Passed Network Admin today!

[supercbw]

When you guys took the PL/SQL exam were you working on PL/SQL everyday or were you a novice programmer?

I just got into the field and the certifications seem what employers are looking for also with experience. I wanted to get a junior dba position for exposure and lots of experience. Any suggustions or recommandations.

[supercbw]

I forgot to ask if you guys, how did you study for the exam. Did you download the personal 8i from Oracles database to practice on or just read and play at work?

[psychofun]

To leo: yes I can't wait to get this stuff over with. I have no life - weekends and nights belong to Oracle. You start off just trying to learn and learn it well, but you end up just wanting to get by. The light at the end of the tunnel is nearing and I can feel it. I have formed a new relationship with my Xbox - which is starting to replace my study time. But I too will wait a couple of months and start in on 9i - will it ever end?

[psychofun]

to supercbw: I know some Java but have never been a programmer. The best wly to learn PL/SQL is to use it. Yes you need to download Oracle. I installed it on Win2000 an Linux(ugly install). Practice it and it will come to you!

[leo]

Hello, neighbor!

I got Oracle 8i on my win2000. Did not bother with Unix a lot even though I do have exposure to Oracle on Unix. I do not think it matters a lot if you have experience in Unix and understand Oracle.

I have 15+ yrs experience in development, know SQL for about 5 yrs, really picked PL/SQL a few months ago.

to psychofun: I just booked my Net8 exam for teh next Wed..

Hope to get over with exams by the mid Feb.

[leo]

to psychofun and supercbw:

You are talking about SQL and PL/SQl, the 1Z0-001 exam, right?

[psychofun]

Yes that is the test (1Z0-001). Leo, good luck on the test. I am about to register for my final exam (B&R) for the end of next week. Last time I used the promotional code 'OPP' and only paid $81.25 by registering online. Someone tried to call in using this promotional code but was asked a PIN number, so don't make the same mistake. I'll let you know if it still works.

[speedracer]

Yeah PsychoFun, let us know if the code OPP still works. As for the BFQ, does this come with a book by Couchman or sold seperately ? Have you guys used the FastTrak Express questions ?

It's interesting that a lot of exam-takers mentioned questions on National Language Support for A&A, but on my ILT texts the orginal owner marked "No OCP questions" on Chapter 20 (NLS).

Leo, I've found that employers give a lot of value to the unix platform experience when hiring for DBA's...

By the way, did you have any trouble installing Oracle 8i on Windows 2000. Windows 2000 seems to need all of the 128 RAM you can throw at it on a home PC.

[leo]

Originally posted by speedracer

Yeah PsychoFun, let us know if the code OPP still works.

OPP still works. Used it today on the web.

Originally posted by speedracer

As for the BFQ, does this come with a book by Couchman or sold seperately ? Have you guys used the FastTrak Express questions ?

BFQ is included with the book. Never heard about FastTrak Express

Originally posted by speedracer

It's interesting that a lot of exam-takers mentioned questions on National Language Support for A&A, but on my ILT texts the orginal owner marked "No OCP questions" on Chapter 20 (NLS).

I had 3 NLS questions on my A&A test.

Originally posted by speedracer

Leo, I've found that employers give a lot of value to the unix platform experience when hiring for DBA's...

I know Unix and played with Unix on Oracle for a few years, so it does not matter to me. My plan is to work with Unix since larger shops would have to run on Unix.

Originally posted by speedracer

By the way, did you have any trouble installing Oracle 8i on Windows 2000. Windows 2000 seems to need all of the 128 RAM you can throw at it on a home PC.

Nope. maybe because I have 256M

[Edited by leo on 01-23-2002 at 03:54 PM]

[psychofun]

I just registered and 'OPP' worked. Paid $81.25 again. Remember that you need to register online to use this.

BFQ questions are sold along with a hard copy of the questions. The Fast Track questions are a sample taken from BFQ questions.

I had 3 questions on NLS from the Architecture exam.

I have it on my laptop with 128 of RAM. It runs slowly but not too bad. My Linux version runs way faster. I have a script that creates tables and inserts about 15,000 rows. Win2000 taken about 10 minutes. Linux takes about 30 seconds for the same SQL script.