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RE: Oracle Performance Tuning Exam

From: Johnson, Michael <Michael.Johnson_at_oln-afmc.af.mil>
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 19:28:47 -0800
Message-ID: <F001.00561B20.20030305192847@fatcity.com>


Don ... Why dont you tell everyone how you really feel ! Where have you been ? ... besides busy like the rest of us.

Mike
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2003 7:04 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Sorry for the very late response, but I've seen a lot of similar postings recently. I've been lurking for some months now, when I have time for even that, but I've never been accused of being under-opinionated, so...

In my opinion, the exam to take first is the Architecture & Administration exam. Anyone with any sort of significant Oracle DBA experience should be able to pass it cold. If it doesn't seem too easy or doesn't score well, adjust the exam schedule and allocated study time accordingly.

I took the 8i Architecture/Administration exam and the 8i Backup & Recovery exams on the same Tuesday at OracleWorld 2002 with zero preparation other than experience. I finished the first in under 20 minutes, the latter in about 35. Both seemed easy. Of course, there were some "trick" questions, some RMAN syntax trivia, and other OCP exam inanity.

Two days later, I took the SQL & PL/SQL exam. I "crammed" on obscure syntax and advanced stuff for about two hours in the IOUG bookstore in the exhibit hall immediately prior. It was unnecessary - no advanced stuff appeared on the exam (Warning! Your mileage may vary.). It was easier than I thought based on what I had heard about it. It wasn't really difficult, but it was a little tricky in places and a bit tedious in places. All the other exams were allowed 90 minutes, but this one was allowed 120 minutes. I actually took about 65 minutes (almost twice as long as any of the other five for 8i + 9i) due to checking over every answer twice and some of the "tricky" questions thrice.

I think that the vast majority of experienced DBAs could easily pass these with an 80%+ score with no formal preparation. The only caveat is that one needs to be conversant in RMAN - the basics at least.

The tuning exam was "a bit odd". Knowing that it required the "party line" answers, I spent about two hours reviewing the various ratio formulae and memorizing other fairly useless trivia. Some of the questions had no truly correct answer - especially some that said something like "pick three..." when there were definitely NOT three "correct" answers (and perhaps not even two - or one). This one might require some study by even the most experienced DBAs. Actually, the amount of "prep time" required might be directly proportional to one's tuning expertise! The fairly naive might actually score better than actual experts given the same prep time! There were a number of questions that should have had a "none of the above - no matter what the book says" choice - or perhaps an optional write-in answer (e.g. "I refuse to answer - even the question is utterly irrelevant and misleading!").

I studied about 12 hours for the networking exam - primarily because I've never used connection manager, Oracle Names, or OID in "real life" - and have only rarely used some other stuff like MTS. This exam was *much* easier than I anticipated. However, it did have a few "GUI trivia" questions - stuff like knowing what menu something is on in netca, picking among four very similar possible answers for the exact wording on some boilerplate or menu, ad nauseum. (Kind of missed the point of GUIs didn't they?)

I took the 9i upgrade a week later, but studied for it most of the week (The week of Thanksgiving - 4 evenings, one Saturday and a couple of hours per day for the three days at work). It could be considered the most difficult since it covers only 9i new features - few of which one might have any "real life" experience with. It covered most topics at the conceptual level or a very basic level, but there were a couple of extremely esoteric technical questions that almost nobody would even attempt to answer in "real life" without consulting a manual.

All these OCP exams were far easier than I ever thought they would be - even after taking a few. Most of the questions were of a conceptual or rather basic nature. All the exams had some serious flaws - questions that were ambiguous, the wrong "correct" answers, obscure syntax trivia, GUI trivia, too many questions about things that (almost) nobody ever uses (e.g. OEM's Oracle Trace), etc.

A significant part of the game is in knowing how to take exams. In this, I've had a lot of experience - about 240 university semester hours and three degrees. If you don't see an obviously "correct" answer right away, weed out the obviously "incorrect" answers. Never leave a "multiple guess" question unanswered if there is no penalty for missed guesses. Et cetera...

After having gone from 0% OCP to 200% OCP (8i + 9i) in about three weeks in November, perhaps now I can say "OCP doesn't mean squat - except to HR checklists" - without appearing to be just another crusty old curmudgeon - or jealous/nervous/worried/antiquated/whatever. If one is really new to this stuff, then perhaps snail-paced Oracle ILT, commercial practice exams, exam prep books, and/or other expensive gadgetry can be justified (rationalized?). Otherwise, just go for it!

Don Granaman
certifiable OraSaurus (and reluctant OCP)

