1. How has SAP improved its certification program?

In order to keep pace with the growing demand for SAP certification, we have significantly enhanced and expanded our certification program. You can now obtain certifications at three levels of expertise – associate, professional, and master. We've also enhanced the way you can find the certification that's right for you. You can now search on the SAP solution, your focus area, or your role in the organization.

2. Do current certificates keep their value?

Absolutely; the new certification program is designed to build on the program that came before, while at the same time creating opportunities for individuals to demonstrate their experience and expertise at more advanced stages of their career.

3. Do certifications expire after a period of time? How do I refresh them?

Certification is used as an essential benchmark for customers in times of increasingly dynamic market change. Therefore, we need to ensure that certification credentials are always up-to-date. With the new program, SAP will be able to monitor the level of certifications within the certification community, and contact professionals with outdated certifications for a reminder that there is a need to re-certify.

4. Are certification exams based on a mandatory set of prerequisites, such as participation in a series of training courses?

While there is no course or set of courses required in order to take a particular certification exam, SAP does provide a listing of recommended course work to help you prepare. In addition, you do not have to have completed a lower level (associate) exam in order to take a higher level (professional) exam; however, many professional-level certification seekers may find it valuable.

5. How will SAP measure experience and higher-level skills?

SAP is moving towards higher-level item writing methods and more advanced assessment techniques to better test understanding, application, and analytical skills rather than knowledge recall. In addition, the tests for the higher levels of certification have been revised to be more clearly job-task aligned, and therefore reflective of actual experience.

6. What will change for individuals who have certified in the past?

The new strategy focuses on adding value to the certified individual. Certified consultants will be offered the opportunity to join the new certification community and access a wide range of benefits. The 2006 survey of existing consultants pinpointed the desire for continuous learning and SAP Education will be outlining clear paths, including fast tracks for existing consultants to move upwards or across into further levels. Existing certifications will retain their validity.

7. Is certification available for a variety of profiles?

Yes. The existing certification programs are being extended to address more experienced technical and application consultant profiles and solution architects in multi-tiered certification tracks. Career-enabling certification tracks are also designed for the enterprise SOA architect and business process expert tracks.

8. What should I do if I do not see the certification I am looking for?

We will gradually be revising certification tracks, beginning with new product initiatives. If you do not see the certification you are looking for, be sure to use the certification finder or view a schedule of upcoming tests.

9. How do I prepare for my certification exam?

Each specific certification comes with its own set of preparation tactics. We define them as "Competency Areas," and they can be found on the Web pages associated with individual exams. On those pages, you can find the number of questions, the duration of the exam, what areas you will be tested on, and recommended course work and content you can reference. Please be aware that the professional- and master-level certifications also require several years of practical on-the-job experience and address real-life scenarios. SAP is also working together with SAP press to publish a series of certification success guides, which will be available in the second half of 2008. For all new exams, SAP also publishes a selection of sample questions. Further preparation courses are also available locally and can be found on the local education sites.

10. Is there any difference if I take my certification exam at an SAP Education center or through SAP's delivery partner, Pearson VUE?

No. Certification exams are the same no matter where you take your test. SAP entered into a partnership with Pearson VUE several years ago, in order to provide our customers with the greatest number of locations from which to take certification exams. You can now take certification exams at SAP Education centers as well as a selection of the exams at some of the 4,000 Pearson VUE centers worldwide. A list of the exams available via VUE can be found on the Pearson VUE Web site. Please be aware that not all exams are available in all countries.

11. How do I register to take a test at a Pearson VUE test center?

You can visit the Pearson VUE Web site to register for tests and pay via credit card. You can access step-by-step registration, including selection of locations, exam types, dates, and payment options.

12. What methods of payment are accepted by Pearson VUE?

Whether registering via call center or online, the test registration must be paid by credit card or voucher.

13. Do I need to enter my SAP user ID when registering for a certification exam and do I need to be affiliated with an SAP customer or partner in order to take an exam?

You do not need to be affiliated with an SAP customer or partner in order to take an exam, but you do have to apply for a so-called S-User ID (or in the case of internal employees an I, D or C-user ID) from SAP prior to registering via Pearson VUE. In order to ensure that the certification results count and are tracked, it is important to enter your SAP user ID in the appropriate registration field when registering to take an exam with Pearson VUE.

14. How do I obtain my actual certificate?

Once you successfully pass your certification exam, your certificate is produced at, and delivered by, the Pearson VUE test center where you took your exam. It will be handed to you at the test center, and there is no additional certificate sent by SAP. In the event that you took your exam at an SAP Education center, your certificate will be sent to you within a few weeks of your successfully completing the exam.

