Staying on the right path while preparing for your certification
We receive a lot of questions related to legitimate vs. illegitimate forms of studying. Because we’ve gotten so many questions lately I thought that I would comment on this topic.
First, here is an overview of a suggested method of study and a few details along with it:
- Review the certification requirements on the Oracle Certification website
- For each exam, review the exam objectives on the Oracle Certification website
- Perform a gap analysis of your knowledge/experience/skills versus the exam objectives (for each exam).
- Create a study plan the that will help you close the gaps that you identified.
Utilize study methods that work for you. We suggest that these might include:
- Practice – use the real product in a non-production environment
- Training – take an Oracle University course or attend an OU seminar
- Read – Oracle Press and many other publishers have exam and/or topic-related books available
- Flash Cards – If you create flash cards with key points on them, you will learn both while you create them and while you review them
- Practice Exams – look for legitimately available practice exams or sample questions
Things you should not use to study as they violate your certification candidate agreement:
- Asking a friend who has taken the test to tell you what is on it
- Accessing practice exam sites that claim to have real test questions
- Take the test just “find out what’s on it’
- Accessing user group “brain dump” sites
- Discussing real exam questions in forums
Quite honestly - when someone follows the legitimate process to practice, study and become certified they benefit much more than someone who sidesteps the process by cheating (using illegitimate methods). Someone who cheats not only cheats others but also themselves.
I’m interested in comments you might have.
Paul Sorensen,
Director, Oracle Certification
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Comments (4)
Where is the Oracle Certification website? the link in this blog goes to http://bit.ly/gvGm7
Posted by Grant Erickson | August 5, 2009 6:11 AM
Hi Grant - that is just a shortened URL that should just redirect you to this full URL: http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=39.
Cheers,
—Harold
Posted by Harold Green | August 5, 2009 6:47 AM
Hi Paul,
I am attending the Oracle Workforce Dev programs listed course in New York University SCPS -Certificate course in Oracle Database Administration.This certificate course has 3 courses under it 1st Introduction to SQL 2nd Oracle database Admin I and 3rd Oracle database Admin II in NYU SCPS.I want to go for OCP certification for DBA which requires an instructor led training.If I attend any one of the available couses from oracle university,it satisfies the requirement of instructor led course,but I want to know that doing such a course from Oracle WDP centres would only one of the above three courses would fulfill the requirement or do I need to attend all the three courses.
If ask the NYU instructors they say,Oracle knows that.So I am asking you.Please help.
Thanks
Posted by Dipti | November 6, 2009 10:36 PM
Hi Dipti,
As far as Oracle is concerned, you only need to complete one of the required classes to qualify for the DBA OCP. That said, the university may actually have a requirement for you to complete all 3 classes before you will receive credit and receive your WDP discount voucher. Please also check with the university to determine what their requirement is.
For the purpose of certification, you only need to comple one course.
Regards,
Brandye
Posted by brandye | November 12, 2009 8:18 AM