Customer Reviews

DB2 Fundamentals Certification for Dummies

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book made passing Exam 512 fairly easy. Books & classes from IBM do not focus on passing the exams, but this book does. During 10 yrs. of UNIX sys. admin. I'd done almost no database work. I passed Exam 512 after 3 weeks of concentrated effort. Week 1 - 2 classes: DB2 UDB Family Fundamentals (2 days) & DB2 UDB SQL Workshop (2 days). Weeks 2 & 3 - Read "DB2 Fundamentals Certification for Dummies" cover to cover. I answered every end of chap. question, did every lab and took the practice exams on the CD. I'd never sat for a certification test and this book made me very comfortable with the process. I passed Exam 513 three weeks later using a 4 day class, DB2 UDB Admin. Workshop, and "All-In-One DB2 Admininistration Exam Guide" in the same fashion. I highly recommend this book for passing Exam 512. I would not recommend it as a reference for DBAs.

The Test engine on the CD is GREAT. The chapters cover 50 to 70 percent of what is on the IBM family fundamentals Certification (I have the IBM DB2 512, and 513 DBA certs). On the test engine, the answers refer to certain chapters in the book. These references that they refer to do not exist in MANY cases. If you want to get an in depth coverage of the two certs (512 and 513)get the "All In One DB2 Administration Certification Exam Guide" by Roger Sanders(Test engine is horrible). For testing practice The Dummies book test engine is the best I have seen and is worth getting just for that purpose. Having another book for reference never hurts either.

I studied this book for about 20 hours and passed the 512 exam. It is well written and goes quickly so I highly recommend it. The CD was unimpressive. After a few questions, I gave up - too many multiple choice RADIO button questions. Luckily, the CD is not required to pass the exam.

I have over 2 years experience with SQL Server 2000, 5 years experience with Oracle, 2 years with DB2 V2.x Common server in 1997 and about 8 months with DB2 V7.2 on clustered Windows 2000 and OS/390. I have MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD, I-Net+, CIW and some other certifications. So, I am not a newbie in the field of IT.

I can say this book is a very easy reading for an experienced DBA because you can figure out most of the Db2 functionnalities with one reading pass.

The only weak part in this book is the SQL query piece that is at then end instead of at the beginning of the book. Poor newbie (or dummy) that have to figure it out at the end of the reading and not at the beginning.

Like the other reviews said, there are some mistakes with the questions on the CD. But they are still good for you to evaluate your level of knowledge to be able to pass the exam.

I recommand this book for anyone who wants to learn the basics of DB2, but you will still need the IBM DB2 administration guide and the IBM DB2 SQL reference guide to be really prepared for the IBM certification exams or just to be able to work with DB2.

Alain Gagne
Lead DBA
USA
...

P.S.: After doing most of the Microsoft certifications, and having a lot of books as references, many web sites with practices questions, It is kind of lame to just have a couple of DB2 books and the IBM certify web site with a few questions to practice and get used with the material (certify.torolab.ibm.com). So, all the questions we can get are good.

I read this book over the course of one week before I took the exam. I passed without any problems. I wanted to do the labs included in the book but never got around to it although they seemed helpful. I also found that the sample test engine on the included cd had a few errors. I didn't rely too heavily on it though. IBM has sample questions on the web that reflect what you'll see on the test anyway.

This is an excellent guide to DB2 on the windows platform. The first half of the book is geared to the beginner, and tries to introduce you to DB2 gently. The second half of the book crams you through the fundamental concepts that you need for the exam. It does not cover every thing that there is to know about DB2, but it attempts to prepare you for the exam, and does a very good job of it. Having read other DB2 books, and knowing something about Databases (being a MCDBA, and working as a DB2 DBA) I must say that this is my favorite DB2 book. The test questions have numerous errors. This book helped me easily pass my certification on the first try.

You cannot afford not to buy this book for your 512. A must have. Make sure you read everything, the author has extracted all the goodies from the exam and put it into this brief book.

Excellent for 512 and helpful for 513. Sample questions are a joke compare to the real one.

EQ

This book serves the purpose (to attain DB2 fundamentals certification) very well. Some experience with DB2 and reading this book is all that is required to pass the 512 exam.

I have not taken this certification, but I can gather from the questions in these authors' test engine on the CD that it is very hard (like most IBM certifications). Like most certifications, it seems to mostly test one's rote memorization of a large API: something I can never understand, because that's what REFERENCE books are for! This "For Dummies" book seems to be good as a starting point for this certification, but there are problems with it. Why do they introduce SQL at the end of the book, when all logic would dictate that it be near the beginning... especially since they make references to it throughout the book! Also, the CD Test Engine only reminds you of how much they DON'T cover in the book. For example, the explanation for the answer to one question is "The -> operator tells DB2 that this field is used to reference an object in another table. See Chapter 12". This is never covered in Chapter 12 or anywhere else! Here's another: "User-defined functions are not allowed in check constraints. See Chapter 9". Never covered at all!

I'm not a database administrator, but I work with them and I want to understand their language. I don't expect to get my certification either. Some of the concepts are a struggle for me, but I think this book is what I need.