Customer Reviews

OCP: Oracle8i DBA Certification Kit

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I just read through this kit. This kit is very readable, much better than the Cram series and "Oracle8i Certified Professional DBA Certification Exam Guide". Oracle Press's book is very difficult to read and you have to print out the Networking part, which is not included in the book. However, for this kit, you can finish one chapter within half an hour and catch all ideas. I am sure you can pass the certification exam if you prepare the exams using this kit. As for the Cram, the topics are somewhat obsolete and do not match oracle 8i certification's requirement. For example, Cram does not talk about the Oracle Expert in detail, which is required for oracle 8i exam. Moreover, the practice questions are more similar to the exact test than Cram and Oracle Press's book. I strongly recommend this kit. Do not waste your money on other preparation books for Oracle 8i certification, only this kit is enough.

I haven't really tried using a whole lot of material in my exam preparations but this set of 3 books does the job. It is very well organized and written, has a lot of relevant practice tests and is easy to read. It follows the oracle syllabus topic by topic- you get nothing more and nothing less. Apart from helping prepare for the exam, these books help one understand the basic concepts of Oracle too. I have loaded the electornic versions of the book (CDs are included with the books) onto my laptop and find this material better than other oracle reference material I have. Until you find prep material that gives you all the questions that appear in the real test, you will not find better preparation material than this set of 3 books.

Most definatly.

This DBA certification guide comes with three books.

1). PL/SQL 2). DBA ADMIN / DB BACKUP AND RECOVERY 3). DB PER TUNING / NET8 ADMIN

This makes handling easier and thereby increasing the books durabuility. The books' binding is far superior to the oracle press books and the reference material has more diagrams and displays more of the Oracle GUI than Oracle Press. The text is easier to read and all the exams are covered in the text, as opposed to Oracle Press where the last exam (network Admin) is only on CD...and if you are like me, reading off a monitor is a lot harder than reading a hard copy.

The information is laid out in an easy to read format and the chapters are kept short and completes all the objectives in which the OCP exams are based.

The are review questions at the end of each chapter with a full practice exam of 50 - 60 questions after ever unit, giving you the best way to guage your knowledge before sitting the exam.

A word of warning though, DO NOT expect to pass the Backup and Recovery exam by only using the associated section. This section looks as though it was written in a huge rush, or by somebody learning about the technoloy themselves as they went. When it comes to the 8i Backup and Recovery exam, do yourself a favour and invest in the 8i B&R Exam Cram by Debbie Wong.

Overall, and dismissing the B&R section (Which is a pity becasue the Perf Tun section is OUTSTANDING) I recommend this collection of books to any aspiring Oracle DBA.

This is my only source (and in my opinion, the only reliable source) of study materials for the OCP Oracle8i DBA Certification. No need to attend expensive courses, this set of 3 books alone is all you need to pass the exams. Forget about the books from Oracle Press, they are full of errors and don't always present materials directly revelant to the exams. I don't consider myself a very experienced Oracle DBA but I was able to complete all 5 exams within 2 months without any difficulties. Thanks Sybex!!!

I am the same "reader from bethesda" who wrote the earlier review. Let me add this:

1. I became an Oracle Certified DBA today and still believe that these books are good prep material. 2.In addition to these books, I used the software from selftest software ($99 a pop) and think they played a role in my success. 3. In my opinion, the part that covers backup and recovery is relatively poorly written- especially if you are a windows user (the book uses examples for unix). This section is painful to go through mainly because there are too many prints of log files or screen outputs and it does not do a good job of clarifyng the basics. But you can still get by.

Strong recommendation: Use this book and the self test software and you'll be in good shape.

This is good preparation material for OCP. Each chapters are very simple to understand, can complete each chapters within 3 hours. And at the end of each chapters, you can see some 20 questions. These questions and explanation will give you more clear idea. Only few of them have wrong answers. [Any way, if you able to identify it is wrong, then it is good sign for passing the exam also ;-) ]

Out of 5 books, 3 books are good.

(1) PL/SQL => Good, This book is enough to pass.
(2) Achitecture and Administration => Good. This is enough.
(3) Back-Up and Recovery => For basic concepts it is ok! Once you finished all the chapters, then go for Exam-Cram. This will help lot.
(4) Performance & Tunining => Good. This is enough.
(5) Network => For basic conepts it is ok!. Exam-Cram will do better.

At conclusion, you can buy this kit. It is worth. Exam-cram and this kit is enough to pass all the exams.

Wish you all the best.

I purchased this set based on the other reviews. So far I've taken and passed one of the OCP certification tests. The book gave me quite a bit of material and sample tests but I still ran into a lot of stuff on the actual test not covered in the text.

The biggest problem I have is with the Performance Tuning and Network Administration book. First, I get random errors when I try to use the tests on CD. I'll be part way through the test and it will hang up. If I get back in it usually works. I had no trouble with one of the other CD's. The other problem is that the book refers to chapter 20 in several places only there is no Chapter 20 in my copy. I e-mailed Sybex with this information and they sent me a replacement book for free. But guess what...no Chapter 20 there either. The only saving grace is that there is a Chapter 20 on the CD version of the book.

One thing I liked, though, is the set of flash cards I can load onto my palm pilot. That's been handy for when I have a few minutes to review.

This book is excellent for the PL/SQL and the
Databse Administration and Architecture exams, only. For Backup and Recovery and Performance Tuning, it fails to mention topics and concentrate on objectives that are heavily tested on the certification exam. This book however, is a great tool for beginners to learn about Oracle 8i. It is very self explanatory, and has very good clear examples demonstrating the uses of the database. The CD is only useful for minimum practice. I found the exams on the CD a lot easier for the Backup and Recovery and Performance Tuning exams. The real exams are far more challenging. It however does an excellent job for the PL/SQL exam; I found the PL/SQL practice exam on the CD a lot more difficult than the actual exam.

Used the Sybex suite of books with my work experience to prepare for the exams. The material is well presented and relevant to the exams. Lots of practice exams and chapter review questions help cement your knowledge. In the main I was very impressed and considered the books money well spent.
There were some areas which were annoying as they obviously hadn't even been proof read. Contradicting information, sometimes across books. For example LOG_CHECKPOINT_TIMEOUT is defined differently in the Backup & Recovery book than in the Performance Tuning book.
Some exam questions were marked incorrectly and the Bonus Exam for Performance Tuning on the CD is completely out of sync. Marked me as 22% where I had actually scored over 80%!!! Several questions ask for 2 answers but only allow you to put in one!!
This just proves the CD exams have not been tested. These errors were mainly on the Performance Tuning CD.
I'd still recommend you buy the books & CD and use them if trying to get through your 8i exams. I found practice exams invaluable for preparation.
In summary it gets my vote but more proof reading and testing would have created a 5 star product.

I found the study guides well laid out and easy to read. The content was good, and the practice exams had the look and feel of the actual tests. However, there are number of typos/errors in the text, and several typos/incorrect answers on the exams in the book. On Network Administration "bonus" test contained on the CD, there is even a question which asks you to "Choose all that apply", but the answers are implemented with "radio buttons" which allow you to choose only one. In order to get the question correct, you must choose three. The problems have not prevented me from passing the OCP exams, but i think that the editors of an exam preparation book should pay more attention to accuracy.