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I recently returned from SAS Global Forum where Andra Northup and I presented an updated and expanded version of our paper “SAS Certification as a Tool for Professional Development.” You can read our paper here.
SAS certification isn’t exactly new. The first SAS certification exam was offered way back in 1999. So it’s fascinating to me that the program is currently growing in leaps and bounds. Over 80,000 SAS certification credentials have been awarded and 13,383 of those were in 2014 alone. The SAS certification program has experienced double-digit growth for the last five years. I have a suspicion that technical certifications are growing in popularity in general, and that SAS’s certification program is riding that wave. Over the last six months, I have begun to see job postings specifically asking for Base SAS certification. This is totally new! Of course, certification alone is not enough to get you hired or promoted as a SAS programmer, but it can help.
Unfortunately, preparing for certification can be expensive. SAS Institute offers a Base Programming Certification Package. This package includes four courses, a practice exam, and an exam voucher; and comes with a 40% discount that brings the total price down to $2,995. Despite the hefty discount, this package is still out of reach for many people. Fortunately, there are less expensive ways to prepare. In fact, many excellent ways to prepare for certification are low in cost or even free! With that in mind, I propose the
Build-Your-Own Base Programming Certification Package
Mix and match the following items to create a custom package to fit your budget:
$1,300-2,000 Instructor-based “Classroom” and “Live Web” classes
$1,100 SAS Certification Review: Base Programming class (both “Classroom” and “Live Web”)
$750-1,250 Online Self-Paced e-Learning classes
$150 Certification Prep Guides, Base or Advanced
$100 Course notes from classes offered by SAS Institute
$55 Online practice exam, Base, Advanced or Predictive Modeler (good for six months)
$50-75 Other books such as The Little SAS Book
FREE SAS Programming 1: Essentials online Self-Paced e-Learning course
FREE Statistics 1: Introduction to ANOVA, Regression, and Logistic Regression Self-Paced e-Learning course
FREE List of exam topics on support.sas.com
FREE Sample questions on support.sas.com
FREE Blogs
For more advice about how to prepare for, register for and take SAS certification exams, see our paper. We wish you the best of luck!
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