As we keep receiving many queries on the difference between some of the most popular SAS certifications. And most of the time we also get some confused students, who end up choosing wrong certifications. Although, all of the SAS certifications are different, however, many of them over loop each other in term of the body of knowledge. Say SAS base and Clinical Trials has some topics in common. In this article, we have tried to cover almost all popular certification from the most prestigious analytics organization
Before that, small briefing on SAS Institute and SAS software Suite.
The development of SAS began in 1966, the project was funded by the National Institute of Health and was originally intended to analyze agricultural data to improve crop yields. In 1972, after issuing the first release of SAS, the project lost its funding until it was funded by the University Statisticians of the Southern Experiment Stations the following year. The first versions of SAS were named after the year in which they were released. In 1971, SAS 71 was published as a limited release. It was used only on IBM mainframes and had the main elements of SAS programming, such as the DATA step and the most common procedures in the PROC step. The following year a full version was released as SAS 72, which introduced the MERGE statement and added features for handling missing data or combining data sets. In 1976, the project out was took out of North Carolina State and incorporated SAS Institute, Inc.
The SAS software suite has more than 200 components, some of the SAS components include,
Base SAS - Basic procedures and data management
SAS/STAT - Statistical analysis
SAS/GRAPH - Graphics and presentation
SAS/OR - Operations Research
SAS/ETS - Econometrics and Time Series Analysis
SAS/IML - Interactive matrix language
SAS/AF - Applications facility
SAS/QC - Quality control
SAS/INSIGHT - Data mining
SAS/PH - Clinical trial analysis
Enterprise Miner - data mining
Now moving towards the different certification with SAS, here is a transitory portrayal of how I look at various certificates mentioned.
SAS Certified Specialist - Base Programming for SAS 9.4
This is a basic certification and most of the entry level coder do this certification. The way I see it is that the person with this certification would know, how to do data massaging in SAS - so he can be handy for SAS reporting and data manipulation. This is also relatively easy to get, however, that does not mean, this does not carry a lot of weight. In fact, there are many in the industry who have this as their only certification, still do well. However, for getting into different dimensions, may require further SAS certificates.
SAS Base Programming (A00-231) Certification Exam Summary:
| Exam Name | SAS Certified Specialist - Base Programming Using SAS 9.4 |
| Exam Code | A00-231 |
| Prerequisite | N.A. |
| Exam Duration | 125 minutes |
| Exam Questions | 40-45 multiple choice and short-answer questions. |
| Passing Score | Passing score is 725; uses a score range from 200 to 1,000 points. |
| Exam Price | $180 (USD) |
| Training |
SAS Programming 1: Essentials SAS Programming 2: Data Manipulation Techniques |
| Books | SAS Certified Specialist Prep Guide: Base Programming Using SAS 9.4 |
| Exam Registration | Pearson VUE |
| Sample Questions | SAS Base Programming Specialist Certification Sample Question |
| Practice Exam | SAS Base Programming Certification Practice Exam |
SAS Certified Advanced Programmer for SAS 9
This is where SAS programming gets somber and most of the people who are attempting this already has god hand on the programming. People with Advanced SAS Programmer certificates are people who can look at your code and optimize it. They would know nifty hacks to use the system more efficiently. Let the need be a reporting, dash-boarding or automation on SAS, you will find these people good with their work. However, if you want to get a predictive modeler - this certification would not help much, but for sure get you a senior place in the organization, this means, one step above the coder.
SAS Advanced Programmer (A00-232) Certification Exam Summary:
| Exam Name | SAS Certified Professional - Advanced Programming Using SAS 9.4 |
| Exam Code | A00-232 |
| Exam Duration | 150 minutes |
| Exam Questions | 20-30 (10-15 programming projects and 10-15 standard exam questions) |
| Passing Score | 725 / 1000 |
| Exam Price | $180 (USD) |
| Books / Training |
SAS Programming 3: Advanced Techniques and Efficiencies SAS Macro Language 1: Essentials SAS SQL 1: Essentials SAS Certified Professional Prep Guide: Advanced Programming Using SAS 9.4 |
| Exam Registration | Pearson VUE |
| Sample Questions | SAS Advanced Programming Certification Sample Question |
| Practice Exam | SAS Advanced Programming Certification Practice Exam |
SAS Certified Clinical Trials Programmer Using SAS 9
SO, moving to the next, we come to SAS Clinical Trials Programming. A person certified on SAS Clinical Trials would know Organize, standardize and manage clinical research data and metadata quickly and efficiently. SAS Clinical Data Integration provides a foundation for defining analysis datasets and supporting strategic analyses, such as cross-study and advanced safety analysis while automating repeatable clinical trial data integration tasks.
SAS Clinical Trials (A00-280) Certification Exam Summary:
| Exam Name | SAS Certified Clinical Trials Programming |
| Exam Code | A00-280 |
| Exam Duration | 180 minutes |
| Exam Questions | 95-100 multiple-choice and short-answer questions |
| Passing Score | 70% |
| Exam Price | $180 (USD) |
| Training | |
| Books | Clinical Trials: A Practical Guide to Design, Analysis, and Reporting |
| Exam Registration | Pearson VUE |
| Sample Questions | SAS Clinical Trials Programming Certification Sample Question |
| Practice Exam | SAS Clinical Trials Programming Certification Practice Exam |
SAS Certified Predictive Modeler Using SAS Enterprise Miner 7
One of the most looked up to certification from SAS. As the name says, the certification covers several modeling techniques using SAS Enterprise Miner including clustering, neural networks and a lot more. People with predictive modeler certification also find their way on the listing on SAS website and are typically in demand in the industry.
