Which books for learning for base certification?

[Yirara]

I'd love to learn for the Base certification. I'm currently looking at Amazon but can't decide which book(s) I really need. I'm a complete beginner, never worked with SAS before and my programming knowledge is somewhat lacking. Which book(s) are most suitable for me, and how long should I study until I'm ready to take the certification exam? Normally I'm a quick learner and I have a scietific background. Looking at career change, coming from oil and gas. Thanks a lot.

[Reeza]

The Base Certificatiom guide

Before you purchase anything I'd strongly consider completing the first e-course from SAS which is free, and the web tutorials. 

The certification exam is on sale this week for $100 so you may want to book that, your ready for the exam when you can answer questions in book. 

Tutorials are here :

http://support.sas.com/training/tutorial

If you find you need more materials I'd recommend Little SAS Book. 

[Yirara]

Thanks a lot. A US exam unfortunately doesn't help me. But still thanks for all advise 🙂

[Mark2010]

Look at the Base Certification Prep Guide. Get your hands on free SAS software for learning SAS via SAS University Edition. As far as timing goes, it of course depend on the focus you can bring to your preparation and how well you can pick up the concept of programming. 3 to 6 months is not an unreasonable expectation.

[Yirara]

Also thanks a lot Mark. Not sure how easy I'll be able to pick everything up, but as I'm currently not working I should be able to at least invest a fair amount of time on it each day. I also need to look at getting SAS to run on my machine before I start anything.

I read on some reviews over at Amazon that the base certification prep guide might not be so useful for people without programming experience and that the Little SAS book might be a good primer. Do you agree?

[Reeza]

Use SAS UE and the first e-course. They're both free and assuming you have a fast connection you should be up and running in under an hour. 

[Yirara]

Well, my connection might indeed be a problem. It's not fast and I lose it ever so often. Plus I only have a 14" notebook. Looking at a recording and doing something at the same time will be difficult. Lets see how it goes though.

[Mark2010]

The Little SAS book may be a good starting point to get you up and running, but doesn't comprehensively cover all of the exam topics. The prep guide does.

Taking the free e-Learning version of Programming 1 would be a great place to start.

[Cynthia_sas]

I agree with what Mark and Reeza have suggested. The free Programming 1 e-learning class is designed for a student who has no previous experience with SAS and is specifically designed to teach you the introduction to SAS programming essential concepts. The Prep Guide is good; the Little SAS book is good; but the Programming 1 e-learning course has prerecorded lectures and examples and practices that go through all the basic concepts that are then reinforced in the Prep Guide.

And, the Programming 1 e-learning course is free -- so you don't have to spend anything to get a taste of what SAS is, and how to write a program.

cynthia