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.

On Dec 6, 5:31 am, dana... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com wrote:
Hi Dana,

This may no longer apply, but for the 9i one I used
selftestsoftware.com (I think that's right, but you can google it),
and it was as close as you can get to what was expected on the exam.
For the 10g upgrade, I used the one from Osborne. Although replete
with technical errors and poor structure, it was sufficient to prepare
me for what was expected on the exam.

AFAIK, classes from Oracle are required for 10g, but try
education.oracle.com for more info.

http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_...ge?page_id=151

HTH,

Steve

On Dec 6, 2:31 am, dana... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com wrote:
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/t...263677,00.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
--
@home.com is bogus.
No evidence that Moores didn't know he made a billion dollars
fraudulently, either: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniont...peregrine.html