The guide says we need to know cntlin option but it doesn't seem to be in the book. The book is also incredibly thorough so if this is what's tested on the exam then the guide would be extremely misleading. ... View more

So now I also see that the prep book does not cover something that the doc says will be required. So I'm really confused. SAS should make it more clear, especially when they're charging so much for the exam and preparation materials. ... View more

It seems like the Essentials covers proc SQL and I just spent several hours studying this but this does not even seem to be on the exam. So I am utterly confused why it's not asked or why this is part of the core modules... ... View more

One of the problems I find is that SAS does not seem very logical. Should I stop trying to understand and think that there's some sort of logic or basis behind the syntax? A lot of the syntax across procs, steps and options seem inconsistent and therefore hard to figure out.    Other languages do have different ways of doing the same thing yes, but there is no certification for other languages 🙂 . and other language seem much more logical, intuitive and consistent. For this exam, at least with the programming part I can try different things, but for the multiple choice, I wonder how I'm supposed to even know if some working code will now produce some error or not if one word is added or put in a different position. ... View more

Well, I have asked around about how to use the documentation, because I agree, it's absolutely essential to be able to use it if one does not know everything by heart, but haven't really gotten any answers. A SAS instructor even told me not to learn from it. I find quite complicated and almost as confusing as the language itself. One thing is that the exam DOES seem to want to trick you, in the sense that they are many ways to do the same thing and they want you to know every single one of them. This could range from different code leading to the same results or the same statements but in different order. This is the part that scares me the most. ... View more

There is a lot more covered in the essentials modules that the guide doesn't seem to mention. Then when you look at the prep guide it seems exponentially more thorough than the modules. Sometimes, it will be mentioned to review ourselves what options are available and how to use them, but how do we know which ones will be asked about? There are too many and each with a different syntax. ... View more

yep ... View more