Customer Reviews

Oracle8i Certified Professional DBA Practice Exams

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The problem with this book is that the author seemed to take the exact questions from his Oracle 8 practice tests and copy them into this book. I even saw numerous questions that said "In Oracle8..." shouldn't it say 8i?

There is a reason Oracle 8i has its own set of tests, there are new features and added/deleted objectives. Case in point, in the first Network Administration practice exam there are about 6 or 7 questions on Oracle Intelligent Agent. Unfortunately Oracle Intelligent Agent is not covered on the actual 8i exam. Also I found two or three questions in the practice exam that were dead wrong. All this in just 20 minutes of reviewing the book in the store.

I don't recommend this book to anyone that is serious about getting their OCP. Stick with the Sybex books and the STS exams(if you really need the extra practice). I did all my studying with just the Sybex books. Good Luck.

Usually the Couchman books are pretty good and cover the necessary material. Not in this case, though. The actual exams cover a lot of topics that are not even mentioned in passing in this book. You'll be wasting your OCP exam money if you think this book can guide you. You'll have to find your practice material elsewhere.

I'm taking my 5th OCP exam tomorrow. I bought this book 4 exams ago as a self-tester. As others have stated, there are too many problems in this book. Answers that are clearly wrong. Material that was most likely in Oracle 8, but not in 8i. I thought I was well prepared, took one of these tests and saw a ton of questions that weren't in any other study material. When I went to take the tests, and what do you know - that material wasn't on the tests either! Each exam I thought I'd give this book a second chance. Each exam that exercise was a waste of time.
There is better study material out there - don't waste your money.

Buy it only if you really don't mind there are some outdated questions. You still have some taste of real exam in this book.

Whilst most of the contents in this book are still valid in Oracle 8i exams, the book is primarily designed for the Oracle 8 exams indeed.

One critical example is tuning the buffer cache with the V$RECENT_BUCKET and V$CURRENT_BUCKET. They are used in Oracle 8 but become obsolute in Oracle 8i. And as other Amazon reviewers point out, intelligent agent should be covered in Oracle 8 exam and not this book.

The exams keep these "expired" questions in the guide that certainly make most candidates quite confused.

To be fair, the difficulty level of this book is similar to that set in the actual exam.

The structure of the mock exams in the book tries to capture most of the exam topics and therefore does not reflect the actual ingredients in the real exam. And undoubtedly, the actual exam questions will not appear in this book. However, if you want to have some taste of real exam, this might still serve the purpose.

The problem with this book is that the author seemed to take the exact questions from his Oracle 8 practice tests and copy them into this book. I even saw numerous questions that said "In Oracle8..." shouldn't it say 8i?

There is a reason Oracle 8i has its own set of tests, there are new features and added/deleted objectives. Case in point, in the first Network Administration practice exam there are about 6 or 7 questions on Oracle Intelligent Agent. Unfortunately Oracle Intelligent Agent is not covered on the actual 8i exam. Also I found two or three questions in the practice exam that were dead wrong. All this in just 20 minutes of reviewing the book in the store.

I don't recommend this book to anyone that is serious about getting their OCP. Stick with the Sybex books and the STS exams(if you really need the extra practice). I did all my studying with just the Sybex books. Good Luck.

This book was packed full of great exam questions comparible to the DBA exams. Don't be fooled into thinking you can memorize the practice exams then pass the test. The Practice exams will simply help you guage if you are prepared enough, and if you do not pass the practice exams, you will be able to pinpoint areas where you will need to study. The practice exams are very different then the selftest exams yet they are still similiar the the type of questions you will receive on the exam. This book in itself will not allow you to pass the 5 exams, however it is a good resource and gives good explanations of why the answers are the right answer.