Re: "Hands on training" requirement for latest OCA/OCP certification?

On Dec 6, 2:31 am, dana..._at_yahoo.com wrote:
> Read briefly on Oracle's web site that they've added a "hands-on"
> training requirement to the OCA/OCP certs... to "enhance their value"
> or some such.
>
> My question is this: is this a revenue enhancement upgrade, meaning
> must one take Oracle University instructor-led courses as part of
> getting an OCA/OCP? Terribly expensive if a person has to pay out of
> pocket / not get reimbursed.
>
> Is it safe to say CBTs are out for getting an OCP? What about online
> training? Can that still be considered having a "hands on" component?
> Heck, Oracle is free for development purposes, and/or could easily be
> shared out via Citrix.
>
> There's an OCP program offered by a local university for $3,500.
> Rather expensive, yet cheaper than taking instructor-led Oracle
> University classes. Cheaper still, I imagine, would be CBTs. But
> again, it seems like Oracle has eliminated this as a path toward
> getting the OCP certification--or at least fully.
>
> Any suggestions on getting an OCP inexpensively? Perhaps some
> combination of CBTs--can anyone recommend a good Oracle CBT company) /
> online training (again, suggestions appreciated), and the minimum
> amount of "hands on" classes one is required to take.
>
> Thanks very much.

The days of cheapness are gone. The questions now are, do you want to learn the subject? Is it worth it to take the OCP exam?

If you want to learn the subject, CBT's are one good way to go, if your personal way of learning works that way. You can download Oracle for free, and work your way through it. There are also free online tutorials from Oracle. A few community colleges give the courses much cheaper than $3500, from what I understand, but you still have to pay for a hands-on.

Is it worth it? Some cynical people (including myself) say no, it is just revenue enhancement for Oracle corp. But that is not strictly true, some organizations (particularly government) think it has value. It may also have value for getting a foot in the door in some HR departments. There have been some ripoff organizations that take your money and promise you will get a DBA job, and not deliver.

I'm OCP, and I did it on the cheap before the hands-on requirement was added. I don't think I would do it now. But I'm old and I've been doing this a long time, I don't know if what applies to me would apply to others.

When it really comes down to it, practice and experience win over certification. Certification may be a tie-breaker in some situations.

I don't usually recommend searchoracle, just because I find all the commercialization annoying and sometimes they over-simplify too much for my taste, but I thought this guy's writeup was honest and forthright: http://searchoracle.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid41_gci1263677,00.html (sorry, I think you'll have to register).

I also found the selftestsoftware useful, over time I found for me the best thing was that plus one of the others, they all seem to be deficient one way or another, but simply practicing and getting used to the online test format helps. I did fail one time, because I used an O8 book and the test had lots of O8i and RMAN stuff. I meant it when I said on the cheap! :-)

Be forewarned, there are errors in the materials and tests, and some of the stuff you may never even use. (I considered that a benefit of OCP, since in the real world we only use a subset of Oracle).

jg

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