Re: Oracle OCP Book - Is This Correct?

I don't think any of us Oracle folks that monitor this group are particularly qualified to answer, in that none of us work for the Certification group. However, having been through this mill a couple of times with another publisher (not Oracle Press), there are a couple of comments I would make as my personal viewpoint (select standard_disclaimer from company_requirements).

Firstly, the certification process and the Oracle Press books need to walk a very fine line.. They carry the name of Oracle but still must strive to be seen to be impartial and unbiased for the certification to have any weight. To that end, you'll find the Oracle Press books may be written by someone who is not an Oracle employee. In this case, for example, I can't find Jason in our employee database. The writing of the book would therefore seem to be totally out of Oracle's control, even though there must be some form of relationship between Oracle and Osborne (if memory serves me correctly, this is who actually publishes the Oracle Press books).

Secondly, as an author of an exam cram myself let me tell you I found it damn difficult sometimes to write the book in the way needed for the reader to pass the exam. WHen you're writing a book on how to pass an OCP exam, the paramount thing for you to remember is that you are writing the book to assist the reader in passing the exam, NOT to assist in making them a DBA (for example). Let me give you an example from when I wrote the 8i Architecture and Administration exam cram. That particular OCP exam (and I suppose the others as well though I can't be definitive about that) was written based on the course material for the matching Oracle University course. In that course, it said that the database buffer cache is aged based on an LRU algorithm. As we probably all know, that is in fact not correct. It's based on a touch count algorithm. However, I had to write the book based on the answers that were expected by the exam EVEN IF THEY WERE WRONG. As a final comment, let me say that when a new version of a book comes out that is based on the previous version (as it probably was in this case), the author generally starts with the material from the previous version of the book and then modifies it as necessary. Sometimes things that have changed are not picked up, even though this is one of the prime responsibilities of the author and to a certain extent the technical reviewer. With the books that I was the technical reviewer for before writing my own, one of my responsibilities was to execute each and every piece of code to make sure it worked. Obviously, some things just slipped through the cracks in the book we're discussing here.

Remember, all opinions here are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of Oracle!!!

--
HTH.  Additions and corrections welcome.

Pete
Author of "Oracle8i: Architecture and Administration Exam Cram"

"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

"Daniel A. Morgan" <damorgan_at_exesolutions.com> wrote in message
news:3C4EB325.FE648C2_at_exesolutions.com...


> Anyone from Oracle care to comment?

>

> In some cases the problem with the book is that it doesn't reflect working

reality.


> But in other cases it is 100% incorrect such as stating that you can not

do an ORDER


> BY on a view.

>

> Dan Morgan

>

>

>

> Patrick Meyer wrote:

>

> > I think a better question is 'Are these answers wrong on the OCP test?'

> > I haven't yet taken the OCP tests, but I will soon.

> > I ask this question because of some MicroSoft certification classes I

> > took a number of years ago.  The instructor made the point

> > a couple of times that there is the MicroSoft way, as stated in the

> > doc's, and there was the real way.  He hammered home the

> > point that the Certification tests were only concerned with the

> > MicroSoft way and that if you answered the questions based on

> > experience in the real world, you would likely get the question wrong.

> > I wonder which is the case here.  Just because something

> > works in the real world, doesn't mean that is the Oracle recommended

> > way.  It could be the case that the tests only consider the

> > Oracle recommended way.

> >

> > Just my 2 cents.

> >

> > Later ....

> >

> > Patrick

> >

> > "Daniel A. Morgan" <damorgan_at_exesolutions.com> wrote in message

> > news:3C4E8AF7.9D44EF8D_at_exesolutions.com...

> >

> > > Thanks for your comments. I went over these with my students at the

University


> > > last night and they found it very disturbing that a book marketing

under the


> > > auspices of Oracle and used for an OCP test could have such obvious

errors. It


> > > definitely makes one wonder who got paid for editing ... and why. I

think an


> > > apology is owed by both the author and the publisher. But as you say

... it also


> > > makes one wonder whether you could fail the test based on the fact

that your


> > > answers were correct and theirs are wrong.

> > >

> > > Daniel Morgan

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> >

> > --

> > Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

>