Becoming Base SAS Certified Tip #1 - Repetition is Key

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a series of posts that are based on a previous blog post of mine below.
http://sascert3.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-become-base-sas-certified.html


My goal in this series is to expand on 5 main points that I believe are absolutely critical to passing the Base SAS Certification Exam for SAS 9. The first tip is that repetition is critical to learn and retain all the information on the Base SAS exam.


Tip #1 - Repetition is the Key

I'm sure by now you already know that the amount of information covered on the Base SAS exam is huge. The SAS Certification Prep Guide book has a total of 21 chapters and 794 pages.




Unless you have a photographic memory (I certainly don't), you won't be able to read this book though once and retain all the information. Even if you do have an awesome memory, the Base SAS exam asks some really tricky questions, and they make sure that you paid close attention to even the smallest details buried in the prep guide to get the 70% needed to pass.


Action Items:

To make sure you're able to learn and retain the information, I recommend buying and reading this prep guide through at least 2 times and completing the following action items:

The first time, read through the information in each chapter and complete the 10 questions at the end of these chapters. Don't feel like you have to get caught on every small detail at this point because you'll be reviewing and fine-tuning later on.

Next, check your answers with the key in the back of the book and review questions and areas that you missed or were unsure of. This will help you identify your weak spots and hopefully correct them early on in your studying.

The second time, re-read each chapter and create a cheat sheet of important topics and sample code for each of the 21 chapters. I included definitions, important functions, and any tips that the prep guide specifically called out. As you read through the material this time around, pay close attention to smaller details that you could picture being on the exam (Example: the length of resulting strings when using the SCAN function). Include this information in your cheat sheet so you can review it closer to exam time.


Summary:

This level of repetition will definitely get you ready for the Base SAS Certification for SAS 9 exam, and you'll walk into the testing center confident that you've read and reviewed every topic they could possibly throw at you.

Let me know if this was helpful to you by leaving a comment below. For those of you who have already passed the exam did you do anything differently while studying? I'd be curious to hear other effective studying methods.

Good luck studying!
SAS Cert