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Home > Archive > Oracle certifications > October 2001 > 8i exam
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| laloca 2001-10-11, 11:56 am |
| Hi,
as many others here I'm seriously interested in taking the Oracle 8i exams (I already cleared SQL-part). I use the Couchman materials, technet and metalink for preparation. But it is soooo boring sitting alone hours over hours about all these theoretic materials. Therefore I'm always stuck on the oracle-newsgroups to learn from "real" problems ... ;-) .. and forget to prepare for my exams.
Is somebody (or some more) out there who want to prepare for the exams together. I know it's not so easy over the Internet, but it should be a kind of motivation, sharing interesting insights, preaparation materials (chapter summaries), "exam experiences".
What do you think? Interesting idea? This forum could be the ideal place for exam preparing. | |
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| laloca,
I agree with you totally about studying the Couchman book and the rest of the exam materials. If you want to start some "interactive internet" type study group, I am up for it. It is a bit sad sometimes to always see STS and Cheatnote swapping instead of discussions on Oracle and how to understand it so that we can pass the exam AND work with it in our future position!
By the way, which exam are you taking next? Do you have Oracle at work or are you studying at home?
Ming | |
| laloca 2001-10-12, 5:21 pm |
| Ming,
nice to hear from you 
Actually I'm preparing for the db adminstration exam (stuck somewhere with temporary tablespaces). And yes, I use Oracle 8i both at work (Linux box) and at home (Win2000).
I have some experience with Oracle (7 years or so - up from 6.0.34) but never needed these "high sophisticated" features like tuning sga-parameters, configuring rman or so ... in other words: I never cared for really "big" databases or 24x7 systems ;-) and Oracle is very gracious to (longtime) beginners ..
This is the reason why I started the OCP track - get an understanding of the Oracle theory and backgrounds.
But memorizing sql syntax for an exam is quite stupid .. in "real" life I'm using a reference manual and the parser for checking syntax  But of course you need to know what you are looking for in case of trouble ...
On what exams are you working next? Do you have a database for "experimenting"? | |
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| laloca,
Right now, I decided to go on the OCP8i track so I need to take the 1Z0-023 Arch and Admin exam. However, someone suggested taking the 1Z0-026 Network Admin exam instead. I am definitely taking the Perf Tuning last. Going to order more books from the US and have it shipped here.
I am in the midst of building my computer so that I can have more hands on experience as I am not working now. If you or anyone else is interested in giving me some hints/suggestions for what I will need to study at home, please let me know!! Oracle is totally new to me and since I have no prior experience in the computer industry, I need to rely on a lot of other sources such as these forums or other supplementary books/domentation from Oracle. A friend of mine is teaching me UNIX on the side since most companies use it with Oracle.
The exams are quite tricky! When do you plan to take the exam next? Like I said before, I hope that we (and others) will be able to start some sort of stuyding session on this forum. Contact me soon and let me know if you want to start a schedule for this...
Thanks,
Ming | |
| laloca 2001-10-14, 4:14 pm |
| Bonjour Ming,
fine - you're preparing the same exam than me. I actually summarized more than 50 pages for the admin-exam .. now working on chapter 8 of the couchman book. I like to take the exam in about 2 weeks.
If you don't have much IT experience you're going a hard way. I'm quite impressed...
For your home/training equipment: It is much easier to set up Oracle on a Win2000 workstation than on Linux. I use 8.1.7 with Win2000 on a 433 MHz Celeron computer with 256 MB RAM and an extra harddisk. It works fine for testing. I set up Oracle 3 times on a Linux machine (Suse) and it was never easy (not to say horror). I struggled not directy with Oracle installation but with X, some essential patches, the correct Java version and not to forget: the correct glibc library. It takes so much effort and experience to install Oracle on a Linux environment that you should prefer Windows for your first steps.
Download Oracle for windows from technet.oracle.com (I hope you have a good internet connection). You must register there, but it is for free. Than you can also use the whole Oracle library - all references and very useful background materials.
asktom.oracle.com is another useful site for beginners or concrete questions. Oracle newsgroups (e.g. on groups.google.com) are another intersting source. What I want to say is: save the money for Oracle books. You don't need them necessarily for the exams.
If you like, we can proceed via Mail (laloca@warum.net) ... maybe I can help you out with some more information. I fear people here are really only interested in swapping cheet sheets. | |
| sql21 2001-10-14, 11:24 pm |
| Installing oracle on Linux is not that hard, there are good "unofficial" tutorials for redhat and mandrake installations. I don't like SUSE. I see you are from Europe, me too, I think OCP is by far the best-value cert (in EU). | |
| laloca 2001-10-15, 2:12 pm |
| Installing Oracle on Windows is normally easier for a beginner ...
You're right there are less OCP's in Europe - the probles is: also few recruiter know this cert ;-) | |
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| laloca,
Thanks for the tip--you aren't the only one to suggest using the Windows since I am a beginner. Of course, once I am more experienced in Oracle, I would love to move on to the Linux way.
I will post my installation results/problems here so that other beginners can get an idea of what it's like and experts can either laugh  or give other helpful suggestions.
In the meantime, I will email you separately on studying for the 2nd exam.
Speak to you soon,
Ming | |
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| quote:
Originally posted by laloca
You're right there are less OCP's in Europe - the probles is: also few recruiter know this cert ;-)
all recruiters have web-access and can read this:
http://www.oracle.com/education/certification/
by the way, do you think all certified DBA's should have a degree or it's not 100% necessary?
when I say degree, I am talking about computer science degrees [4years or more] | |
| laloca 2001-10-16, 1:46 pm |
| Hi sql21,
you're right - all recruiters have internet access ;-) but do you really mean a cert is all they want for their decision?
I only know the situation in Austria: you really NEED a cert, if the company you're working for is an Oracle Partner (e.g. as consultancy for db projects). In the local job ads all I see is something like "experiences with relationated databases, e.g. Oracle". So certification is a plus, but without experience only a weak one. Without cert, but with say 2-3 years experience it's not hard to become a dba for a production database. Ergo: both cert and experience is a big plus
degree, hmm ...? I can't say, I don't have one and I know people with degrees earning less than me (same age, but less practical experience). But also some earning much more than me. I think, it depends on the employer and the kind of job. Maybe consultancies need degrees for impressing business cards ..  | |
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