Study material - Clinical Trials Programming Certificate

[ussas_15]

Hello!

I am trying to find out what all books I need to study or followfor the clinical trials programming certification. I see on the web-site these are list of books (as below). 

https://www.sas.com/en_ca/certification/credentials/foundation-tools/clinical-trials-programming.htm...

• Fundamentals of Programming in SAS
• SAS Programming in the Pharmaceutical Industry
• Implementing CDISC Using SAS
• Validating Clinical Trial Data Reporting with SAS

Background about me - I currently use SAS and have been using for last 14 years in healthcare, clinical analysis , patient support industry. However, I want to get back into R&D, Pharma industry for which my current experience and lack of continuity in my statistical and clincal trials knowledge is not cutting through to land me into a Statistical Programmer role. I am a BASE SAS certified programmer (2005), I use Advanced SAS programming in my current role - developing Macros, SQL and would like to get certfiied in Clinical Trials Programming using SAS.

Are there any strategies/tips I can follow to prepare for this certification - using my professional SAS experience and going through industry specific material? And what will be a reasnoable goal to set given I work full time?

Thank you!

[beccagre · Accepted solution]

Hello, 

Thanks for reaching out to the community with your questions about the SAS Clinical Trials Programming Professional exam.  From your post, it seems like you have a solid background in using SAS within the healthcare and pharma industries, so that will serve you well when you go to take the exam. 

You mentioned that you got your BASE SAS certification back in 2005.   Since then, we have retired the older versions of the SAS 9 Base and Advanced Programming exams.  Although they don't expire, we have retired those exams and in 2019 we introduced SAS9.4 Base and Advanced Programming exams that are performance-based exams where you utilize SAS software through a remote lab environment for the exam and actually do some programming in order to answer exam questions.   

For the Clinical Trials Programming Professional credential (which we updated in 2022) the following requirements need to be met: 

You must have earned the SAS Certified Specialist: Base Programming Using SAS 9.4 OR the SAS Certified Professional: Advanced Programming Using SAS 9.4 certification by passing one of these exams released in 2019:
• A00-231 – SAS 9.4 Base Programming Performance-Based Exam
• A00-232 – SAS 9.4 Advanced Programming Performance-Based Exam
• A00-233 - SAS 9.4 Base Programming Performance-Based Delta Exam (retired)
• A00-234 - SAS 9.4 Advanced Programming Performance-Based Delta Exam (retired)

Previous versions of the Base or Advanced Programming certifications earned by passing one of the below exams will not count towards these pre-requisites.
• A00-211 - SAS Base Programming for SAS 9 (retired)
• A00-212 - SAS Advanced Programming for SAS 9 (retired)

Therefore, based on the year you earned your Base Programming certification, you will need to first take the A00-231 SAS 9.4 Base Programming Performance-based exam and then you can take the A00-282 Clinical Trials Programming using SAS 9.4 exam.   The A00-282 is NOT performance-based but it is multiple choice questions and some short answer questions. 

As far as the books are concerned, they are recommended but not required.  You do need some familiarity with CDISC, so if that is a weaker area for you, you can check out the book or you can visit the CDISC website and there's some good information there.  The SAS Programming in the Pharmaceutical Industry is a good book as well.  

The best tip I can give you on studying is to make sure you download the Exam Content Guide for the exam.  It's an outline of all the testing objectives for the exam with detailed information about each objective.  This should give you a clear picture of what is covered on the exam.  We recommend candidates download the exam content guide and use it to help guide their studies.  You can find it here: https://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/documents/technical/certification/content-guide/clinical-trials-...

I would recommend that you use the exam content guide and work through the objectives by section, spending more time on those areas where you have less knowledge and experience.  After you have gone through all the objectives and feel like you have done a solid review of the content, then I would recommend that you take the free practice exam that we have for the Clinical Trials Programming Professional.  You can find it here: SAS Practice Exams | SAS then look for the Clinical Trials Programming Professional in the list of practice exams on that page. 

The information you need for the A00-231 SAS 9.4 Base Programming Performance-Based exam can also be found out on our certification website at:  Base Programming Specialist | SAS.  Once again, download the content guide to help guide your studies and to learn what is being tested on the exam.  There's a free practice exam as well and links to helpful videos and articles.  I recommend you look it all over before sitting for the exam. 

I think I've covered everything but if not, please feel free to send us an email at:  certification@sas.com

I wish you all the best in your studies. 

Becky 

[ussas_15]

Hi Becky,
Thank you very much for the details! It really helps.
Correction - I received my BASE SAS certification in 2008 not 2005. But regardless, based on your response it looks like even though my Base SAS certification has no expiry date it won’t be valid pre-requisite for the Clinical trial programming certification.
So, which means clearly I need to first get certified in 231 (Base programming performance based exam) and then 282.