SAP BW Professional - Data Modeling - July 2010
I recently took the BW Professional exam mostly out of interest and also due to the fact that there was an initiative to get Mentors involved in the certification process...
The process was quite different from what I had done in India - I took this exam in New Jersey and the same process of registering through Pearson VUE followed and I found a center 2 miles from where I lived!!!
Ground rules for the professional exam
The registration process was simple and straightforward but then the preparation process was scary because...
1. There are no books that you need to memorize ( Yikes!!! )
2. The questions could be anything related to Data Modeling in SAP BW ( Yikes Again!!! )
3. The sample questions scared the daylights out of me
I managed to get only 40% of the questions right initially
And since I had booked a date I took the exam nervously....
I arrived one hour before the scheduled start time of the exam ( surprising the person at the exam center )
I had all but given up hopes of clearing the exam after seeing the sample questions
My views on the exam :
1. You can schedule the exam for any time but if you arrive early - you can start early if a terminal is available
2. Take something to drink with you like a coke or something to sip on while answering the questions
On the questions :
1. All the questions were experience based
2. The questions were more engaging and made me think in terms of screens and processes as opposed to possible page numbers on the education material...
3. I should credit the people who set the questions - the questions were very engaging ( I would not want to use the word challenging here )
4. Most importantly - you need to be sure about your topic before taking the exam...
What this means is that your fundamental concepts in Data Modeling and extraction should be very strong.
This would mean IMHO that you need not know what TCode to use to implement COPA Extraction but would need to know how COPA extraction works which is more important.
Some downsides :
There were a couple of questions on maintaining table entries in control tables in BW which seemed more like questions based on the experiences of the person setting the questions but such questions were few and far between...
Also a hint to taking these exams where you do not have a set syllabi - the best bet is to go through the books on BW by SAP Press before the exam - These books would have to be an advanced level and not the beginner level...
And finally , I cleared the exam...
The pass percentage for this exam was also dynamically calculated methinks...
Disclaimer :
I am not recommending this book for the purpose of certification - but then would strongly recommend this book for any BW person who wants to know the works within SAP BW.
