In the modern era, as we all know, only college degrees will not be enough as we are in an era which has most evolving technology phase. So including this all in the syllabus for universities is next to impossible and there for the importance of certification on different certification is quite high now as days. As these certifications are targeting very specific knowledge or we can say these actually evaluate and enclose very specific skills.
There are wide number of technology specific certifications available and all has different USPs and as I said, those all are very specific. Say, SAS certifications are designed by the SAS organization to evaluate the SAS technology related skills of the candidates. When we say, SAS, it also has a very wide range of areas from implementing and maintaining technological tool to utilizing it for different business use cases.
Earlier these all certifications used to be only question and answers type, meaning you have questions and choice of answers to choose from, but, since the purpose of these certification is to test or evaluate the technical knowledge of the candidate and most of the time these knowledge has much to do with coding, it was in demand from some time back from the industry to convert these multiple choice question exam to a Performance based exam.
The Certifications
There are many certifications still based on the conventional methods but some have started moving to more acceptable and relevant method of testing where candidate do some coding or write code as if he do when in the business use case. SAS also coming up with this type of the certification, actually they have already come up with one exam of such nature, that is, SAS Base Programming or SAS Certified Specialist - Base Programming Using SAS 9.4, exam code A00-231. And they are also bring the second SAS certification on the concept of performance based exam i.e. SAS Advanced Programming Professional or SAS Certified Professional: Advanced Programming Using SAS 9.4, exam code A00-232, this new certification will be available from Oct 31, 2019 onwards and it will replace the existing certificate, i.e. SAS Certified Advanced Programmer for SAS 9, exam code A00-212.
Now as I titled this article, these two certifications are going to be among the top paying certificates as these are designed as the industry was looking for, backed by the most advanced technology and packed with most demanding evaluating style of awarding certificate for sure going to be “The Certifications That Will Pay Off”
SO as we know these going to be the most in demand, let us see how to achieve the certificate.
Before that, below is the detail of the certificate.
Both the Certification is offered by prestigious SAS Institute,
Name of the Certifications:
- SAS Certified Specialist - Base Programming Using SAS 9.4 & Exam code is A00-231
Exam Topics:
Access and Create Data Structures
Manage Data
Error Handling
Generate Reports and Output
- SAS Certified Advanced Programmer for SAS 9 & Exam code A00-212.
Exam Topics:
Accessing Data Using SQL
Macro Processing
Advanced Techniques
Preparing for the Certification Exam
There are certification preparation providers who also come up with the new material for the new exam. The number one Big data and Analytics Exam provider www.analyticsexam.com also come up with the later Practice Exam for SAS Base Programming Specialist. One can also check the Demo exam provide for free to check the quality of the practice exam.
Also, SAS institute has recently started using Pearson VUE’s Online Proctoring which allows you to test from your home or office (provided your PC and internet connection meet requirements). This is a great option for a performance-based exam as you have control over the size of your monitor.
The Candidate who clear this new performance-based exam, he/she should have experience in programming and data management using SAS 9.4 and should be able to, Read and create data files, Manipulate and transform data, Create basic detail and summary reports using Base SAS procedures, Identify and correct syntax and programming logic errors.