The better Way to become THE BEST in SAS Programming!
SAS is an analytical tool, programming language, data manipulation tool, reporting tool. So to become the BEST is SAS, need the following:
- As a language, it needs practice for logical thinking
- As an analytical tool, it needs much practice with multiple case studies
- As a data manipulation tool, it needs much practice on case study with real data
- As a reporting tool, it needs much practice with multiple reporting scenarios
Are all the above needs are possible by the following?
- Explanation on a white board by a SAS trainer (who doesn’t have practical expose in the industry)
- 2 to 24 Hrs of lab facility (with assistance of a senior student who recently finished his SAS course there itself)
- One photo copy of the some SAS prescribed book (like Little SAS, SAS by example etc.)
- One dummy / sample CV (to prepare your CV).
- Sample interview questions (the same which are available in internet from past 10 years)
—NO—
It is not at all enough!!!
Now a days in the interview, you won’t get questions like:
- What are INFILE / INPUT?
- What is the difference between Missover and Truncover?
- How to sort the data in SAS?
- How to remove the duplicates in SAS?
- What is merge?
- What Proc Append will do?
- What ODS stands for?
- How to extract data from EXCEL to SAS?
- What are the types of macro variables?
- Difference between NODUP and NODUPKEY
The above sample questions are almost 4 to 5 years back were there.
Now the companies are expecting the practical scenarios.
No definitions!
No formulas!!
No syntaxes!!!
The required things are:
Case studies, Scenarios, Comparisons, Macro / Automation related…etc.
Now, some sample questions for the base level (with SAS certification)
- How to take all the duplicate records into a SAS data set?
- NODUPREC vs DISTINCT *
- X=month(today()); put x date9. ; What is x value printed in log?
- How can I save all my log /output into some external file automatically?
- %LET vs Call Symput
- What is the minimum length of a macro variable?
- Where macro variable does gets stored?
- How can I use a variable which is created in a data step into another data step?
- How do you deal with huge data?
- How can you speed up your code execution?
If you are trying to learn SAS to get a job, then learn SAS as a PRACTICAL subject. Then only you can answer all the above kind of questions by yourself.
If you are experienced SAS programmer, then the questions will be different. The standards might be increased and sometimes they may ask same tricky questions (just to clarify whether you have real time experience or not in SAS)
Some sample questions:
- How can I take duplicate records in to SAS data set except first and last of each unique value?
- How can I take all the variable names of the data set into another SAS data set variable?
- How can I get the list of files existing in the physical directory?
- How can I export multiple SAS datasets into an EXCEL workbook?
- Call Symput Vs Call Symputx? And what is the minimum length of a macro variable?
- Can you write a macro inside another macro?
- How many macros you will create a day?
- What is the maximum size of data that you handled? And how much time it will take to process the data?
- To whom do you report?
- How do you get your daily work?
And after your SAS course if you are planning to learn a SAS Project you must be able to answer all the above questions.
If not, think about the another Trainer/ Training institute
Do not compromise for the fee….! What is the use of learning even if it taught for free and you can’t get the Job with it?
SO….try for SAS JOB COURSE, NOT just for SAS COURSE!!!
- Just by seeing the Face Book likes on the website, don’t fall in their magic!!!
- If the training centers are not allowing you for demo & 1st class before paying the fee then better you think twice…!
- At least have the opinion with other old students.
- If they say “OK we can proceed” then that’s not enough for your goal.
- If they say “YES, it is perfect” then you can agree…!
- Otherwise just attend the demo or the 1st class to decide and then pay the fee…!
So finally to become the BEST in SAS, you need:
- Just copying from white board is not enough.
100% practical approach (Each and every program you need to execute)
- No use of 24 Hrs lab facility
you need to do it practically in class itself!
- Photocopy of SAS book is not enough
In that all the topics must be covered in your syllabus and you must have your class examples/programs for all those topics.
- Dummy /sample CV is not enough
You must specify / highlight your SAS and other skills in your CV.
And also remember you are responsible for each and every term/keyword in your CV
- Sample interview questions are not enough
You need to have mock interviews to know where you are
If you can get all the above, then you can join in that SAS training center with 100% confidence.
(Some training centers are giving SAS course even for Rs.5,000/- also with 25% of subject. And some other famous centers are charging in lacks of rupees with 50% of subject. So irrespective of fee structure, check for the quality.
If the fee is too low(6k, 8k,..), obviously you can’t expect quality.
If it is too high (more than one lakh also, don’t believe blindly.)
Just take actual opinion of old students or attend the classes yourself.
And now we want to tell you one thing.
We very much happy and proud to say that, we do provide the above quality of training in ourSIGNETSOFT.
SIGNETSOFT is not just a training institute. It’s a division of DAMA SIGNET SOLUTIONS Private Limitedcompany.
DAMA SIGNET SOLUTIONS is a consulting and software development company.
We do provide training in SAS/BASE and Advanced.
Corporate / Class room / Online / weekend / weekdays / fast track trainings are available.
Attend for demo and 1st day class then you can come to one decision on payment of fee.
SAS courses available for Certification, Internship, as an academic project etc…
Signetsoft is specialized in SAS CLASS ROOM and ONLINE training classes.
And SIGNETSOFT is located in Marathahalli, Bangalore. If it is not possible due to distance and traffic to reach, then we do provide ONLINE classes too.
So far we had given classes for abroad students (Majorly USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Dubai, etc).
Especially for students from Malleswaram, Jayanagar, JP Nagar we do provide special ONLINE batches.
And we are happy to announce that very soon we are going to open new branches in JP Nagar and Malleswaram.
Contact us:
mob: 98 4455 9330
Ph: 080-41 666 550
SAS by ARVIND 