Frequently Asked Questions

A: The directory is updated weekly, so please allow 1 week from receipt of your credential for your name to be added to the directory. If you received your credential prior to August 1, 2008, please contact us at certification@sas.com.

A: We are proud to offer a 50% discount off of exam fees to university faculty, staff, and full-time students. To receive the discount, we request that a letter with department head's or other administrator's signature be provided to us as proof of your affiliation with a post-secondary degree-granting institution. A copy of a current student transcript or staff ID is also accepted.

Please FAX the proof to 919-677-4444 (Attention: SAS Certification) or provide an electronic copy via e-mail to certification@sas.com. Please include your e-mail address with your request. Let us know which month you plan to take your exam. Upon receipt of these items, a unique code will be e-mailed to you in order to receive the discount.

A: The SAS Base Programmer for SAS 9 credential is required prior to obtaining the SAS Advanced Programmer for SAS 9 credential. If you have not earned the SAS Base Programmer for SAS 9 credential prior to taking and passing the SAS Advanced Programming for SAS 9 exam, the SAS Advanced Programmer for SAS 9 credential will not be awarded.

A: Effective January 1, 2009, the SAS Global Certification program has taken an environmentally-friendly approach and our certificates are only available in electronic form. In the welcome e-mails, a printable .pdf copy of your certificate is provided. These soft copy certificates have been provided to you at a resolution that will allow you to print a hard copy should you desire one.

The SAS Global Certified Professional Directory is also available so that you can refer prospective employers to this Web site to verify your certification.

A: You will need to contact Prometric, our testing administrator. Prometric verifies all candidate information based on the identification information you provided when registering for an exam. You can contact the Prometric Customer Care Department at 1-800-775-3926 or www.prometric.com/sas for any type of name change as they have your original information and will need to update your records. Once they have completed their process, they will notify us and we will update any necessary documentation.

A: A list of all currently available SAS Global Certification exams can be found on the credentials and exams page.

A: 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 are comprised of approximately 60 to 70 multiple-choice questions, depending on the exam. Exams are generally scheduled through Prometric, our testing administrator, but are also held at various locations throughout the globe on a prescheduled basis. Candidates are allotted 2 - 3 hours to complete the exam, depending on which exam is taken. Specific exam content and passing criteria are located within each exam. To assure 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 of the test development process.

Additionally, SAS Global Certification requires candidates to accept the terms of the SAS Institute Inc. Certification Program Agreement before taking a certification exam.

A: When SAS Global Certification comes out with a new exam, a beta release version is available for a short period of time. The beta version of an exam contains more questions than the production version of an exam, and requires more time to complete. Beta candidates will be graded only on those questions selected for final production. Consequently, beta candidates can expect to receive their test results 4-6 weeks following the beta ending period, when the selection process is complete as they are only scored on the items that will be on the final production exam.

Candidates who take the production version of the exam will receive their score reports immediately upon completing the exam.

A: To help candidates prepare for the exams, SAS offers a broad curricula of instructor-based training, Live Web classes, and e-learning. For more information on exam preparation options, please visit our exam preparation page.

A: Sample questions are available for production exams and illustrate the types of multiple choice questions that may appear on the SAS Global Certification exams.

A: Yes, practice exams are available for the following SAS Global Certification exams and are sold separately and as part of the Web-based preparation guides — SAS Certification Practice Exam: Base Programming for SAS 9 and SAS Certification Practice Exam: Advanced Programming for SAS 9.

A: Within North America and India, the cost associated with an exam offered through Prometric is US $180. Please note that the Predictive Modeling with SAS Enterprise Miner 5 exam fee is $250.

SAS Global Certification exam prices are subject to change. In some countries, different pricing and additional taxes may apply. Please visit www.prometric.com/sas for exam pricing in your country.

A: To update your demographic information in the United States and Canada, please contact Prometric at (888) 895-5819. Outside the United States and Canada, please visit www.prometric.com/sas for a list of Prometric Regional Service Center phone numbers.

A: Candidates may attempt each certification exam up to five (5) times in a 12-month period, waiting a minimum of 14 days between attempts. 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.

A: All SAS exams are administered by Prometric, our testing administrator. Once you take an exam your results are displayed immediately and you are provided with a hard copy score report for your files. We process the data received from Prometric twice weekly and if we receive your data in a timely manner, you should receive a welcome e-mail and certificate within two weeks. If you have not received your e-mails within two weeks, please contact us at certification@sas.com.

Certain credentials require more than one exam to earn the credential. We encourage you to visit credentials and exams for more information.

A: The SAS Global Certification Program now issues versioned credentials that do not expire. For example, if you earn the SAS Certified Base Programmer for SAS 9 credential, you will retain this credential and it will not expire.

Previously there were some non-versioned SAS credentials and these had a 3-year expiration date. All SAS credentials that were non-versioned have expired. These include:

• SAS Certified Base Programmer
• SAS Certified Advanced Programmer
• SAS Certified Warehouse Development Specialist
• SAS Certified Warehouse Architect
• SAS Certified webAF Developer: Server-side

Please note - Some exams may retire as new software is developed and/or enhanced. Retired exams include:

• SAS Certified Developer V6
• SAS Certified Predictive Modeler using SAS Enterprise Miner 5
• SAS Certified Professional V6
• SAS Certified Professional - Data Management V6
• SAS Certified Professional - Application Development V6
• SAS Certified Professional - Business Intelligence V6
• SAS Certified Professional V8
• SAS Certified Developer V8