About Mark2010

Mark2010 · ‎04-03-2020

So, there are no pens/papers allowed during an Online Proctored exam, as there is no way for a proctor to collect them at the end of the exam session. If a question requires a calculator, an onscreen calculator is provided within the question. On performance-based exams, you would be able to use an application within the lab computer such as 'Notepad' to keep notes, but for standard exams such as SBA (Statistical Business Analyst), there is no lab to use.

Mark2010 · ‎03-28-2020

Well, that is the trickier question. My answer: "It depends on what you want to do." If you are into mastering data prep, than I would continue down the path of the Advanced Programming Professional and study SAS Macro, SQL, and Advanced techniques such as Hash Objects and PROC FCMP. If you are more interested in statistic analysis, I'd head for the Statistical Business Analyst and study linear and logistic regression. If Clinical Trials sounds like fun. There is a credential that focuses on that. Data Science is popular too if you want to go that route. You can start out in data prep portion or the analytics side, both are important to data science realm. All just a matter of what you like doing.

Mark2010 · ‎03-28-2020

A clarifying question: Do you mean what else should I do to prepare for the Base Progamming Specialist credential beyond the training or do you mean what should I do after I pass that exam?

Mark2010 · ‎03-24-2020

You have decided that you are ready to take your next step on your SAS certification journey and are ready to go for the SAS Certified Professional: Advanced Programming Using SAS 9.4 credential. For those that are coming from the older SAS Base Programmer for SAS 9 credential, this will be your first performance-based exam. Those of you that have earned our newer SAS Certified Specialist: Base Programming Using SAS 9.4 credential have already tackled a performance-based exam, but there is still room for some pointers to explain some differences and tips for this exam. First, as always, review the information on the credential web page. This includes a video demonstration of the exam experience that will show you the beginning of the exam. You don't want to miss this, as it will help you set-up your lab environment quickly and smoothly. Next, let's talk about the big difference between this exam and the Base Programming Specialist performance-based exam. First, on the Base Programming exam, you answered questions about your output data sets to determine if you completed the projects correctly. The Advanced Programming Professional exam is different. Because you are being assessed on specific skills, we place more emphasis on your code to be sure that you solved the problem as described. For example, if the project asked you to solve a problem with PROC SQL, we need to ensure that you actually used PROC SQL and not a DATA Step. To accomplish this, you will run a saved SAS Macro against your completed solution, and this macro will evaluate both the content of your code and the output of your code. There is still a lot of flexibility for you to write your own code, we aren't looking for an exact match to a specific 'answer-key' program, as we know there different ways to get to the same solution. More information about the scoring macro and how to use it is in the video on the credential page linked above. Another small difference from the Specialist exam is that you don't need to define libraries on the advanced exam. That is done automatically when you start SAS. This is explained in the exam introduction, but we have noticed that some candidates overlook this point. You will create some SAS Macro programs during this exam. Some syntax errors (like unbalanced quotes or missing semicolons) that are rather harmless in DATA Step programs can cause weird problems when they occur in SAS Macro code. Resubmitting your code after fixing the error doesn’t resolve the problem in SAS and you can find yourself stuck with repeated, unexpected messages in your log. If you get notes in your logs such as “The quoted string currently being processed has become more than 262 characters long”, you have arrived in “confused quote-land.” If this happens to you, you should save your programs, close your SAS application, then reopen it and edit your program. Don’t worry about remembering this specific error message, we provide a reminder within the macro questions on the exam in case it happens to you so that you can get back on track quickly. And to help you along with your prep, here are 3 papers from SAS conferences to supplement your studying, one from each topic area of the exam: SQL: Merges and Joins Macro: Macro Quoting Functions Advanced Topics:Hash Objects I know that all of this is a lot to digest. One final pointer: If, during your thorough review of the credential web page, you didn't notice that the practice exam is currently free, go back now and take a look at the "Training & Exam Preparation" section for the link to this valuable resource. Good luck with your exam prep - you can do this!

