Good info, Irene.   Regarding MSSQL (and Sybase SQL), it is also possible to set the shell to process Transact-SQL instead of IRIS SQL.   

I'm a new-ish employee at Intersystems and have attained SQL certs for Snowflake, Vertica, and SQL_Server in the past.  I have a strong interest in db certifications and would like to contribute if I can.