Re: Oracle 8i Certified DBA Tests - Performance Tuning

Hi Eric:
"Eric Sanders" <ericsanderz_at_yahoo.com> wrote in message news:492ad215.0301162032.42cf5064_at_posting.google.com...
> Hello,
>
> I've passed 4 of the 5 test I need to get my Oracle 8i DBA
> Certification, the only one I have left is Performance Tuning. Is the
> P.T. test more or less the same difficulty level as the others?

Put it this way: Oracle charges people more to attend the 5 days Performance Tuning course than it does to attend the 5 days DBA Fundamentals I course. In other words, there's a premium for attending that course, because it's harder to teach than the others. And the reason it's harder to teach, is that the course material is technically more difficult.

See where I'm headed??

> I've studied the exam cram series for the Network Administration and
> Backup and Recovery test - they were very helpful but there doesn't
> seem to be an exam cram book for the Performance Tuning. I've been
> studying the Sybex Network Administration & Performance Tuning along
> with the self test software for the P.T. test.
>
> Any insight on how difficult the P.T. test is would be helpful.

Just remember that, in the exam, buffer cache hit ratio and library cache hit ratio are the be-all and end-all of performance tuning. But in the real world, they aren't.

What I'm getting at is that it's really important that you learn the Oracle course material (which follows very closely the Oracle product documentation, so it's not as if you *have* to attend the course), not necessarily learn the truth of the matter.

So I always refuse to recommend performance tuning books. Anything by Steve Adams, Jonathan Lewis or Thomas Kyte is worth a look, as is James Morle's tome. But those books teach you the *reality* of Performance Tuning, not what the exam will expect you to know. They're strictly top-shelf items, whilst the Oracle material is Enid Blyton by comparison... and unfortunately, if you start quoting the top-shelf stuff, you'll get exam questions wrong.

Best of luck,
HJR
> thanks
Received on Fri Jan 17 2003 - 00:43:56 CST