15. How can I obtain my certification logo?

As the personal certification Web site is rolled out through 2008, you will be able to download a copy of your logo there. In the interim, you can ask your country or regional education organization. Please note: the use of the certification logo from SAP is strictly limited to those individuals who have successfully passed the associated level of certification. Unauthorized use of a certified logo from SAP is strictly forbidden. Successful test takers who have passed a current certification exam or the previous most recent release of the exam are entitled to use of the logo.

16. How many times can I take the certification exam?

You can sit for an SAP certification exam a maximum of three times. You must wait 30 days after you have taken an exam before you can sit for it again. This is to give you time for additional preparation in those areas where you were unsuccessful. If you are unsuccessful in passing your certification exam after two attempts, and if you have not previously taken SAP training classes, we highly recommend you supplement your current knowledge by completing the training offered by SAP. The fee for certification retakes is the same as the initial exam. No candidate may sit for the same examination for the same release more than three times. A candidate who has failed an examination three times for a release may not attempt that examination again until the next release.

17. I just missed reaching a passing grade and would like SAP to review my exam for possible rescoring. Please explain the appeals process.

Unless there were technical system difficulties experienced while taking the exam, exams will not be reviewed for rescore.

18. What types of questions are on the exam?

Multiple choice explicit see examples and sample questions provided by the education team.

19. Is there negative marking? How are the exams scored?

Over the last two years, Global education portfolio management completed a comprehensive review of SAP's certification strategy and created a roadmap for enhancing the value of the certification program as a key business enabler for SAP going forward. This program focuses on building a value-add certification community for SAP certified individuals as well as helping SAP customers and partners to leverage certification as a benchmark for engaging, recruiting or training properly skilled SAP resources.

The roadmap outlines the required steps until the end of 2008 to introducing multi-tiered career-enabling certification tracks and advanced-level certification to better address the needs of the markets. This effort also includes changes to the way we design the Global certification portfolio, produce, deliver, review, and report on our certification programs.

In order to publish more job-task oriented certification exams, also at the advanced professional level, SAP Education has changed the exam scoring models for all new exams published since September, 2007, to a dichotomous scoring model. The dichotomous scoring model scores multiple response questions as either correct or incorrect and does not give partial grades for responses. This better reflects the need for SAP customers and partners to know whether a certified individual can perform a task to the complete satisfaction of all concerned. The number of exam questions has also been increased to 90 questions. The consistency in the difficulty level of the exams is reinforced by thorough standard-setting processes, where the test content is rated by a panel of subject matter experts to determine the final cut score. For older exams, which were released prior to September, 2007 and are not entitled, associate, professional, or master test takers get points for each section of a question answered correctly. If a question has five parts and the test taker answers three parts correctly, he/she would get 3/5 of the possible credit available for that question. Every question should be answered. Leaving a question blank is equivalent to a false response. All tests will be migrated over to the new dichotomous scoring model by mid-2009.

20. Can I come on the exam date and just pay cash to take the exam?

In order to take an exam at a Pearson VUE test center, you must pay in advance during the registration process. Exceptions can be made in certain regions if the test taker chooses to call the Pearson VUE test center directly beforehand and asks the test center to register the exam. Taking a test at an SAP Education center, this can vary by region. It is important to ensure that this is possible at the point of time of registering. Please contact your local SAP Education center.

21. What sort of identification do I need to be allowed to take the test?

On arriving at the test center, you will be required to present two valid forms of ID, of which one must be a valid photo ID, such as passport or government-sponsored ID card.

22. Does the exam always have to be taken in a test center or can I take it remotely over the Internet?

SAP certification exams have to be taken in a proctored environment. This means that there will always be a secure testing environment, either at the SAP Education center or a third-party testing center.

23. Do I receive the exam results right away?

Yes, you will know immediately whether you have passed or failed. For issuance of certificates, please see questions 14 and 15.

24. Can I use someone else's credit card to register for a certification exam?

Yes – with their permission.

25. What is the passing score of the certification exam?

The passing scores vary from exam to exam, based on a scientific standard-setting process to determine the cut score (please see question 19 for further scoring information).

26. Where can I find a list available, retired, under production, and planned certification exams?

Test takers can find a list of upcoming and available exams on the certification Web site. Towards the end of 2008, there will also be a list of upcoming test to be retired at the end of 2008 available on the web site.