> David - I haven't taken all the exams yet, but the advice I heard was not
to
> take the SQL exam first. On the surface it sounds easy, but it tends to be
> more of a SQL trivia test. For most of us practicing DBAs, I heard that
the
> DBA exam tends to be the easiest, and is a good place to start and build
> your confidence. Naturally I didn't do it that way, but from what I have
> seen it is good advice. Depending on what you work with most, some exams
may
> be easier for you than others. Perhaps some on the list who have taken all
5
> can provide you more opinions.
>
>
>
> Dennis Williams
> DBA, 40%OCP, 100% DBA
> Lifetouch, Inc.
> dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 2:20 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
>
> There are totally five exams we have to pass to get certified, I'd like to
> know which exam should I take first and what next in order?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> David
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 9:04 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
>
> BTW,
>
> That is why I didn't spend more than a few hours preparing for that exam.
I
> already sensed that it would be a waste of time in the long-run.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 11:39 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
>
> Good posting. Thank you. This week Morten Egan from Miracle A/S (who's
> on this list as well, I think) is teaching the Tuning Class for Oracle
> Denmark, and he's had a few comments as well about the materials.
>
> Morten, would you care to comment (in your usually nice and easy
> manner?) If was, after all, you who came with the "unlearn" quote below.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Mogens
>
> DENNIS WILLIAMS wrote:
>
> >Mogens - I posted this note back in October.
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >
> > >
> > Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2002 4:08 PM
> >
> > To: 'ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com'
> >
> > >
> >
> >
> >List
> >
> >I spent last week at an official Oracle Education Oracle9i Performance
> >Tuning Class, and here is some of the non-technical stuff I learned.
> >
> >- Oracle is teaching the wait interface more and more. In fact, they are
> >updating the curriculum next month to emphasize the wait interface even
> more
> >(lucky me).
> >
> >- Just how the wait interface is emphasized may depend quite a bit on the
> >instructor, despite what the materials say. My observation is that our
> >opinions are based on what we have experienced and our interpretations of
> >those experiences. So we will probably still have some instructors that
> will
> >still feel that the wait interface is a passing fad and if you really
want
> >to straighten out a database, you need to get in there and improve the
BHR
> >(Buffer Hit Ratio).
> >
> >- My instructor was John Hibbard. He is excellent, and I would highly
> >recommend him. He went well beyond the class materials to providing
papers
> >he has researched and presented himself, as well as other sources,
> including
> >papers from Cary Milsap and Jonathan Gennick who participate on this
list.
> >When you get through his class, you really feel you have been taken to a
> >whole new level of Oracle knowledge. He is also heavily involved in
> >selecting and preparing the official Oracle training materials for the
> >courses he teaches. Besides Performance Tuning, he teaches several other
> >Oracle classes. Most of the people in my class happened to be more
> >experienced with Oracle, and John did a good job of answering advanced
> >questions with some depth, but not leaving the newbies in the dust.
> >
> >- A funny observation on buffer hit ratio vs. wait interface. The last
day
> >of class is an opportunity to take a really screwed-up database and apply
a
>
> >little of what you have learned. The first scenario is titled "Buffer
> >Cache". So you run the workload assignment and STATSPACK and look at the
> BHR
> >and say "wow, that is bad", increase the buffer pool, and rerun the
> workload
> >and STATSPACK. The BHR hasn't changed much, so the tendency is to dumbly
> >bump the buffer pool even more and go again. Then you look down at the
top
> 5
> >waits section just below on the first page of the STATSPACK report and
see
> >that the big wait item is "Scattered Read". Then you go "dope slap" and
> >realize this schema is missing some critical indexes and table scanning
> it's
> >little heart out. I just found it ironic that some people have reported
> that
> >some of the Oracle instructors emphasize the BHR too much when the first
> >Workshop Scenario has a great example of why focusing on BHR can't solve
> >many problems. But again, we have experience vs. interpretation of
> >experience. A real died-in-the wool BHR fanatic would probably claim that
> >BHR had solved the problem because the first indication that something
was
> >wrong was spotting the bad BHR, which led to other investigations.
> >
> >
> >
> >Dennis Williams
> >
> >DBA
> >
> >Lifetouch, Inc.
> >
> >dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 10:24 PM
> >To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> >
> >
> >Yeah, if you've taken the performance exam, you must now unlearn what you
> >have learnt, to quote from Starwars. I've considered creating a one- or
> >two-day class that would put people into the right track of thinking
after
> >having studied and passed that exam. The other exams are more or less
fine.
>
> >The tuning one really - ahm - could be improved...
> >
> >Mogens
> >
> >Paula_Stankus_at_doh.state.fl.us < mailto:Paula_Stankus_at_doh.state.fl.us
> <mailto:Paula_Stankus_at_doh.state.fl.us> > wrote:
> >
> >
> >Guys,
> >
> >I took this exam after 12 hours studying and missed 4 questions. I
studied
>
> >using the self-test software (few practice exams) some memorization and
the
>
> >student guides from the oracle 8 tuning - read through once and not every
> >item (not 8i class) - where the heck was statspack in the examm, btw? I
> >took it in 20 minutes. Only the network one to go. Can't wait to get
this
>
> >done so can do the 9i upgrade exam - then wishing to concentrate on
> >certification relating to 9ias - is there such a beast?
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >< mailto:DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM <mailto:DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM> > ]
> >Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 11:14 AM
> >To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> >
> >
> >Arslan - I'm hoping you get some good replies since I plan to take this
> exam
> >
> >next.
> >
> >I just took the B&R last week. The resource that helped me the most is:
> >Oracle8i Certified Professional DBA Practice Exams by Jason S. Couchman
> >
>

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=1G60ZMKA1
>

<http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=1G60ZMKA
> 1>
> ><
>

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=1G60ZMKA
>

<http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=1G60ZMKA
> >
> >1>
> >J&isbn=0072133414 (hopefully this link will work, it will be broken into
> two
> >
> >lines which you must patch back together).
> >
> >Dennis Williams
> >DBA, 20% OCP
> >Lifetouch, Inc.
> >dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com < mailto:dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com
> <mailto:dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com> >
> >
> >
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 7:38 AM
> >To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> >
> >
> > I will enter my last exam at next week.
> > Could DBAs which have this exam give some advice.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
> <http://www.orafaq.net>
> --
> Author: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Mogens_N=F8rgaard?=
> INET: mln_at_miracleas.dk
>
> Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
> <http://www.fatcity.com>
> San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services
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> --
> Author: DENNIS WILLIAMS
> INET: DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM
>
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-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: Don Granaman
  INET: granaman_at_cox.net

Fat City Network Services    -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
San Diego, California        -- Mailing list and web hosting services
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-- 
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-- 
Author: Johnson, Michael 
  INET: Michael.Johnson_at_oln-afmc.af.mil

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Received on Wed Mar 05 2003 - 21:28:47 CST

Original text of this message

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