Hi All,
I have cleared the SAP Certified Application Associate - SAP HANA 1.0 examination last week. :smile:
Through this blog, I would like to take you all through the experience I had and would like to share some information pertaining to the certification.
Those who have limited knowledge on this certification, please go through the following link:
(http://training.sap.com/v2/certification/c_hanaimp_1-sap-certified-application-associate---sap-hana-...)
- It’s for Application consultants.
- Exam Code: C_HANAIMP_1 (80 questions, 180 minute)
- Certificate awarded: SAP Certified Application Associate - SAP HANA 1.0
- Topics: Business content, Data Modelling, Data Provisioning, Optimization, Reporting, Security and Authorization
I have done this certification with my personal interest, I did not undergo any sort of training but prepared completely by myself. To appear for this certification without attending any SAP course/training, you need to fulfill the following criteria. I have done the exam in India and I’m not sure if the following will change in other countries.
- You need minimum 1 year of HANA implementation experience or 2 years of Support experience with minimum of 6 months experience in the module and version in which you wish to take up certification.
- The last 1 year should be with your present employer.
- Your present employer should be a CUSTOMER or PARTNER of SAP.
If you fulfill the above criteria,you can contact SAP and they will ask you to send your updated project profile as per the format given by them for technical evaluation. On establishing your eligibility, they will guide you through the process of registration.
ℹ Please send your profile once you are ready to appear for the certification as the certification approval mail is valid only for 2 months. After getting the approval mail, you will have to take the certification within 2 months of time failing which the payment will be returned. You are requested to complete your certification within the given time-frame.
Evaluation of profile will take minimum 3 - 7 working days.
Please visit the webpage https://training.sap.com/ for available certification details.
Please note no assistance with regard to study material/questionnaire is provided for direct certification. Study material is offered only with training and not as a standalone component.
Certification fee for Associate level is subject to change as per SAP policy in a timely manner.
ℹ Important Note:
- Clarifications required by SAP on the profile should be adhered to without which evaluation will not be done.
- Please update your profiles at the first instance. If SAP does NOT approve the profile on the basis of incorrect or incomplete information, you will not be allowed to update your profiles or re-apply for direct certification for the next 6 months.
- Once profile is approved, the same will not be re-validated. Re-validation of profile will take please once in six months.
- Certification dates are not pre-scheduled & will be shared only on approval on receipt of documents (Hard and Soft Copies) for registration. If your profile is approved for direct certification, documents required for registration will be shared to you on the same approval mail.
- You can also send a mail to SAP India regarding Certification details: education.india@sap.com
ℹ NOTE:
1) Email confirmation from the HR of your organization with details (like years of experience in the company and the tools that you have used) to be sent across to education.india@sap.com. SAP will provide you with a template of the mail. This is a new prerequisite and they are very strict on this without which they will not allow you to appear for the exam.
2) There would be some delays from SAP in replying to your mails. But don’t panic. They will guide you at appropriate times instead of sending reply for each and every mail of yours.
3) They will share with you the available dates and venues. You need to pick the convenient date and reply them back. Do those carefully as the following policies exist:
ℹ Please note the cancellation / rescheduling policy:
(a) No charge shall be made where notice of cancellation / rescheduling / change of location is received by SAP at least 10 working days prior to the date of the Certification;
(b) 50% of the certification fee will be charged where notice of the cancellation / rescheduling / change of location, is received by SAP between 10 and 5 working days prior to the date of Certification;
(c) 100% Certification fee will be the cancellation fee charged where either no notice of cancellation / rescheduling / change of location, is received or the same is received less than 5 working days prior to the date of Certification
The Actual Test day story:
ℹ Mandatory Documents required to enter the test centre are:
- Government photo identification card (Passport / Pan Card / Driving License / Voter ID)
- ID card issued by the training center/Company Identification card (Direct certification participants)
I attended the certification on 5th December at a SAP Authorised Prometric Centre in Chennai, India. The test was supposed to start at 8 AM in the morning but due to some technical issues, it was delayed by 15 minutes. To be frank, I was very much tensed, some thoughts were haunting me :???: :
- Will I Pass? Yes, No, May be.
