OCP Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL Exam Guide [Hardcover]

Jason Couchman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0072195371 | ISBN-13: 978-0072195378 | Publication Date: October 29, 2001 | Edition: 1

Prepare to pass the OCP Introduction to Oracle9i SQL exam--a required exam for OCA/OCP DBA certification--using this Oracle Press study guide. You'll get complete coverage of all exam topics followed by practice questions and chapter summaries. The CD-ROM contains hundreds of practice exam questions in an adaptive format.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Get Certified with Official Exam Prep Material from Oracle Press

Prepare to pass the Oracle Certified Professional Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL exam--a required exam for OCP DBA certification--using this Oracle Press study guide. Throughout each chapter, you'll find in-depth details on all the material covered on this challenging exam, followed by practice questions and chapter summaries to highlight what you've learned. Written for novices and experts alike, this book and CD-ROM package is the most comprehensive exam preparation tool available for this Oracle9i Certified Professional exam.

Featuring a logical methodology designed to reinforce learning, this exam guide offers

• 100% complete coverage of all official exam objectives
• More than 300 practice questions--including scenario-based and short-answer question formats
• Exercises at the end of each chapter that reinforce your Oracle knowledge right away
• Tips, examples, and reviews in every chapter to help you remember key concepts
• Two-minute drills--quick and concise checklists that summarize each chapter's main points
• Chapter self-tests--exam-based questions complete with in-depth explanations

Required Exam for OCP DBA Certification

Book and CD-ROM include more than 300 interactive exam-based questions. CD-ROM contains interactive exams that simulate the actual OCP exams and include hotlinked questions, answers, and explanations.

About the Author

Jason Couchman (New York, NY) is an OCP-certified Oracle DBA and author of Oracle Certified Professional DBA Certification Exam Guide, Oracle Certified Professional Application Developer Exam Guide, Oracle Certified Professional DBO Certifica-tion Exam Guide, and Oracle8 Certified Professional DBA Practice Exams. He has led Oracle database projects with Fortune 500 corporations and presented topics at the North Carolina Oracle User Group. His articles on Internet and intranet development have been published internationally.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1 edition (October 29, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072195371
• ISBN-13: 978-0072195378
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,132,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative for the OCP Exam, But A Few Errors As Expected., January 28, 2002

By 

J. Thomas Dyess (Jacksonville, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: OCP Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL Exam Guide (Hardcover)

This book has quite a few errors that I have discussed with colleagues in the field. Some of the errors are facts that were true in previous versions, 7.3 for example, but are no longer applicable. This would probably be caused to the pulling of material from previous PL/SQL versions. All examples I've used worked fine though. The errors are frustrating because I don't know whether to remember the errors for the test, or to give the actual correct answers for the test. An example of an error is that the book states that an ORDER BY clause cannot be used in a sub query, but as of Oracle 8i, this is no longer the case. The practice tests from selftestsoftware.com don't indicate that the errors are even asked, so I am hoping that they are inconsequential. As time goes by, errata will be published on the oraclepress.com website which will correct the errors. I submitted 3 errors last week, but they have not yet been posted as of yet.

The good part is that this is an Oracle Press book that is a subset of McGraw-Hill Publishing. Oracle Press has a close relationship with Oracle, so it is the most accurate book for the OCP exams to date. Another plus is that when taking the selftestsoftware.com practice tests, the errors that you made point to subjects that are almost word for word chapters names from this book, so reviewing deficiencies in the test are pretty straight forward.

This book is very well written and is easy to understand and is interesting if you are interested in Oracle. The new 9i OCP exams only cover SQL and not PL/SQL, so it's not quite the phone book I was expecting, but it has plenty of material. As all Oracle Press / Osborne books, this is useful for future reference after the OCP exam is passed, and some of the details have been forgotten. If it weren't for the errors, which are inevitable in any first edition from the first publisher of any technical book, I would give it 5 stars.

The best methodology I've found for taking any certification exam is to purchase a practice test for the exam, take a calibration test of a small subset (say 20 or 30 questions) then note the errors. Once you find the subjects you need to review, go to the book and read the chapters then take another subset until you get a passing score (it's best to repeat until you get a high score, such as 95% because you are going to memorize some of the questions).

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wretched horrible abomination, December 30, 2003

By 

John Achee (Silicon Valley) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: OCP Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL Exam Guide (Hardcover)

I've been doing hardcore plsql development in an HR system environment for about 5 years now, and have just decided to get certified. My oracle sql experience is advanced.

Trust me when I say this book is garbage. How it made it off the editors desk is beyond me.

Here are some of the flaws that simply make my blood boil:
FLAW#1:
The review questions are completely ridculous and often do not make sense. Heres a sample question:
"Q: This phrase represents a multi-table query where the WHERE clause is poorly defined.
A: Cartesian Product"
How ridiculous is that??? A poorly defined WHERE clause could mean anything! A cartesian product is the result of the absence of a join resulting in all rows from both tables being joined together which is actually supported in ANSI in 9i see:CROSS JOIN, and furthermore 9i introduces ANSI-SQL1999 joins, which are written in the FROM clause!! There are dozens of vague or incorrect q&a in this book.

FLAW#2:
Table and row locks are covered in a single 10 line paragraph. Enough said?

FLAW#3:
SET TRANSACTION is a powerful statement, but he gives absolutely no example of usage. He goes as far as to give you the syntax. WEAK!

FLAW#4:
Subqueries have long been defined as "SCALAR" "NESTED" "CORRELATED" and FROM Clause subqueries are called "IN-LINE VIEWS". He doesn't define subqueries this way, and his definitions are very odd and vague, you'll especially like the review questions for which theres more than one answer, but he prefers one answer better than the other, but doesn't state why. Keyword: Multi-Column subquery.

FLAW#5:
Where did all the functions go??? Oracle has a multitude of linear regression functions, NLS, timestamp, interval, etc etc functions that are not covered here. He doesn't even mention the new datatypes such as timestamp and INTERVAL types!

To SUM() it all up, this book is a wretched piece of trash. Oracle apparently released it without editing it whatsoever. If this is your only study material god save your soul.

Do yourself a favor and pick up the SYBEX book for this exam. Good luck!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not enough to pass the exam with alone, July 1, 2002

By 

Todd Ritter (NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: OCP Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL Exam Guide (Hardcover)

I've just taken the Oracle 9i SQL section of the DBA track, after having only read this book, and using Oracle 9i somewhat. I scored a 65% (passing was 70%). This book covered about 70% of the material that was on the test. In order to pass the test, you would need to have mastered every aspect of the book. Mind you, that would only get you a 70. You will need additional resources in order to score higher than that.

I gave this book more than 1 star because, used in conjunction with other books, it is a useful resource. However, because of its lack of enough information to pass the exam, and also the clear laziness the editors showed when editing the book. There are several errors, some providing contradictary information. Others were minor typographical errors, but quite unprofessional.

Overall, it is a useful book, but make sure this isn't the only book you buy.