"Goals are dreams with deadlines."
Diana Scharf Hunt
If you had told me a year ago at this time that I was would be training for triathlons and studying for the Base SAS Certification test, I probably would have said you’re crazy. But, late last summer a good friend of mine convinced me to do my first sprint distance triathlon. I skeptically agreed thinking that the worst case would be I’d have to walk part of the 5K run. So, early that morning I packed up my suit, mountain bike, running shoes and headed out to do my first triathlon. From the moment I finished, I knew I was hooked! At the beginning of this year I set a goal of doing my first Olympic distance triathlon – 1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run – and have been training and practicing different techniques at the four races I’ve done before the “big one” in two weeks. I’m learning what works and, more importantly, what doesn’t work as I go and I think I’ve got a good plan for the end of this month. As a study group preparing for the Certification test in October, we are also learning what works to help us prepare for the test.
SAS Self-paced eLearning has become something our study group of three has been using to practice concepts learned in our Certification Guide. These courses not only include in-depth content information, but each section includes practices and a quiz at the end to test your knowledge. And, you can access the most of the e-Learning courses for a year so you can brush up on anything you may have forgotten. For those of you who are looking to become either Base or Advanced SAS Certified, there is a 50-question practice exam for each of these exams. You can access the practice exams as often as you want during the 180-day license period, but the questions do remain the same. Our plan is to take the practice exam as soon as we’ve finished all the chapters in the Certification Prep Guide and completed the practices in the self-paced e-Learning.
Our topic this week was on arrays. Both the Certification Prep Guide and the self-paced e-Learning (Programming II: Data Manipulation Techniques) dedicate chapters to learning arrays. While I won’t say that we breezed through this topic, we did manage to work through all the e-Learning problems and arrive at the correct answers. However, we were stumped by one question in the e-Learning that we did not see addressed in either the book or online. The part we found confusing was the $ 2 temporary in answers B and C below, and why it was being used. We’re still looking for the answer and would love an explanation if you happen to know.
So, now that you know my two biggest personal and professional goals of 2010, what are your goals? Whatever they might be, stay focused, practice and I wish you well on your journey and hope that you reach them.
"Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road."
Dag Hammarskjold