- What will happen if I fail?
- Have I taken a risk by putting the money on certification?
Anyway, somehow I managed to get rid of that 15 minutes. We were around 14 people who had come for different certifications. All were given individual systems and instructions were dictated by Proctor (invigilator from SAP)
Some of the Instructions were terrifying: If you fail, you need to pay the amount (without any discounts) for attending the re-certification exam. These proctors should avoid giving these types of instructions before the exam. Isn't it? :shock:
After entering all the credentials given by him, yes the long awaited screen has come, where the FIRST question was visible.
Now something about that exam:
ℹ Exam contains 80 questions and total time is 180 minutes. I would say 3 hours is very much needed for this certification.
Questions can be divided into 3 parts:
1) Multiple choice questions, where there is only one answer(Radio Button type)
2) Multiple choice questions, where there are more 1 answer (Check box type) (You will find the number of correct answers beside the question like 2 ,3 etc.)
3) A new type of question like below:(only one question like this).It contains 4 lines like :
A -- You will have a drop down against it with 5 options. You need to pick the correct one that suits A
B -- You will have a drop down against it with 5 options. You need to pick the correct one that suits B
C -- You will have a drop down against it with 5 options. You need to pick the correct one that suits C
D -- You will have a drop down against it with 5 options. You need to pick the correct one that suits D
- Each correct answer carries 1 point and wrong answer carries 0 points. If you have questions which have more than 1 correct answer you will have to include all the correct answers for that question. Remember there are no partial points.
- From the first question onwards, you will have a NEXT question button with which you can start sailing to the next questions.
- From the second question onwards, you will have a PREVIOUS question button, where you can go back to the previous questions and correct if necessary.
- One more button is available called ASSIST is also available. When you click assist button, it will show a block in the right side with 80 squares indicating each question number in each squares. The question which you are answering will be a white background and the one answered will be in green background.
- Also, there is a flagging option that is available for each question. If you are not sure whether your answer is right, you can flag that question, and that will notify you that you need to attend that question again. But the proctor was telling a drawback with the flagging option. In-case if any technical problem happens, the flags you have set prior to that would be lost. So beware of this button.
- In-case if any technical problems happens in between your test, don’t panic. There will be some network person who will help you to retain the session and whatever answers that you have marked till that time will be safe. You can continue from where you have stopped.
- You will have a time notification in the right top corner. Keep an eye on that always.
ℹ Some personal tips from my side:
- Instead of using the assist button and flag option, use a piece of paper (ask Proctor to give one) and mark 1-80 numbers in that. Start answering from the first question and Strike off the numbers in the paper, which you have answered with 100% confidence.
- Try not to spend more time on individual questions, instead quickly keep answering the questions that you know from the available 80.
- Once you have done with the first round, check the numbers in the paper that you have not striked off, go back to that again, read it more carefully and continue the same process 2 – 3 times. Now you will have to take a judicious decision by answering the questions which is less doubtful.
- If you continue with the above steps, after 2.5 hours, you will find very few questions yet to be answered, now dedicate the last 30 minutes exclusively for answering that questions.
- Also, as said before, some questions will have more than one correct answer. Ensure that you have marked all the correct answers. Don’t fully depend on the Green Background in the assist option as the background colour will become green even if you mark 1 answer for a question which is supposed to have 3 right answers.
- Read the question twice or thrice, there will be few tricky questions asked, where you will be tempted to choose the wrong answers. Beware of such questions.
- Keep yourself calm and concentrate on the questions.
After 2 hours 55 minutes, a pop up will come indicating that you have just 5 minutes for completion.
It’s time now and you will have to submit your answers. You can use the SUBMIT button for this.
NOTE: This SUBMIT button will be there from the first question itself. Ensure that you don’t click that by mistake in between the test.
