Download chapter 2: 'Certification Exam'
This chapter is excerpted from the book titled, 'SAP BW Certification: A Business Information Warehouse Study Guide', authored by Catherine M. Roze, published Oct, 2002 by Wiley Publishing, ISBN 978-0-471-23634-4, Copyright 2002 Wiley Publishing. For more information, please visit: www.Wiley.com
Chapter Excerpt:
Preparing for the Exam
There is no essential prerequisite to the SAP BW certification exam. However, experience
with data warehousing and/or SAP R/3 is highly recommended. To get the most out of this
certification study guide and maximize their chances on the SAP BW certification test, candidates
should have one or more of the following:
- Previous experience and participation in an SAP BW project implementation
- A strong desire to learn SAP BW
- Detailed understanding of data warehousing, and specialization in one of the following
areas:
- Extract, transform, and load (ETL) design
- Data modeling
- Report design
- Data warehouse project management
- Knowledge of reporting and analysis in SAP/R3 reporting environments, for example, Logistics
Information Systems (LIS), Report Writer/Report Navigator, ABAP/4 Programming
- Some knowledge of SAP BASIS administration
Depending on your understanding of the subject matter, in addition to this book it may
be useful to study other materials. SAP's documentation, such as the SAP BW Library, the online
help documentation in the SAP BW software, and the reference materials provided in appendixes
may be helpful.
It is recommended to attend SAP BW training offered by SAP Education Centers (more
details provided in Chapter 3). One of the benefits of attending the training is to obtain the
SAP BW training material.1 This material contains detailed and content-rich SAP BW information
that is considered necessary for the test. This training curriculum also includes exercises
to be completed during class on a live SAP BW system that will give you the opportunity
to gain hands-on experience in the exam's subject area.
It is also very important to have hands-on experience with the system to apply the techniques
and concepts covered in the exam. You should have access to an SAP BW server with
which to experiment.
Although it is possible to attain the SAP BW certification by attending SAP classes and
studying books and other documentation, you absolutely need real-world experience with
SAP BW to successfully perform and contribute on an SAP BW project.
The Exam
This section describes the actual process for taking the exam, including:
- Examination rules and procedures
- Format of the exam
SAP dictates the rules used during the examination:
- Candidates must produce an official valid identification document with photo, for example,
passport or driver's license, before they can receive the examination papers and logon
password.
- Candidates must complete the examination alone and independently.
- No assistance is allowed, except as follows:
- Candidates whose mother tongue is not the language of the examination may use a
dictionary provided that it contains no notes and is inspected and accepted by the
proctor before the start of the examination.
- Errors in the dictionary or documentation are the candidate's responsibility
and no such error will be reason for any review of the result of the examination.
- The time available to candidates to complete the examination is limited and can
be neither interrupted nor extended.
- Candidates must follow the proctor's instructions.
- The examination questions and tasks are copyrighted and must not be written down,
copied, or otherwise reproduced in whole or in part or made available to others in any
form.
- If a candidate disturbs the examination or breaks any examination rule, that candidate
will be excused from the examination immediately.
The exam format is as follows:
- The tests are administered by computer.
- You are given a set time limit for the test (90 minutes) and must answer 60 questions. You
can mark questions to return to later if you are not sure of the answers.
- Passing the exam requires a minimum of 70%. Your pass/fail grade will be reported to
you four to six weeks after you have sat for the exam.
- The questions are chosen randomly from a pool of thousands of questions. Each candidate
in the same classroom will have the same questions in the exam, but will have them
presented in a different sequence from the other candidates to prevent teaming.
The questions generally fall into two categories:
- Questions that have only one correct answer
- Questions that have more than one correct answer
Single Answer (only one answer)
Single answers are basic multiple-choice questions for which only one answer is correct and
these are generally the easiest. Each question will have four or five answers listed. The correct
answer must be selected. For example:
A conceptual description of data objects, their attributes, and the relationships between them is:
- A data warehouse
- A data model
- An InfoCatalog
- An InfoSet
- An InfoSource
Answer: b.
These questions often address facts and figures included in the exam objectives. Although
these are relatively easy questions, many of them are purposely worded to be confusing or to
encourage jumping to conclusions. Be sure to read the questions carefully and double-check
your answers.
Multiple Choice (one or more answers)
Multiple choice are questions for which multiple potential answers are provided and where
one or more of the answers are correct, and you must choose all that apply. For example:
Which of the following are types of SAP BW InfoCubes?
- MultiCube
- Inverted Cube
- Remote Cube
- Relational Cube
- Basic Cube
Answer: a, c, and e.
These questions can be tricky. Although they often address the same type of definitions and
facts as the simpler questions, the multiple-choice questions increase the possibility of mistakes.
Rather than look for one or more obvious answers to these questions, you may find it useful to
consider them as a series of true/false questions, evaluating each of the possible choices separately.
Otherwise, it is easy to overlook a correct answer. Be sure to read these questions carefully.
Chapter 2: 'Certification Exam'
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