SAS Predictive Modeling (A00-255) Certification Exam Summary:
| Exam Name | SAS Predictive Modeling Using SAS Enterprise Miner 14 |
| Exam Code | A00-255 |
| Exam Duration | 165 minutes |
| Exam Questions | 55-60 |
| Passing Score | 725/1000 |
| Exam Price | $250 (USD) |
| Training | Applied Analytics Using SAS Enterprise Miner |
| Books | Predictive Modeling with SAS Enterprise Miner: Practical Solutions for Business Applications, Third Edition |
| Exam Registration | Pearson VUE |
| Sample Questions | SAS Predictive Modeler Certification Sample Question |
| Practice Exam | SAS Predictive Modeler Certification Practice Exam |
SAS Certified Statistical Business Analyst Using SAS 9: Regression and Modeling
A person with this certification would know the basics of predictive modeling including Linear and Logistic regression and possibly ANOVA. He may not know a lot of algorithms, but would know a handful of them and can be trained into a predictive modeler over time.
ready to take your dream exam.
The SAS Certified Statistical Business Analyst Using SAS 9 - Regression and Modeling credential is globally recognized for validating SAS Statistical Business Analyst knowledge. With the SAS Certified Statistical Business Analyst - Regression and Modeling Certification credential, you stand out in a crowd and prove that you have the SAS Statistical Business Analyst knowledge to make a difference within your organization. The SAS Certified Statistical Business Analyst Using SAS 9 - Regression and Modeling Certification (A00-240) exam will test the candidate's knowledge on following areas.
SAS Statistical Business Analyst (A00-240) Certification Exam Summary:
| Exam Name | SAS Certified Statistical Business Analyst Using SAS 9 - Regression and Modeling |
| Exam Code | A00-240 |
| Exam Duration | 120 minutes |
| Exam Questions | 60 multiple-choice and short-answer questions |
| Passing Score | 68% |
| Exam Price | $180 (USD) |
| Training |
Statistics 1: Introduction to ANOVA, Regression, and Logistic Regression Predictive Modeling Using Logistic Regression |
| Exam Registration | Pearson VUE |
| Sample Questions | SAS Statistical Business Analyst Certification Sample Question |
| Practice Exam | SAS Statistical Business Analyst Certification Practice Exam |
SAS Certified BI Content Developer for SAS 9
Here comes the boss, as the person know this, can create information out of the bulk data and can make it representable. This would be helpful for companies on SAS BI platform, and the user will become proficient in creating OLAP cubes and other components for the SAS BI platform as well as designing Dashboards for organizations.
SAS BI Content Developer (A00-270) Certification Exam Summary:
| Exam Name | SAS Certified BI Content Developer for SAS 9 |
| Exam Code | A00-270 |
| Exam Duration | 120 minutes |
| Exam Questions | 60-65 multiple-choice and short-answer questions |
| Passing Score | 70% |
| Negative Marking | No (There will not be any penalty for wrong answer) |
| Exam Price | $180 (USD) |
| Training | Creating Business Intelligence for Your Organization: Fast Track |
| Exam Registration | Pearson VUE |
| Sample Questions | SAS BI Content Developer Certification Sample Question |
| Practice Exam | SAS BI Content Developer Certification Practice Exam |
SAS Certified Data Integration Developer for SAS 9
The certified person will become an expert with SAS Data Management, including SAS Data Integration Studio and SAS Management Console. The person can be built data available for reporting tools and analysis, specifically SAS Visual Analytics. This certificate improves the abilities to comprehend the details of complex system software and improve the troubleshooting and issue resolution skills.
SAS Data Integration Developer (A00-260) Certification Exam Summary:
| Exam Name | SAS Certified Data Integration Developer |
| Exam Code | A00-260 |
| Exam Duration | 105 minutes |
| Exam Questions | 76 multiple-choice and short-answer questions |
| Passing Score | 70% |
| Exam Price | $180 (USD) |
| Training | SAS Data Integration Studio: Fast Track |
| Exam Registration | Pearson VUE |
| Sample Questions | SAS Data Integration Developer Certification Sample Question |
| Practice Exam | SAS Data Integration Developer Certification Practice Exam |
SAS Certified Platform Administrator for SAS 9
As the name suggests, this certification is for admins - so you should undergo this if you are already an admin or are planning to become one who manages and moderate the entire SAS setup as well as Database.
SAS Platform Administrator (A00-250) Certification Exam Summary:
| Exam Name | SAS Certified Platform Administrator for SAS 9 |
| Exam Code | A00-250 |
| Exam Duration | 110 minutes |
| Exam Questions | 70 multiple-choice and short-answer questions |
| Passing Score | 70% |
| Exam Price | $180 (USD) |
| Training | |
| Exam Registration | Pearson VUE |
| Sample Questions | SAS Platform Administrator Certification Sample Question |
| Practice Exam | SAS Platform Administrator Certification Practice Exam |