Oracle Certification testing tools

[man...@ix.netcom.com]

Does anyone know how good the STS testing software for Oracle
certification is?
Are there ay other testing tools out there?

[Steve Phelan]

Why bother?

Just get the free ones of the Oracle site. They will give you more than
enough of a flavour of the actual exams.

Then read the Oracle Certification book and the Oracle manuals. They
will tell you *more* than you need to know to get through the exams.
Don't forget to get the Oracle8 cerfication overview from the Oracle
site as well, I found it very useful.

I work with a guy who didn't take the above advice. He's useless
(absolutely) on the job, and has all the STS papers and the 'exam cram'
books and still hasn't passed his Oracle7 OCP exams after 6 months of
trying. I did the whole lot in 5 weeks, one per week by reading the
Oracle manuals properly and getting real hands on experience of the bits
I hadn't used before. It's a much better (and fun) way to learn than
spending hour upon hour going through 400 questions on test papers.
Sure, I've got a fair bit of Oracle, but I still think sitting down with
the manuals and the product is by far the best way to learn.

Just my take, and I'm sure plenty will disagree! :-)

Steve Phelan

(Oracle 7 & 8 OCP)

[Connor McDonald]

I throughly agree but I found the exams a little disappointing...Heaps
of questions on syntax etc (which a chimp could eventually learn)
whereas I had been hoping that they would be more based on
"what/why/when would you do this" style which would give a better
indication of quality....

Just my 2c
--
==============================================
Connor McDonald, OCP
BHP Information Technology
Perth, Western Australia
"Never wrestle a pig - you both get dirty and the pig likes it..."

[Steve Phelan]

I agree absolutely with that.

By far the biggest jobs with Oracle are physical database design,
architecture, installation/maintenance and upgrading. These are not even
touched on the OCP papers. I'd only ever use the OCP as a simple baseline when
interviewing candidates for jobs.

Steve Phelan

(Oracle 7 & 8 OCP)

[cath...@erols.com]

On Sat, 27 Feb 1999 09:49:24 +0000, Steve Phelan <ste...@toneline.n-o-s-p-a-m.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>I agree absolutely with that.
>
>By far the biggest jobs with Oracle are physical database design,
>architecture, installation/maintenance and upgrading. These are not even
>touched on the OCP papers. I'd only ever use the OCP as a simple baseline when
>interviewing candidates for jobs.
>
>Steve Phelan
>
>(Oracle 7 & 8 OCP)
>
>Connor McDonald wrote:
>
>> Steve Phelan wrote:
>> >
>> > Why bother?
>> >
>> > Just get the free ones of the Oracle site. They will give you more than
>> > enough of a flavour of the actual exams.
>> >
>> > Then read the Oracle Certification book and the Oracle manuals.

Great idea. Any sources for these manuals? They don't come
with P.O.8, etc. trial versions.

[ed]

I throughly agree but I found the exams a little disappointing...Heaps

> of questions on syntax etc (which a chimp could eventually learn)
> whereas I had been hoping that they would be more based on
> "what/why/when would you do this" style which would give a better
> indication of quality....
>
> Just my 2c
> --
> ==============================================
> Connor McDonald, OCP
> BHP Information Technology
> Perth, Western Australia
> "Never wrestle a pig - you both get dirty and the pig likes it..."

Yep, but you passed though. What I'd like to know is has it helped you're
employment prospects?

Ed.