base sas 9 certficate

[stippur]

anyone take the exam recently and pass? any study suggestions? was it difficult to pass?

[left]

Hi @stippur,

not recently, but I had my exam in mid September 2019. It was the performance based exam, so there were multiple choice questions and projects which had to be programmed during the exam. 

I went to an exam center (Nuremberg, Germany). Beside the exam itself it turned out that there was a system issue that caused me not to be able to see questions and answers. This led to some complications and resulted in reduced time available for the exam itself. If anything looks strange at the beginning of the exam (or even before), don't hesitate to contact the person in charge for clarification. 

For preparation there are a few things to consider: 

• Experience from a "real SAS programming life" is the cornerstone.
• Get a exam preparation document (SAS Certification Prep Guide:: Base Programming for SAS 9)
  • I got mine as pdf on ebay for about 3-10 Euro (don't remember the actual prize)
  • Check the contents against your experience to find out, what additional topics you need to learn
  • Preparing by learning and solving problems is never wasted time.

The programming projects were challenging also because I had less time than expected (due to technical issues mentioned above). However this is something where your experience and problem solving routine pays out. If I remember correctly there were between 8 and 12 projects that needed to be solved. 

So this point needs most attention and this is also where plain learning of answers by heart without understanding the concepts won't help. I strongly suggest to investigate on the internet if you find some example tasks that could be a project on this exam. Of course the prep-guide document is your first possible source. 

After finishing your last question and submitting it (or when the time is up) your results are almost instantly rated and you get the result. 

Given my preparation (2 weeks with about 1-2 hours per day for getting confident on multiple choice questions and trying to understand concepts if answers were wrong) and my experience plus some further reading I was able to pass. I could have performed better, if I had done more example projects, i.e. practised "speed solving of smaller chunks of problems". 

So understanding of concepts as well as hands-on experience is the key in my opinion. You can pass, but you can also benefit if you learn new aspects. The preparation is the real investment you benefit from, not the certificate that comes as a result. 

Good luck!