OCA Oracle9i Associate DBA Certification Exam Guide (Hardcover)

by Jason S. Couchman (Author), Sudheer N. Marisetti (Author) "The first exam in the OCP DBA and Developer tracks covers fundamental usage of the SQL programming language for interacting with the Oracle9i database..." (more)
Key Phrases: Answer Key, Database Configuration Assistant, Certification Exam Guide (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Full Coverage of exams 1Z0-007 and 1Z0-031! Prepare for the Oracle Certified Associate (OCA) exams with this exam guide from the exclusive publishers of Oracle Press books. This volume is comprised of OCP Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL Exam Guide and OCP Oracle9i Database: Fundamentals I Exam Guide. Books and CD-ROMs combined contain more than 600 practice questions and cover all objectives for OCA certification.

From the Back Cover
Full Coverage of Exams 1Z0-007 & 1Z0-031

Prepare for Certification with Authoritative Exam Prep Material from Oracle Press

Prepare for the Oracle Certified Associate DBA exams by using this comprehensive Oracle Press study guide. Throughout each chapter, you'll find in-depth details on the material covered in these challenging exams, followed by practice questions and chapter summaries to highlight what you've learned. From the exclusive publisher of Oracle Press books, this package is the most comprehensive preparation tool available for the OCA exams.

• 100% complete coverage of all official exam objectives
• Exercises at the end of all discussions 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
• More than 600 practice questions--including scenario-based questions

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1056 pages
• Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill (May 21, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 007222536X
• ISBN-13: 978-0072225365
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.5 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,000,979 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ok, but at times, this book is an insult, May 6, 2003

By	D. Coates (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews

Overall, I found this book useful for studying for OCA, but it definitely lacks in some areas. I passed my SQL exam with room to spare, but I found that the actual exam questions were significantly more difficult than any of the practice exams.

As mentioned in other reviews, the CD-ROM is really just an online version of all the questions that are in the book. Absolutely nothing is new. This is quite disappointing since the book, had it included more questions on the CD-ROM, could have been a great resource.

I just finished reading the second section and am currently studying for the DB Fundi's 1 exam. I am getting quite frustrated for several reasons.

- The practice exams ask questions from material that NOT COVERED AT ALL in the book. Specifically, there is nothing in the book regarding SQL*Loader or the keep pool, yet practice exam 2 contains questions about them, provides answers, and assumes that they are covered in topic 1.1 when they clearly are not.

- The book breaks down each section and mentions the percentage of the questions on the exam that will be from that section. However, the practice exams appear to not be formed correctly. Instead, they appear to be formed randomly, or by a small, trained monkey. Example: The book states that up to 3% of the exam will involve globalization support questions. Yet, one of the practice exams has 5 out of 60 questions about it (8.3%). This is more than double the indicated amount.

The saddest part of this whole thing is that this book is supposedly "Oracle Certified." In addition, the cover of the book proclaims "Full Coverage of Exams 1Z0-007 & IZ0-031" and there is a bullet point on the back cover indicating "100% complete coverage of all official exam objectives." As demonstrated above, this is clearly not the case. I am trying to pursue getting in contact with someone who can make this situation better, or provide materials, but aside from the errata page, there doesn't seem to be much help available.

I sincerely hope that this book improves in later editions and that others will not have the bumpy and somewhat incomplete experience I have had.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars OCA Oracle9i Associate DBA Certification Exam Guide, January 23, 2003

By	Bruce Jackie (Asia Pacific) - See all my reviews

I am an absolute beginner. I found this book useful for the SQL part of the OCA, namely 1Z0-007; all you need is analytical ability to piece together the concepts presented. The second half which is meant for 1Z0-031 Fundamentals 1 does not do the job of hand-holding the beginner which is the intended audience of the OCA. Instead, it seems re-packaged from the OCP material. I am struggling with Chapter 10 and 11 on architecture and physical database structure as I have no experience with them and could not relate.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Many certification topics missing..Do not rely on this book, October 22, 2003

By	Srivatsan Desikan "srivatsand" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a pretty good book but I was shocked to see questions in the exam (both the exams) that were not at all covered by this book. For example this book claims to list all datatypes in oracle but it does not list the DSI and other Interval datatypes. In exam 2 I realised that one has to read more in depth than what the book suggests. I found it missing several points for the fundamental 1 exam. So Please do not trust only on this book. It does not give a complete picture