SPSS Test paper

[GauravSrivastava]

Hi ALL,

Can any one suggest some basic question/test paper for SPSS which is useful for some certification (inculding base SPSS, Charting, reporting, tabulation).


Regards,
Gaurav

[David Marso]

Not sure such a thing exists.  My suggestion would be to go through the archives of this list and see the many of the questions asked over the years.  Without looking at the answers provided by others, attempt to come up with an answer yourself and then compare to what comes through the resulting thread.
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Some time ago Bruce Weaver posted the following URL to a sample practice test.

http://public.dhe.ibm.com/partnerworld/pub/certify/sambas-011.pdf

http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/tests/ovrBAS-011.shtml

IMNSHO:  a complete joke!  GUI-centric with minimal coverage of anything useful.
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FWIW:  It probably depends on what you need to do.
Hypothetically, if I was tasked with hiring an "SPSS expert" I would require the candidate to be very proficient with
SPSS syntax:
Various ways of reading data, flat files, complex files.
FILE TYPE.
INPUT PROGRAM.
REPEATING DATA.
...
Data manipulation:
String parsing, date manipulations, VECTOR/LOOP, DO REPEAT.  Data restructuring (beyond VARSTOCASES/CASESTOVARS).  File merging .
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MACROS, MATRIX language .
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Statistics:  Expertise with the GLM, Factor analysis, Logistic Regression, CFA, SEM, Time Series Analysis .
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OTOH:  The hard part is designing a scalable solution which is well documented and maintainable.
Just because something works for 500-1000 cases does NOT mean it will be appropriate for 1000000 .
It is really a way of thinking about a problem and decomposing it and then crafting some uber-zen to solve it.  It is possible to teach/learn the different component pieces.  Very difficult/Impossible to impart the experience/insight/strategy for grasping the big picture and carving out a best approach.

One test I would submit to an applicant would be to give him/her a large, dysfunctional (doesn't always work but usually does), complex, terribly written, inefficient, repetitive, disorganized mass of FUBAR, GIGO, WTF, undocumented spaghetti crap (probably throw in some subtle bugs/typos [0 looks a lot like O, l looks a lot like 1] -for good measure-).

TASK:  rewrite this mess and bring it back!

Evaluation: Decomposition into logical sub-tasks, resolution of repetition, optimization of I/O-data passes.
Transparency of method, internal documentation of process, correct functionality, Pessimistic coding strategy (assume the worst and protect against it).
List goes on......
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BTW:  This is usually/frequently what I step into when I take on a new client with any large existing code base ;-(((

HTH.

GauravSrivastava wrote

Hi ALL,

Can any one suggest some basic question/test paper for SPSS which is useful for some certification (inculding base SPSS, Charting, reporting, tabulation).


Regards,
Gaurav