Re: Oracle OCP Book - Is This Correct?

Thank you for your contribution. You tell from my deepest soul.

Several years and months ago I asked "Who is certifying the certifier?". Noone dared to answer. We return to that point. As long as I don't get a list of my wrong replies to crosscheck against reality these exams will inevitably contain errors.

So again I ask: Who is certifying the certifier?

Regards,

Martin

Pete Sharman wrote:
>
> 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
> >
Received on Mon Feb 04 2002 - 02:36:02 CST