Oracle Certification

Certification Opt-In Now Live
We just got a bit nervous today thinking that a few of you may not be getting the latest info on Oracle Certification. In addition to this blog, we issue a monthly Oracle Certification E-Magazine which includes certification track updates, exam information, events, promotions, and program news. And you can have this information delivered directly to your inbox every month, spam-free.

But there's a catch...

You must first go to www.oracle.com/admin/account and check the Oracle Certification Program checkbox on your Oracle Profile.

Having done this, you'll now you'll "be in the know". If you need to catch up, our July edition is available here on the web.

Happy checkbox-clicking!

Paul Sorensen | Director, Oracle Certification

QUICK LINKS:

• Oracle Profile / Subscriptions
• Oracle Certification Program
• Oracle Certification E-Magazine - July 2008
  

As you may have noticed on our website, we have now have a great number of new certifications for Oracle E-Business Suite R12. From apps DBAs to sys admins to apps consultants, Oracle has invested a tremendous amount of support behind those of you working with this comprehensive suite of integrated, global business applications. If you've been seeing various staggered announcements in your inbox and wish you could just get a birds-eye view, well here it is.

What certifications are available?

To keep it short and simple, here's "the list":

• Oracle E-Business Suite R12 Financials Certified Expert Consultant, Payables (OCE)
• Oracle E-Business Suite R12 Financials Certified Expert Consultant, Receivables (OCE)
• Oracle E-Business Suite R12 Supply Chain Certified Expert Consultant, Purchasing (OCE)
• Oracle E-Business Suite R12 Supply Chain Certified Expert Consultant, Order Management (OCE)
• Oracle E-Business Suite R12 Advanced Supply Chain Planning Certified Expert Consultant (OCE)
  
• Oracle E-Business Suite R12 Applications Database Administrator Certified Professional (OCP)
• Oracle E-Business Suite R12 System Administrator Certified Expert (OCE)
  

So there you have it - seven new R12 certifications; all but one are Oracle Certified Expert (OCE) designations, with the exception being the Applications Database Administrator which is an Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) designation.

Calling all beta participants

Right now you have an opportunity to take many of these exams at a significant discount while they are in beta. We'll talk more about beta exams in a later post - but for now, be aware that this is a short window of opportunity for you, and we hope that you will take advantage of it. Click on the tracks above to find out which track exams are currently available in beta.

Summary list - EBS R12 Certification Exams Currently In Beta:

• Oracle E-Business Suite R12: System Administration (1Z1-206) - beta ends 01 Dec 2008
• Oracle E-Business Suite R12: General Ledger and Payables Fundamentals (1Z1-215) - beta ends 01 Dec 2008
• Oracle E-Business Suite R12: General Ledger and Receivables Fundamentals (1Z1-216) - beta ends 01 Dec 2008
• Oracle E-Business Suite R12: Inventory and Purchasing Fundamentals (1Z1-225) - beta ends 01 Dec 2008
• Oracle E-Business Suite R12: Inventory and Order Management Fundamentals (1Z1-226) - beta ends 01 Dec 2008
• Oracle E-Business Suite R12: Install, Patch and Maintain Applications (1Z1-238) - beta ends 31 Oct 2008
• Oracle E-Business Suite R12: Advanced Supply Chain Management (1Z1-244) - beta ends 01 Dec 2008

Thanks!

Paul Sorensen | Director, Oracle Certification

QUICK LINKS:

• Register For An Exam
• Oracle Certification Program
• Oracle Applications Certifications
• Oracle Certification Exams in Beta
• Oracle E-Business Suite
  

Are you on Twitter?  So are we!

Sign up to follow us: user OracleCert.

QUICK LINKS:

• Oracle Certification on Twitter
• Um... what the heck is Twitter?

As of this morning, there were 1,518 messages contained within 359 threads.  That's a lot of content  A lot of insight. A lot of discussion.

