I can still remember most of the lines of the poem:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and sorry I could not travel both . . .

I’ve forgotten what I ate for lunch yesterday, so for me to remember the words of Robert Frost's “The Road Not Taken,” a poem we were required to memorize in sophomore English in 1985, is a miracle. But that isn’t really my point. The point I hope to make here is that I don’t think memorization is enough. Yes, I memorized all the lines to Frost’s poem, but could I have told you at the time what the poem means? I doubt it.

This is one of the main challenges I face when I study the Certification Prep Guide, or Ron Cody’s Learning SAS by Example. I read the words and take copious notes, but do I understand what I read? I am afraid I am just memorizing terms like LIBNAME and DATA step and program data vector (!) and not really “getting it.” Is it because I don’t use this stuff in my day-to-day job? But then I think: I never really understood physics, but I ended up with good grades in the class because I learned to study what I expected to be on the test (much like I did when I took my driver’s license exam [note: that is a joke]). Is this how I am going to end up approaching this challenge?

One way I’ve found that makes the content more relevant is to try to explain terms and the reasons you might run a particular procedure in my own words. I tried to use this technique in our last study session. It certainly helped me to better understand what I’m reading, and I hope it helped my study partners as well.

I’ll close with Frost. I do understand the poem now, and I think that my journey toward taking the certification exam is indeed the “grassy” path that wants wear. I only hope that taking this road “less traveled by” doesn’t get me lost. If you have any ideas how I can make this content more real to me, I welcome them. Also, for those of you who have taken the certification exam (and passed), I’d like your perspective on how much memorization you had to do and if it is even possible to study “to the test,” so to speak.