Scoring100% on a test is something that doesn't happen every day. But it is achievable. Stefania Lando – a biostatistics master's degree student at the University of Milan Bicocca – shares her story of how she did it on the SAS Certification exam. Cinzia Gianfiori, Academic Program Manager SAS Italy, interviews Stefania about her 1000/1000 SAS certification score.

In October 2020, I started my master’s degree in Biostatistics at the University of Milan Bicocca, where SAS is used as the main statistical software in many courses. Since SAS is a very used software in medical statistics, I was interested in deepening my knowledge, so I started looking for a possibility to get a certification through the university. In order to prepare for the SAS certification, I followed all the e-learning courses more than once, together with the practical exercises for each topic. As a review, I did the SAS practice exam and I used the exam content guide to check whether I had studied all the topics for the final certification. These tools were crucial for the certification exam preparation.
 Stefania Lando

How did you learn about SAS and the program SAS Skill Builder for Students?

In October 2020, I started my master’s degree in Biostatistics at the University of Milan Bicocca, where SAS is used as the main statistical software in many courses. Since SAS is a very used software in medical statistics, I was interested in deepening my knowledge, so I started looking for a possibility to get a certification through the university. I followed the introductory lesson about the certification and thought that it would be very useful for building a solid programming foundation.

How was your experience with SAS Skill Builder for students?

In my opinion, SAS Skill Builder for Students gives a great opportunity to get in touch with SAS. Overall, the e-learning courses are sufficient to get prepared for the certification exam. Moreover, I followed two classes - one at the beginning and the other one right before the exam - which were particularly useful to review the certification topics and to receive tips on how to get properly prepared.

What do you think about SAS programming?

Since SAS is a particularly efficient software for handling biostatistics data, I think it is more easily adaptable to the type of analysis related to my study. In my opinion, it allows me to manage and analyse data related to medical statistics in a better way than other softwares I know (such as R), and offers more intuitive procedures to get to the results. For this reason, the second part of the e-learning courses were very helpful because they are aimed to understand more deeply how the software thinks behind the scenes, which can give a complete view for a better and more efficient use of SAS.

How did you prepare for the SAS Certification? Were the e-learning courses, the exam and the SAS Certified Specialist Prep Guide helpful?

In order to prepare for the SAS certification, I followed all the e-learning courses more than once, together with the practical exercises for each topic. Afterwards, as a review, I did the SAS practice exam and I used the exam content guide to check whether I had studied all the topics for the final certification. These tools were crucial for the certification exam preparation.

Do you think it is useful to earn and share the SAS digital badge?

I think that nowadays it is crucial to have a good visibility on social networks, to allow us to share our knowledge and have a broader vision of what the world of work can offer us.  For this reason, I think that the SAS digital badge is a very useful tool for sharing the achievement of the certification and my knowledge of SAS, both on LinkedIn and on the Italian page for students with the SAS certification.

You can read more about SAS^® Academic Programs here, read another story about achieving a perfect score in a SAS Certification exam, or see our Global Certification Program if you are inspired to get certified.