Reviews for Oracle Database 10g OCP Certification All-In-One Exam Guide (Osborne Oracle Press Series)

1. Definetely for the DBA

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, October 12nd, 2009

   This is certainly a book for the 10g OCA, OCP certification. It covers Administration I and II and helps the reader learn in an easy manner. I would like to see more on oracle networking and database auditing. Overall a great book.

2. hmmm, ok

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, July 12rd, 2009

   Coming from an oop background, I'm not hugely impressed because there is only 1 diagram in this book and it's a rubbish one. Otherwise, it seems to cover the material well but it's not the most riveting read and the examples are all trivial (in part 1 at least).
   

3. it did the job... just

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, December 12th, 2008

   I just passed the Admin II exam (hoorah) using just this book as my source of all knowledge (ok - i also passed Admin I 3 weeks ago using a variety of other material before buying this book, and had quite a lot of hands-on DBA experience some years back). There were things on the exam that didn't seem to be covered by the book but maybe i skipped them in the OCA section. These things are listed on the Oracle 10g Admin Workshop II course content, so check there, but not in the exam topics published by Oracle which pretty much follow the book exactly (or vice-versa). I have access to the 10g DBA Handbook and 10g The Complete Reference, neither of which cover much of the material, and certainly not in such an easy-to-absorb style.
   
   The included quiz and exam software has errors and incorrect answers (according to the book, which also contradicts itself a couple of times) and seemed of medium quality in terms of content.
   
   Why-o-why no errata for either book or software?!
   
   Anyway, a pass is a pass and 2 weeks' work with this book did it for me without yet attending an Oracle course since 8i (so no OCP for me).

4. Nearly but not quite fantastic

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2007

   I recently passed the OCA & OCP exams after a bootcamp but I used this book for pre-course reading and it certainly helped a lot. It doos use a lot of example of doing things with Enterprise Manager (Datbase Control) and the exams will cover very little along those lines. More command line knowledge is required I feel for the exams.
   
   Beware the test exams on the disc. Mine were labelled incorrectly, with the OCA listed as being the OCP and vice versa.
   
   I also used the Sybex books on the course and these too had their good and bad points. Much more command line stuff but a few typo errors that could cause an incorrect answer.
   
   A good tool to aid study but not 5 stars in my mind.

5. Just passed the OCA

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 2007

   I've just passed the Oracle OCA 10g exam, This book really helped.. A must for your OCA/P certifcation