Oracle 8 to 8i Upgrade Exam Cram (Exam: 1Z0-020) [Paperback]

Robert G. Freeman (Author), Charles A. Pack (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2000 | Series: Exam Cram (Coriolis Books)

Covers the published objectives for the Oracle 8i: New Features for Administrators exam. Contains key terms and acronyms an Oracle 8i Certified DBA is expected to know to pass the exam.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Freeman (Enid, OK), is a certified Oracle8i DBA. He has worked with Oracle products for almost 20 years, most recently as a consultant IDS Corporation in Florida, where he is working as a database administrator. Robert was the author of the Oracle 7.3 to 8 Upgrade Exam Cram.

Charles Pack (Oklahoma City, OK) has over 15 years computer experience. He is Oracle7, 8 and 8i certified. He is currently a database administrator with CSX in Jacksonville, Florida.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Coriolis Group Books; 1st edition (December 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157610737X
• ISBN-13: 978-1576107379
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,876,083 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good enough...but nothing special, April 18, 2001

By 

Ales Kavsek (Ljubljana, Slovenia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Oracle 8 to 8i Upgrade Exam Cram (Exam: 1Z0-020) (Paperback)

It seems to me that everyone is happy with the book, but is it really that good? In my opinion it's far from perfect preparation guide for OCP exam. It's true that author covered *almost* all topics from OCP preparation guide, organization of the book is indeed good, questions at the end of each chapter and sample test at the end of the book are real gems. Even typographical errors are almost gone in this edition compared with author previous edition Oracle7 to 8 Upgrade (which was probably not proof read at all).

So, where is the problem? First I found layout of the book simply terrible, it really hurts readability of otherwise more or less well-written chapters. You'll probably need a set of markers at hand while reading to make clear distinction of key words, wrapped syntax and dense sections. Extensive usage of boldface and lack of white space in this book makes this even worse and as such worthless for any kind of reference in the future (ok, this last one is perhaps too much to expect from cram book, after all ;-).

When I prepared for upgrade exam from Oracle 7.3 to 8.0 I used Exam Cram study guide as my primary source of information, ILT Courseware as second and Oracle technical manuals for detailed explanations on particular topics as third source of information. This time around I think ILT courseware is better exam preparation resource than Exam Cram book Oracle8 to 8i Upgrade. ILT is certainly more readable (thanks to clear layout) and more comprehensive at the same time.

Topics that I found incomplete or with missing explanation in this book are: LogMiner (incomplete description of V$ views), LOBS (temporary LOBS...), DBMS_REPAIR, FGAC (data dictionary views?), Constraint Changes in Oracle8i and last but not least, chapter on Resource Manager is a clear example of how NOT to present new feature in study guide.

You should also be careful while reading and answering the questions because some statements (answers) are wrong, for example false statement introduced in Oracle7.3 to 8 Upgrade book that makes you believe that partitioning of bitmap indexes was not possible in Oracle8 is still here, wrong definition of normalized / denormalized dimensions and unclear definition of prefixed index are also examples of possible misunderstanding of the topics.

So, the question is should you buy this book if you already have ILT? Don't forget that the main objective of Exam Cram books is to help you pass the exam (not necessarily help you to really *learn* something), I'm sure this book will deliver that promise. Those of you without ILT don't have much choice, Mr. Freeman book is still the best OCP 8 to 8i study guide on the market. Good luck!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book but has some inaccurate facts, January 15, 2001

By 

Wassim Saade (Irving,TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oracle 8 to 8i Upgrade Exam Cram (Exam: 1Z0-020) (Paperback)

The book is excellent in presenting the key facts for the exam.I recommend this book very strongly.I found some inaccurate facts though.

An example of an inaccurate piece of information :<< Look at page 71.It says "If you don't include the dictionary file the SQL REDO and SQL UNDO columns won't be populated ". >>

This fact is not correct.I tested this scenario and I found out that these columns will be populated.Without a dictionary file, the equivalent SQL statements will use Oracle internal object IDs for the object name and present column values as hex data but THEY WILL BE POPULATED.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed this time around, January 9, 2002

By 

"cautin2" (New Orleans, LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oracle 8 to 8i Upgrade Exam Cram (Exam: 1Z0-020) (Paperback)

I was very let down by this book, especially after being satisfied with Freeman's Oracle 7.3 to 8 Exam Cram edition. I urge extreme caution to anyone who believes this 8i Exam Cram covers the minimum material required to pass the exam.

Maybe I'm a bit rusty but I spent over 80 hours reading, reviewing and practicing tests out of this book. I passed all the sample tests therein with a very comfortable margin but was not able to pass the REAL TEST. Inaccuracies are one thing but the major omissions really killed me. Examples include specific subject matter related to LOB columns, partition joins, explain plan, Dimensions, post-8i CONNECT command, v8.1.6 features, transportable tablespaces, etc.

The book isn't a complete waste of time. I'd recommend reading it once, rather quickly. It obviously needs to be augmented by other study material, as I'm getting ready to find out.