Rating: 
Summary: Good book for OCA exam!
Review: 1. For #1Z0-007 exam:a. I've taken Oracle class, so I didn't go through this book before I took #1Z0-007 exam, I found out that the format of this part is not nice for review, because the syntex of SQL statement is not demostrated in the way it should be, you have to read every words to get soom point (probably good for study from groud up?) b. Three practice Exams on CD-ROM are identical to those in print at end of book, but nowhere says that. So, if you want to evaluate youself before you go to the test center, don't do any exam in the book, but CD-ROM. c. Questions of exam in the book or CD-ROM is not similar to questions in the real Test for 1Z0-007. Too simple! And the exam on CD-ROM may mislead you. For example, there are some "B-tree and Bitmap indexes", "high water mark" questions in the book/cd-rom, but not in the real test at all! I passed the #1Z0-007 by reading Oracle University Text Book and doing practice from other resource. The index of the book is helpful when you want to look at some terms. 2. The second part of this book is written by another author. I read the first chapter and feel good as a beginner of DBA stuff.
That's why I rate this book 4 stars! I hope it will help me pass the 1Z0-131 exam. Wish me good luck! :)
Rating: 
Summary: SQL Review
Review: Having purchased the book and done quite well on the SQL Fundamentals practice exams in the book, I took the SQL cert. exam and failed - 37/57 - Oct 2002. This book was missing important SQL words like USING, ANY and ALL. I recommend this book as a starting point - then purchase Self Test exam questions and you will do very well.
Rating: 
Summary: Not good for beginners!
Review: Hello, There! * This book would be a good study guide for experience DBAs only, because it's complexity it's not easy to understand its topics and to follow its explanations and/or examples. * Because of its many typos, printing, and confusing definition of many of its topic and/or explanations I would recommend this book only for DBAs with many years of experience that would be able judge the right explanation, and to be to follow the topics and explanations.
B.R
Alf
Rating:
Summary: Not good for beginners!
Review: Hello, There! • This book would be a good study guide for experience DBAs only, because it's complexity it's not easy to understand its topics and to follow its explanations and/or examples. • Because of its many typos, printing, and confusing definition of many of its topic and/or explanations I would recommend this book only for DBAs with many years of experience that would be able judge the right explanation, and to be to follow the topics and explanations.
B.R
Alf
Rating:
Summary: OCA Oracle9i Associate DBA Certification Exam Guide
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: OCA Oracle9i Associate DBA Certification Exam Guide
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Good book for OCA
Review: I found this book to be very useful for OCA exams. One more advantage of this book is it comes with CD for simulated test, which help lot for exam preparation
Rating:
Summary: Good book but....
Review: I've just passed the 1Z0-007 (50/57) "which is way harder than 1Z0-001". The book is a good source to prepare for the exam, well organized and easy to read. Chapters 3&4 (queries and subqueries) are not extensive enough to let u pass the exam. Most of the exam (around 30%) is about subqueries. U need to know how to analyze and debug them to pass 1z0-007 and understand the new 9! SQL features. The worst thing about this book is the exams included. They (DO NOT) match the real test. U r going to have multiple choices (answers) for the same question.
Sometimes up to 4/6.The exams in the book still use the old format (on answer).
Some of the questions in the exams are repeated. All over this book is fine except chapters 3&4 (queries section).
U need to get an extra practice source.
I'll write another review when I take the 1Z0-031... Wish me luck... :)
Rating:
Summary: Good book but....
Review: I've just passed the 1Z0-007 (50/57) "which is way harder than 1Z0-001". The book is a good source to prepare for the exam, well organized and easy to read. Chapters 3&4 (queries and subqueries) are not extensive enough to let u pass the exam. Most of the exam (around 30%) is about subqueries. U need to know how to analyze and debug them to pass 1z0-007 and understand the new 9! SQL features. The worst thing about this book is the exams included. They (DO NOT) match the real test. U r going to have multiple choices (answers) for the same question.
Sometimes up to 4/6.The exams in the book still use the old format (on answer).
Some of the questions in the exams are repeated. All over this book is fine except chapters 3&4 (queries section).
U need to get an extra practice source.
I'll write another review when I take the 1Z0-031... Wish me luck... :)
Rating:
Summary: Ok, but at times, this book is an insult
Review: 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.
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