practical knowledge

Hello, I am rather new to the ORACLE DBA world... I have completed the first two instructor-lead classes in the Oracle 8i DBA track... They were very exspensive as I took them at the Oracle Certification Center... however... After reviewing all the material numerous times... and running through the examples and whatnot I don't feel like I have any practical knowledge of Oracle... I've been posting and reading articles on these forums on a daily basis... and that's helping...

I have not taken any OCP tests yet... because I've heard that you need a good deal of actual exspirience to pass them and I don't want to fail after taking these exspensive classes... it just wouldn't look good...

I have the entire Oracle DBA Track Curriculum and documentation of CD... I've heard of STS and Exam Cram but where do I find them to actually buy... any other suggestions ... and aside of taking the OCP tests... where can I get some practical application knowledge of Oracle...

Hi Chester,
I passed O7.3 and O8 DBA without experience !!!
and I didn't attend full class for that, I just attended
SQL/PL SQL and Oracle Administration(i.e. first 2 paper) classes and rest of all i prepared at home(I've computer at home)!!

I used Jason Couchman's book, Exam cram and Off course
STS.

You can buy STS from http://www.stsware.com and
exam cram are available at http://www.amazon.com
http://www.chapters.com, http://www.fatbrain.com and any local computer book store.

You should go for exam, don't be scared bcoz of its
cost ($99)!

HTH,
Good Luck :)

I was scared of taking the exam. Please don't just go for it. Once you've set a date, you'll just have to make it some how. Just go for it!!