:razz: I have not seen such a costly SUBMIT button in my life. :razz:
If you don’t submit even after 3 hours, session will automatically disconnect.
You will now see your result: Passed :smile: or Failed :cry: .
With God’s Grace, I passed my exam :lol: .
Please be informed that 66% or above will be considered as Pass and SAP certificate would reach to your address in 4-6 weeks.
You will also see the individual % of marks in each session and the overall total.
Basically SAP divides your marks into following sessions:
Business Content
Reporting
Provisioning
Modelling
Security
Optimization.
Now how to prepare:
HANA 100(411 Pages) and HANA 300 (628 Pages) are the most important SAP training materials. Like everybody, I would also say to go through each and every line in those docs twice or thrice. Questions can come up from anywhere.
ℹ Note:
a) TZHANA is an old version which has now been replaced with HANA 100.
b) Distributing the SAP learning materials for SAP courses is illegal and constitutes a copyright law violation.
c) It's good to go through SDN HANA space as well. That will help you to understand the practical issues which consultants are facing in the commercial projects. Also if possible please go through the HANA developer guide.
d) BW knowledge is always good.
e) Apart from the core HANA topics, there will be some questions related to BODS, BO and SQL as well.BODS questions would be straight forward.BO and SQL would be slightly tweaked.
These are the top 50 links which I would recommend it to you:
1) SP04 Features - SAP HANA Modeler - https://www.experiencesaphana.com/docs/DOC-1798
2) DXC - https://websmp206.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700000421852012E
3) HANA Certification -- http://scn.sap.com/community/hana-in-memory/blog/2012/08/27/my-experience-on-hana-certification
4) Use HANA DSO in modeller -- http://www.saphana.com/community/blogs/blog/2012/09/27/modeler-unplugged-episode-11--importing-bw-mo...
5) Upgrade and migration BW on HANA -- http://www.saphana.com/community/blogs/blog/2013/05/03/upgrade-and-migration--bw-on-hana
6) HANA Cook Book -- https://cookbook.experiencesaphana.com/bw/operating-bw-on-hana/hana-database-administration/user-acc...
7) HANA Academy very good link -- http://saphanaacademy.blogspot.in/
😎 Concepts in HANA -- http://scn.sap.com/community/hana-in-memory/blog?start=45
9) Concepts in HANA -- http://scn.sap.com/community/developer-center/hana/blog?start=30
10) Data Types in HANA -- http://help.sap.com/hana/html/_csql_data_types.html
11) Changes after Migration -- http://www.saphana.com/docs/DOC-3723
12) Open SAP -- https://open.sap.com/course/hana1
13) BW on HANA and very Large Tables -- http://www.saphana.com/community/blogs/blog/2013/04/15/bw-on-hana-and-very-large-tables
14) HANA Help.SAP.Com -- http://help.sap.com/saphelp_hanaplatform/helpdata/en/20/cbb10c75191014b47ba845bfe499fe/content.htm?f...
15) HANA Discussions -- http://www.saphana.com/community/implement/content?filterID=contentstatus%5Bpublished%5D~category%5B...