The Oracle Certification section of the popular Oracle Technology Network (OTN) Forum currently has threads such as:

• Oracle PL/SQL Developer OCA
• Hard discussion with the manager
• Looking for an OCM mentor based in DK
• New Certification blog and new magazine about certification
• How important is to have an Oracle Certification?
• Opportunities for DBA trainees
• Oracle EBS R12: E-Business Essentials
• OCE Linux publishing a Oracle book

We're seeing advice and information shared by seasoned Oracle certified veterans as well as inquries and advice-seeking from up-and-coming certification candidates. As always - if you need help from customer service, please contact us directly at ocpexam_ww@oracle.com.  Otherwise, we encourage you to seek and share information here.

Welcome to the Forum!

QUICK LINKS:

• OTN Forum - Oracle Certification
• OTN Forum (home page)

Calling all those who are already Oracle Certified: we need your help with the 2008 Certification Magazine Salary Survey!

This survey will take only about 10-15 minutes to complete, but the information that comes out of the survey is really valuable.

Certification Magazine needs a minimum number of people to respond for each certification area (or they can’t include it in the final results). Therefore, your individual participation can indeed make the difference whether your hard-earned credential gets accurately represented in the survey results (or gets listed at all). You did see “Swing Vote”, right?

So please (1) take the survey and (2) spread the word by telling your friends and forwarding the link. This will really help mobilize as much participation as possible.

Please note: Hyperion, BEA and Siebel folks should look under “Oracle” for those listings.

I’ll post a link to the results when they come out in December. In the meantime, check out the 2007 Survey Results in the "Quick Links" below.

Thanks!

QUICK LINKS

• Certification Magazine 2008 Salary Survey
• Certification Magazine 2007 Salary Survey (Results)
• Certification Magazine (homepage)
  

One of the topics that we get a lot of questions about is beta exams. Questions like:

…why is the test so long? (i.e. so many questions)
…why don’t I get the score for my beta right away?
…how does Oracle use the beta exam results?
…why should I take a beta exam?

Many more too. And although we are certainly happy to answer these questions when they come into our customer service inbox (ocpexam_ww@oracle.com) and online forums, we thought you’d enjoy hearing the answers to these right here in our blog. We’re therefore beginning this new mini-series called “Beta Exams: What, Why and How?”

These posts will be sprinkled amongst our regular posts, so don’t worry – we won’t bore you with a consecutive assault of ‘posts about beta exams’.

Right now, there are still many Oracle exams that you can take in beta, so we encourage you to get out there and take them while they are still available. (Exam prices and availability window listed on each certification exam’s detail page.)

If you have a question about Oracle’s certification beta exams – please let us know here in the comments and we’ll see if we can address them right here. (please note – we will continue to refer specific customer service questions to our email address above)

Question: Why Is The Test So Long?   (a.k.a. Why Does The Test Have So Many Questions?)

Answer: During exam development we write a large pool of questions for several reasons. The quick answer?

1. So we can create multiple versions of the exam, and...
2. So we have a pool of a sufficient size that allows us to remove poorer questions, leaving only the "best" questions.

The beta exam is critical, allowing us to evaluate each question for its difficulty and ability to measure the candidate’s knowledge. In addition to the data collected and analyzed for each question, there is also important data obtained from the questions' performance relative to each other as well as to the exam as a whole.

So yeah - it's important that we include every question in the beta exam pool.

Although it takes longer to answer all of these questions, there is a tremendous benefit:

Firstly, you are direcly helping ensure that all versions of the exam are fair; i.e. every future exam has the same difficulty and comprehension regardless of version.

Secondly, you are directly helping determine which questions are selected for the final versions, and which ones... "kinda need to go."

Oh. And you are scored only on those questions we choose to keep in the final exam versions (more good news).

So get a good stretch, get comfortable at the testing station, and help us in making these certification exams as fair and straight-forward as possible.