SAS Base Programming Specialist (A00-231) Exam

• Exam Name: SAS Base Programming Specialist
• Exam ID: A00-231
• Exam Conducted: This exam is administered by SAS and Pearson VUE.
• Total Questions: 40-45 multiple-choice and short-answer questions.
• Exam Duration: 135 minutes to complete the exam.
• Exam Price: $180 USD
• Passing score: 725 (score range from 200 to 1,000 points).
• Exam Format: This exam is based on SAS 9.4 M5.

After you earn a SAS Credential, your certificate will be available on the SAS Certification Manager system. Candidates receive an email containing information on accessing this system. If you have not received your email within one week from the date you earned your SAS credential, please contact us at certification@sas.com.  Within SAS Certification Manager, your certificate can be accessed by clicking on "Certifications" and then selecting "PDF Certificate". Your certificate will be downloaded and you can open and print.

Candidates may attempt each certification exam up to five times in a 12-month period, waiting a minimum of 14 days between attempts. Exam charges are incurred for each exam attempt. Exams that do not comply with this retake policy will be considered invalid and will not be eligible for refund and/or a certification credential. Once a passing score is achieved on a specific exam, no further attempts are allowed on that exam.

The SAS Base Programming Specialist (A00-231) Exam covers the following topics - 

• Access and create data structures. (20-25%)
• Manage data. (35-40%)
• Error handling. (15-20%) 
• Generate reports and output. (15-20%)

If you were to take the SAS Advanced Programming for SAS 9 exam or the SAS 9.4 Advanced Programming Performance-Based exam without holding a Base Programming credential, you will not earn the Advanced Programming credential. A Base Programming Credential (Either SAS Certified Base Programmer for SAS 9, or SAS Certified Specialist: Base Programming Using SAS 9.4) is required to earn an Advanced Programming credential (Either SAS Certified Advanced Programmer for SAS 9 or SAS Certified Professional: Advanced Programming Using SAS 9.4).

A scaled score converts the raw score (number of test questions answered correctly) to a consistent and standardized scale and is a common practice in certification programs to ensure that all forms of an exam have the same level of difficulty. With the complexity of practical testing and multiple case studies in the Predictive Modeling Using SAS Enterprise Miner exam, we use scaled scoring for this purpose. Which means that candidates taking the exam will have a consistent level of difficulty regardless of the set of exam questions presented.

Interactive questions allow you to complete a task. The exam question will provide you with a work area. In this work area, you may be asked to:

• Use drag-and-drop functionality to configure a user interface component.
• Use drop-down lists, checkboxes and radio buttons to configure user interface components.
• Build a SAS program from a list of available lines of code.

The exam scoring mechanism will evaluate the settings you have established in the work area to determine if the item is answered correctly.

Short-answer questions require you type your answer in a text box, rather than select your answer from four options. Typically, you will provide a numeric answer or a short section of SAS programming code. When entering code, case is ignored, and all variations of SAS syntax that correctly complete the program are accepted as correct.

Each exam challenges candidates to apply specific knowledge they have acquired through SAS software training and/or job experience. Computer-based in format, SAS Global Certification exams comprise multiple-choice and/or short-answer questions, depending on the exam. Exams are generally scheduled through Pearson VUE but are also held at various locations around the world on a pre-scheduled basis. Candidates are allotted varying time limits to complete the exam, depending on which exam is taken. Specific exam content and passing criteria are located within each exam. To encourage your feedback, SAS Global Certification exams include a feature that allows candidates to comment on specific test questions. Your opinions are important to us and are a critical component in test development.