Date:         Mon, 19 Jan 2004 10:25:28 -0800
Reply-To:     intl04 <kr005@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         intl04 <kr005@HOTMAIL.COM>
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Subject:      best statistics book to review, before studying SAS LE?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I'd like to get SAS on my resume fairly quickly, in order to apply for
Research Assistant jobs. However, it's been about 15 years since I
took statistics (as part of my economics degree). Would studying a
book such as 'Statistics for the Utterly Confused' - a sort of
'Statistics for Dummies' book - be sufficient enough as training,
before working with SAS LE and taking the online Intro to SAS
Programming courses from sas.com? Or should I take a college-level
Introduction to Statistics course as a review, instead?

I've noticed that most Research Assistant jobs say 'knowledge of SAS
preferred' or 'SAS a plus' rather than 'SAS knowledge required'. So,
in-depth knowledge of the software would not necessarily be expected
right away. But I'm not sure how in-depth my knowledge of statistics
should be before starting work with SAS at all.

After learning some SAS (after a quick review of statistics on my
own), I'd then go back into more comprehensive statistics training,
such as a college-level 'Elements of Statistics' course offered by a
local training center (which also offers an online, self-paced
equivalent of the course). However, that course requires algebra as a
prerequisite - so I'd first be taking an algebra course as a review,
then a statistics course. Though both can be taken as online,
self-paced courses, that's still the slower route to getting to know
statistics and then SAS.

I'm pretty comfortable with programming in general. I was in Web
development for three years, doing mid-level ASP programming as well
as some design work. So, I don't anticipate SAS to be much of a
problem. I just need some advice on whether I should first go back to
studying algebra and statistics in-depth before dealing with the
software.