Customer Reviews

OCA: Oracle 10g Administration I Study Guide (1Z0-042)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I used this book to study for the OCA test for a month and thought I would pass with my SQL & limited Oracle experience. I did not pass the test because the test has changed to Senario Driven with Multiple Choice & Multiple answers. You would receive a long paragraph about a user's needs. You would need to select two answers out of five; 1 would be easy to pick, 2 would seem wrong and 2 would seem almost identical and right. That is where the test has gotten harder.

Where this book gives you the foundation of all the "What's" involved, the test needs the "Whys".

I recommend SELFTEST software Oracle pushes on thier site. I find the questions and style are very similar to what I had experienced.

I still recommend this book if would like to understand the concepts and have an oracle DB at your disposal
If you then need or want the cert buy the selftest software because I'm positive half of my questions came from that product. By spending your money on both of those products you will still make out very well because the Live course for this subject is around $2,500.

My experience with Oracle has been from the Healthcare IT environment where the database is already set up and just needs tuneing and Reports. If you are an Oracle Finanicials person you may only need the SelfTest software to practice from.

this is the first book i read to prepare for my OCA exam. at first i was a bit overwhelmed because the chapters are quite long and the languages are not very easy to understand (sometimes i have to reread a sentence two or three times before it clicks). but i guess it was also because by then oracle was still rather new for me. if you are an experienced dba (maybe a 9i oca or ocp) then i guess this book alone should be enough to get you a 10g oca. but if you are new to oracle, i would suggest you to study John & Damir book first (OCP All-in-one exam prep guide), it's easier to absorb and the chapters are shorter (although there are more chapters). then, if you still have the time (and the money) get this book to wrap up your preparation for the oca. i'm sure you will pass the exam like i did.

I cleared my OCA exam with help of sybex and selftest software..could get 73/75 . I would recommend to go for selftest(65% of questions came from selftest in the actual exam) along with sybex..just reading sybex might not be of much help.

...and I'm a picky guy.

Seriously, this book has a clear concise language, is structured well, and has a wealth of examples, screenshots and very good diagrams.

What it luckily doesn't have: The occasional corny episodes other technical book authors include, like: In 1984 I had an incident when a customer stuck his finger in the floppy drive, and...

This is the only book I used to prepare for the OCA exam. and I passed the exam

I just received the book and it looks like it has the content. But I must say that the paper stock used is appalling. I have seen toilet paper thicker than this paper and its already yellowing. You can see the print on the other side of the page! The print and screen shots are so small, maybe they are trying to save paper? I almost considered returning it, but it does have the content. I don't think after the exam you can use this book for a reference since it should have deteriorated by then.

Good description, but the chapter arrangement sometimes is a bit difficult to follow when trying to match with Oracle's exam topic. The CD (flash card, practice exam) would be very useful if it can be used on Unix/Linux too

Truthfully, this book did not fully prepare me for the headache know as Oracle 10g! The most useful part of the book is the the exams at the end of each chapter, but I learned a great deal more by watching a few Computer based training videos online, and by studying the braindumps for the exam. In fact, The information contained within this book seems to be outdated.

For example, even though the book does cover 'Installing, configuring and administering Oracle 9i and 10g databases' it does not contain instructions for installing Oracle on Windows 7. I had to look online and find instructions on how to install Oracle on a Windows 7 environment...That's not on the exam... but it is, in fact, relevant!!

Aside form the book being outdated, I felt silly paying for this book when it is so widely available online for free!

So, Save your money and look for the free resources online (CBT nuggets and braindumps) before you purchase this book.

Thanks!
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FYI --
To Install Oracle 9i or 10g on Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit:

Edit the file "oraparam.ini" (found at: "/install/oraparam.ini") and change it so it says:

[Certified Versions]
#You can customize error message shown for failure, provide value for CERTIFIED_VERSION_FAILURE_MESSAGE
Windows=5.0,5.1,5.2,6.0,6.1,7.0

Save your changes, and run the Universal installer. Done.
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This Book contains very good concept of overall Database Concept as DBA. It is very easy to understand. The questions from the Assessment Exam, 2 Bouns Exams and the chapters Exam are very helpful that give you the actual exam environment practice.

I had passed my Exam with 96%. The questions from the real exam are little bit tricky. All you have to do is to understand the concept from the book thoroughly.

Overall comment.. This book is very good for you to perpare for the exam.

This is a decent book. Sometimes was a little hard to read through, but I managed to pass the exam with it and my previous knowledge. Make sure you check for errata on the website before doing anything else.

Its reasonable as a reference book too, but not as much so as true Oracle reference guides.