By Paul Sorensen on December 9, 2008 2:50 AM
On December 1, 2008, the integration of BEA Certification with Oracle certification completed with the re-launch of four BEA certifications and the re-publication of their corresponding exams under the Oracle Certification program.
The four newly re-branded BEA certifications received new Oracle Certified Expert (OCE) titles:
Retirements
As part of the transition to Oracle, five BEA certification exams were retired and are no longer available:
- 0B0-101 BEA Certified Developer: Build Solutions for BEA WebLogic 8.1
- 0B0-102 BEA Certified Developer: Portal Solutions for BEA WebLogic 8.1
- 0B0-103 BEA Certified Developer: Integration Solutions for BEA WebLogic 8.1/8.5
- 0B0-104 BEA Certified Administrator: System Administration for BEA WebLogic 8.1
- 0B0-105 BEA Certified Architect: Enterprise Architecture for BEA WebLogic 8.1
Note that the retirement of these exams does not affect the status of existing BEA certifications. Those certifications remain valid without expiration and are fully recognized by Oracle.
New Process To Update Profile
The I7 Learning Profile for BEA certified candidates was retired in November and is no longer available. Candidates can now view their exam history and update demographic information on their Prometric profiles at www.prometric.com.
More information on the BEA certification transition can be found on the Oracle Certification Blog and the Oracle Certification website. Specifics on BEA exam vouchers, BEA candidate profiles, and similar transitional topics can be found on our website.
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By Paul Sorensen on December 9, 2008 3:09 AM
Oracle Certification has released a new podcast, featuring an interview with former BEA certification program manager Lisa Iacono-Chiola. In this podcast, Lisa discusses the target audiences, the exam content, and how the exams were built.
To listen to the podcast, visit the Oracle Certification Media page.
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By Paul Sorensen on December 15, 2008 9:45 PM
The effort and cost that goes into building and launching a single exam is tremendous. Building a certification involves many resources, including subject matter experts, exam project managers, psychometricians, beta testers, marketing/launch coordinators, customer service reps, and vendors. All of these people take great pride in their work and Oracle puts every effort into making sure that each exam is a good measurement of the knowledge and skills associated with the intended level and job role. Cheaters cheapen the value of the associated credential and undermine the efforts of the people who worked so hard to build the exam. In other words, cheating is a direct “slap-in-the face” to the Oracle Certification Program.
Your opinion: Are cheaters conscious to any degree of the individuals who plan, develop and deliver the exams?
Paul Sorensen,
Director, Oracle Certification
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[UPDATE January 8, 2009: survey period ended, URL removed]
By Paul Sorensen on December 17, 2008 7:55 AM
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Today is the big day! Testing has begun for the new Oracle Database 11g Performance Tuning Certified Expert (OCE) certification.
The Oracle Database 11g Performance Tuning Certified Expert certification endorses those database administrators, support engineers, and technical consultants who have demonstrated their knowledge and skills using Oracle Database 11g automatic tuning features, including SQL Tuning Advisor, SQL Access Advisor, Automatic Workload Repository and Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor.
Earning this new Oracle Certification requires that you pass exam 1Z1-054 – Oracle Database 11g: Performance Tuning, which is now in beta at Prometric testing centers worldwide at the special beta price of only $50 USD. Although training is required (Oracle Database 11g Performance Tuning - Course ID D50317GC10), this requirement is waived for all certified Oracle 11g DBA OCPs!
Beta exams are an excellent way to directly provide your input into the final version of the certification exam as well as be one of the very first certified in the track. Furthermore – passing the beta counts for full final exam credit. Note that beta testing is offered for a limited time only.
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By Paul Sorensen on December 18, 2008 11:47 PM
Isn’t in ironic that the only real beneficiary of cheating are those who steal test content (test questions) and sell or give them away. And for what…to earn money from ad traffic on their website?
Because these people operate outside of the law, Oracle does pursue prosecution of the authors, operators, and distributors of dump sites and illegal information-sharing. This unfortunately can be a lengthy process, as these shady operators will often move their sites around attempting to outrun legal prosecution.
Have you ever submitted real exam questions to a forum or dump site? Would you agree or disagree that this devalues your own efforts and credential? Did you know that when you agree to Oracle’s Candidate Agreement you agree not to share exam content?
Paul Sorensen,
Director, Oracle Certification
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[UPDATE January 8, 2009: survey period ended, URL removed]
By Paul Sorensen on December 19, 2008 2:08 PM
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I’ve been amazed by the amount of attention we’ve received on the Certification blog. Your readership has made this one of the most-visited blogs here at Oracle. The blog has been a fun, efficient way to distribute release information, opinions and recommendations to those interested in Oracle Certification. Also it’s a nice way for you to express opinions back to us. I hope that your finding us more accessible and more timely with our information.
Additionally I want to thank all of you who re-publish or push the content of the blog to your audiences or friends. It’s helped us get the word out about key changes and releases.
In the coming few weeks (and months) we’ll be celebrating a new year and many of you will also celebrate various holidays. At this time, I’d like to thank you for your support of the certification program here at Oracle.
Thank you and Happy Holidays from the Oracle Certification program.
Paul Sorensen,
Director, Oracle Certification
By Paul Sorensen on December 19, 2008 3:30 PM
Oracle has implemented a number of strategies to help curb cheating and continues to work on even more. We realize that - in spite of all of our efforts - that if people are bent on stealing, sharing and using illegal content, that we can't effectively police each and every specific transaction to stop them. However, there are several interesting technologies emerging that may accurately allow us to determine whether or not someone has had access to illegal content before the test. One major certification program is implementing this now, and we are looking at it very closely.
There are four things that you as legitimate certification holders can do to help preserve the integrity of your justly earned certification:
- Strongly discourage the sharing of content among candidates. Don't post test content in forums, upload items to dumps or help others using real content.
- Don't point people to brain dumps or even encourage them. Don't support illegal content thieves, distributers, and seekers. Let them fend or themselves. Avoid any actions that enable a short-cutter to circumvent the real process of actually getting certified.
- Become an evangelist - tell both your success and horror stories. Share with people how following the correct process has paid off in your career and in your life. Share examples of where you seen or heard of people who have been burned by cutting corners and cheating.
- Report specific instances of cheating and fraud to Oracle. Using Oracle's fraud reporting email address, you can report instances of fraud and cheating to the Oracle Certification Program. Don't worry - your submission is anonymous. We investigate these reports vigorously and take action wherever legally possible.
We can't completely eliminate cheating or cheaters. But we are making significant strides to curb and discourage it.
In summary - we need to remember that in the long run, cheating doesn't help anyone and instead actually causes harm to everyone involved.
Paul Sorensen,
Director, Oracle Certification
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[UPDATE January 8, 2009: survey period ended, URL removed]
