Re: question about Oracle 9i beta exam

Lillian

I can think of a couple of reasons for doing the beta exams:

1. You should get your results as soon as the exam goes Production (given some time lag for admin and so on) i.e. you can be certified before most people. This is, of course, provided you don't fail the exams!
2. You get to provide feedback on the exams hwich helps a lot towards making the exams higher quality.

I've done the beta exams every time. Mainly that's because I was an Oracle Education instructor, so I had to know the material pretty well (this was when 7.3 came out) and I needed the certification as quickly as possible. After that, it's cheaper for me to keep my certification up to date with the betas. You can't rely on a cheap version necessarily coming out at OOW soon after the beta (that's just a timing issue). As an instructor, it gets a bit embarassing when someone asks if you're certified and you're not!

I've never had any problem doing the beta questions in the timeframe allocated, including providing feedback on questions/answers I thought were either just plain wrong or not worth testing on. However, if you don't know your stuff really well, then I can see how the time issue could be a problem. As for the pass rate, number of questions etc. in the Production exams, that hasn't been determined yet. I asked the same question of the OCP folks for an exam cram I'm writing for the 9i New Features for Administrators exam, and they told me that won't be available until the Production date. You can actually become certified pretty much straight away after the exams go Production if you got the same route I did - I'm certified with 7.3, 8.0 and 8i, so all I need is the 0i upgrade exam and I'm done for 9i. As for the 30 days, I believe that's 30 days after the exam, but I could be wrong on that. Send an email to ocp_us_at_oracle.com to confirm.

--
HTH.  Additions and corrections welcome.

Pete
Author of "Oracle8i: Architecture and Administration Exam Cram"
Now got a life back again that the book is released!

"Controlling developers is like herding cats."
Kevin Loney, Oracle DBA Handbook

"Oh no, it's not.  It's much harder than that!"
Bruce Pihlamae, long-term Oracle DBA

"Lillian Chen" <carefreelillian_at_netscape.net> wrote in message
news:9qrbk3$3if$1_at_nntp9.atl.mindspring.net...


> I read from earlier posts that the test results for the Oracle 9i beta

exams


> won't be ready until December.  I was wondering if the results would be

> available before the Oracle Openworld conference that takes place in San

> Francisco during the week of 12/2 - 12/7?

>

> My concern is whether I would be able to retake the exam at Oracle

Openworld


> if I fail the beta exam.  I recall that Oracle's exam policy states that

you


> have to wait 30 days before you can retake an exam.  Now, is that 30 days

> after you take the exam, or 30 days after you receive your score report?

> Also, will the score report arrive in time for me to decide whether I need

> to retake the exam at Oracle Openworld or not?

>

> The reason I'm asking is because I just found out from reading the OTN

> Techblast newsletter that Oracle is offering the production (i.e.

non-beta)


> version of the Oracle 9i DBA exams at Oracle Openworld for $50 each.

That's


> only $10 more than what they charge for the beta exams.  Had I known this

> before hand, I wouldn't have registered for the beta exams.  (I'm getting

> certified as an Oracle DBA.)  The beta exams contain 180 questions to be

> answered in 180 minutes (1 minute per question which makes the exam very

> rushed).  The production exams contain 60 questions to be answered in 90

> minutes (1.5 minutes per question).  I don't think the $10 I save is worth

> the trouble of answering all those extra questions.  Furthermore, even if

> you think you pass, you still have to wait until December to know the

> results.  Also, it seems that the Oracle 9i Performance Tuning beta exam

> won't be available until December so you can't be certified as an Oracle

9i


> DBA before December anyway, even if you take all the other beta exams.  In

> short, I don't see any reason why anyone would want to take the beta

exams,


> unless they can't make it to Oracle Openworld in December.

>

> Thanks in advance for any feedback.

>

> - LC

>

>

>

>