16) HANA SQL Reference -- http://help.sap.com/hana/html/sql_import_from.html
17) HANA CE Functions -- http://inmemoryhana.blogspot.in/
18) HANA Interview Questions -- http://rajkumarsap.weebly.com/1/post/2012/10/sap-hana-interview-questions.html (Good One)
19) BW Powered by HANA -- http://www.saphana.com/docs/DOC-2129
20) HANA Developer Edition download -- https://hanadeveditionsapicl.hana.ondemand.com/hanadevedition/
21) Indexing Video -- http://www.saphana.com/docs/DOC-3169
22) HANA SQL -- http://help.sap.com/hana/html/sql_grant.html
23) HANA Modelling YouTube Video -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZvx2BemlvM&feature=youtu.be&goback=.gde_3683024_member_210180594
24) HANA Videos -- http://www.saphana.com/community/hana-academy
25) Common errors while using HANA Studio -- http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-47603
26) HANA Real World Example -- http://www.saphana.com/community/blogs/blog/2013/08/28/sap-hana-live-real-world-example
27) Help.Sap.Com for HANA -- http://help.sap.com/hana_platform#section7
28) HANA for Beginners --- http://www.saphana.com/community/blogs/blog/2012/09/07/sap-hana-for-beginners
29) HANA materials and interview questions -- http://sapbobwbi.blogspot.in/2013/09/sap-hana-interview-questions-2.html (Good One)
http://sapbobwbi.blogspot.in/2013/09/sap-hana-interview-questions-1.html (Good One)
30) Free Access to HANA sandbox -- http://sapignite.com/free-access-to-sap-hana-sandbox-for-your-first-hana-experience/
31) [Removed]
32) HANA Material Links -- http://dailylearnbw.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/if-you-plan-to-write-hana-certification-exam-check-this...
33) HANA Developer centre -- http://scn.sap.com/community/developer-center/hana?rid=/webcontent/uuid/c022341c-5ed1-2e10-0b98-9b6a...
34) HANA Training Materials -- http://www.gobookeee.com/sap-hana-training-material/
35) HANA Certification Pathways -- http://www.hanageeks.com/2013/05/sap-hana-certification-pathways.html
36) Free HANA Tutorials -- http://www.freehanatutorials.com/
37) SCN Discussions -- http://scn.sap.com/thread/3194590
38) Succeed HANA Certification -- http://www.thesapjobs.com/sap-hana-certification/
39) SCN Discussions -- http://scn.sap.com/community/developer-center/hana/blog/2013/06/25/want-to-learn-sap-hanawhere-to-st...
40) HANA Questions -- http://sapdairy.blogspot.in/2013/05/sap-hana-certification-questions.html (Good One)
41) HANA Links -- http://scn.sap.com/community/hana-in-memory/blog/2012/08/27/my-experience-on-hana-certification
42) Certifications sample Questions -- http://www.sap-school.com/certificationquestionsHANA.html (Good One)
43) SCN Discussions -- http://scn.sap.com/thread/2131589
44) HANA services Library -- http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-46745
45) BW on HANA FAQ -- http://www.saphana.com/community/learn/solutions/net-weaver-bw/bwonhanafaq
46) Business Suite on HANA FAQ -- http://www.saphana.com/community/learn/solutions/sap-business-suite-on-hana/business-suite-on-hana-f...
47) BW 7.4 on HANA -- http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-35002
48) HANA Blogs -- http://www.saphana.com/community/blogs/blog/2012/06/20/does-sap-hana-replace-bw-hint-no--part-2
49) HANA Courses -- http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-39531
50) HANA Reference for Developers -- http://scn.sap.com/community/hana-in-memory/blog/2013/08/17/hana-reference-for-developers--links-and...
For those who want a real in depth understanding on the HANA concepts, I would suggest to go through the following PACKT PUBLISHING(www.packtpub.com) ebooks/books:
SAP HANA Cook Book
Software Development on the SAP HANA Platform
SAP HANA Starter
Note: Taking the HANA certification is always good but don't presume that it will take you directly to a HANA job.
Yes, with the 'CLOUD' also coming into picture, job opportunities will increase, for sure!
:razz: On a lighter note: As I told in the beginning of this blog, there was around 15 minutes delay before the exam. I was very much tensed and decided to draw a picture to relax myself. Finally I had completed a beautiful picture and am dedicating this to all the members here in SDN who are preparing for certification. :razz:
Seeing this, hope you all can make out how good artist I am.
Anyway Jokes apart, Prepare seriously for your exam. Do your part well and the rest God will take care.
Just think only one point: If many 100’s can pass the HANA exam, WHY CAN’T I. :cool:
All the best to those who are going to prepare for the exam!
Enjoy HANA! :cool:
Regards,
Prabhith
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