Mark2010 · ‎03-21-2020

Hi Sirani, Yes, any interruption to the exam due to network problems suspends the exam and you are allowed to re-enter the exam. Your answers are maintained on the server, as is your lab work. You will pick-up right where you left off.

Mark2010 · ‎03-04-2020

SAS documentation is also helpful for all sorts (pun intended) of questions you may have while learning SAS and preparing for certification exams. I tend to use Google with a prefix of "SAS 9.4" such as in this case I would search for "SAS 9.4 PROC SORT OUT=" I hit the first result from Google, click on examples and see that even the basic examples of PROC SORT include an OUT= statement (which is a best practice in my opinion because it doesn't alter your original data set). https://documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=proc&docsetVersion=9.4&docsetTarget=n0sv3pcvpllvh9n1521qlriu6u4n.htm&locale=en

Mark2010 · ‎03-01-2020

Hi again JeJe, The practice exam that we talked about in the other thread has all you need to know about setting up your libraries. Also, we explain the basics here, including a link to a free training video on creating libraries: https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Tips-and-Strategies-for-the-A00-231-SAS-Base-Programming/ta-p/582838 https://video.sas.com/detail/videos/sas-studio/video/4572997794001/accessing-data-in-sas-libraries?autoStart=true. Sincerely, Mark

Mark2010 · ‎02-29-2020

We recently made a change and haven't had much time to promote this exciting update, but currently the Base Programming Specialist and Advanced Programming Professional practice exams are free. These are full length practice exam built to the same specifications as the actual exams. The links to them are directly on the Training & Preparation sections of each credential page and are available globally. Base: https://www.sas.com/en_us/certification/credentials/foundation-tools/base-programming-specialist.html Advanced: https://www.sas.com/en_us/certification/credentials/foundation-tools/advanced-programming-professional.html You will need to create a SAS profile to access these eLearning version oft the practice exams, but that is all. A bit more information here: https://www.sas.com/en_us/certification/resources/sas-practice-exams.html

Mark2010 · ‎01-24-2020

Hi, Can I also provide a little bit of context as well? When we developed the Associate, we knew that it was going to cover much of the same content as the Specialist, with a few difficult topics removed ( such as TRANSPOSE), and no performance-based items. We decided to recommend the same training as the Specialist (and same prep guide) even though they do cover these additional topics. We didn't want to create a separate purchase. We want candidates who purchased training or the prep guide to be able to use that same content to later (when they have more experience) to prepare for Specialist without incurring additional preparation expense. And @shelby62b is exactly right, go by the Content Guide. Thanks, Mark

Mark2010 · ‎01-14-2020

SAS University Edition contains all of the SAS components that are a part of the SBA credential. No limitations.

Mark2010 · ‎01-05-2020

Candidates who have taken a SAS exam are bound by a confidentiality and candidate agreement that they electronically sign at the beginning of the exam and therefore cannot comment. While the practice exam is built to the same standards as the actual exam, you should not expect it to be basically the same with different numbers.

Mark2010 · ‎01-02-2020

The Base Programming Specialist is a requirement to earn the Advanced Programming Professional. There is no prerequisite for the Base Programming Specialist. The Associate/Fundamentals is a stand-alone credential.

Mark2010 · ‎12-26-2019

SAS Help is available during the exam. If you are using the Display Manager interface the Help icon (A purple book) will provide access to help. Also, there are shortcuts within Internet Explorer to provide access to documentation.sas.com during the exam as well. There is not open internet access, so you will not be able to access search engines such as Google or Bing, or community sites such as community.sas.com

Mark2010 · ‎12-07-2019

If you use a virtual machine, no. But if you were to use Bootcamp, yes.

Mark2010 · ‎11-22-2019

Everything that you need is here: https://www.sas.com/en_us/certification/credentials/foundation-tools/base-programming-specialist.html plus a communities article: https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/Tips-and-Strategies-for-the-A00-231-SAS-Base-Programming/ta-p/582838 And as a bonus, a 10 minute YouTube video on how to prepare for ANY SAS certification exam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpQ0SMNXiYE&t=11s

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