the same candidate ID for all of your exams.

The Practice Exam, available from Pearson VUE, for the Big Data 1 module is PE-220P as shown here https://www.sas.com/en_us/certification/resources/sas-practice-exams.html . You have to order it from Pearson VUE. The regular price in the US is $55. When you take the Practice Exam, you have 90 days to take the Practice Exam and review the correct answers.

I hope this helps you prepare for the exam.

cynthia

[odesh]

      I am trying to buy the practice exam for the BIg Data course ( from Pearson VUe) but I do not know how to proceed after I arrive at the page below. There is  a previous button but no next button.

Thanks. 

Odesh.  

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:

  A few of our folks tested the purchase form and the links were visible to them for buying the practice exam. Since you have to buy this on the Pearson site, you should contact them for help. If you go here:

https://home.pearsonvue.com/sas/contact

You'll see this window:

for customer service -- they have phone numbers and an email form so you can ask a question.

Suggest you try PearsonVUE for help with this.

Cynthia

[odesh]

I will try this later today or next Monday. I have already booked the exam
for a few days prior to mid July at a testing site here in Toronto.

What do suggest as my best strategy in using the practice exam. Should I
do it first under exam conditions and then zero in on my weak areas ?

Would I be required to write sas code and submit these in a simulated SAS
environment . Would I need to generate actual visualizations and
explorations. Would these be part of multiple choice questions ?

As always, thanks for your help and ongoing support.

Odesh.

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:

  Please read the description of the questions for the Big Data 1 graded exam here:

https://www.sas.com/en_us/certification/credentials/data-management/big-data-professional/big-data-p...

The Practice Exam is similar in type of questions to the graded exam. Specifically, on the above web site it shows the format of the exam as follows:

And the Frequently Asked Questions page is here: https://www.sas.com/en_us/certification/faq.html  -- they provide this information about the questions on the graded exam:

  For the practice exam, if you go here https://www.sas.com/en_us/certification/resources/sas-practice-exams.html you will see this description of the Practice Exams.

  There are only 3 performance based exams that have students use SAS to write code -- they are highlighted in YELLOW in the above screen shot. The Big Data exams are NOT in this group -- the Big Data exams are highlighted in GREEN in the above screen shot. Therefore that means you will have the simulated application available when you take the graded exam and MAY have the simulated application available in the Practice Exam, since the Practice exam is similar to the graded exam in the type of questions it has available.

  Here is the content guide for the Big Data 1st exam: https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/en_us/doc/other1/certification/exam-content/big-data-exam1.pdf -- before you take the Practice exam, you might want to look through the Content Guide to see whether you feel comfortable with these topic areas and have some idea where in the courses and exercises you did these things so you can review them.

Hope these suggestions help you prepare,

Cynthia

  The approach someone else chose to practice will be different from the approach you choose. I have had students tell me that they take their 90 days doing one question at a time and making sure they understand the right answer to that question before they move on. I have other students tell me that they take the whole exam in a limited amount of time to see how well they do in a timed situation and then they just spend the rest of the 90 days working on the questions they got wrong. Each approach is valid -- for that person -- you know best how you work and how you learn.