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Notes of a Junior on the Path to Oracle Mastery


Notes of a Junior on the Path to Oracle Mastery
On this blog I am writing about thoughts, solutions, failures and pitfalls on the path to Oracle Mastery. It’s still a long way to go. On this blog, the main focus is learning Oracle.

Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associate

Author: HP Fuchs | Category: Certification

Yesterday I passed the last exam for my “Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associate” certificate. There are two exams:

  1. 1Z0-007 Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL
  2. 1Z0-147 Program with PL/SQL

Introduction to SQL can be taken online. I found the examination surprisingly difficult. There were a few rather strange questions - and lots uf stuff I didn’t prepare because I thought I had almost 10 years of experience in SQL programming and didn’t need much preparation. Programm with PL/SQL can only be taken at Prometric testing centers. I prepared myself well for this examination. This might be the reason why I found the PL/SQL examination a lot easier than the SQL examination. Have a look into:

  1. Dependencies Management (be aware of ideptree as well, but don’t bother about dbms_utility ;-)
  2. Calling Procedures and Functions from SQL*Plus and from within PL/SQL blocks
  3. Package Management
  4. Trigger Types, Trigger Timing, Trigger Events, and Triggers, Triggers, Triggers…

And with a little bit of experience you probably won’t fail the examination. I wonder why they focus so much on triggers. There were more than 10 questions about triggers, but only a single question about exception handling.
And there were strange questions too. Imagine there are three objects, a procedure (x) that selects from a view (y) which is based on a table (z). X, y and z are dependent or referenced objects. Now there was a list of about five or six statements like “x is an indirect dependent of y”. You had to pick two right answers. But believe me, there was only one right answer, not two :-)

The given time for those examinations is short. 66 questions in 90 minutes. That’s less than 90 seconds a question. You have to be fast, you can’t waste time. Here are a few advices for passing those Oracle examinations:

  • Read the question carefully
  • “Examine this code”. Don’t examine the code but read the question first. You look at the code only after you have read the question, because only then you know what you are looking for.
  • If you are not quite sure about the answer to a question, mark it and come back to it at the end.
  • Use the pvc sheet and marker pen they give to you. For example if you have to pick two right answers out of five, write A B C D E on the sheet. Then cross all answers wich are wrong for sure. After that focus only on the remaining possible answers.
  • Again, if there are questions for example about dependencies (or anything like that) you better use pen/sheet and draft a diagram.
March 16th, 2007.


7 Responses to “Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associate”

  1. Martyncito Says:
    July 23rd, 2007 at 7:45 pm

    Hi,

    I’ve been studying for the Oracle 1Z0-147 exam recently and I took it today in London & managed a score of 91%. I just wanted to say thank you for your article because I found it to be the most useful advice of any posts I found about this topic, and I’m pleased that I listened to your advice - you were absolutely right!!

    Thanks,

    Martyn

  2. HP Fuchs Says:
    August 10th, 2007 at 9:26 am

    Hello Martyn,
    Thank you for your feedback! I’m very happy that my blog post was helpful to you. After I read your comment I decided to write in English again, to move this blog to its own domain and to start posting again after holidays.
    :-)

  3. Swapnil Says:
    August 21st, 2007 at 12:03 pm

    Hi
    Can u please suggest me from where i shud resd for 1z0-147. I am having some PDF’s but not having buk as its not available in market for this exam.
    If u have any buk can u please send me.

    Thanks and Regards

    Swapnil

  4. HP Fuchs Says:
    August 21st, 2007 at 12:20 pm

    Hello Swapnil

    One of the best books on PL/SQL is “Oracle PL/SQL Programming” by Steven Feuerstein and Bill Prybil. It’s a bit old, but still excellent. In this book you will find what you need for the exam. And get familiar with the Oracle product documentation on http://tahiti.oracle.com

    Good luck for your exam!

  5. awanish Says:
    December 31st, 2007 at 9:25 pm

    hi………….
    Can u please suggest me from .I am having some PDF’s but not having buk as its not available in market for this exam.
    If u have any Ebukor Pdf,s can u please send me.

    Thanks and Regards

  6. Andrew Says:
    January 2nd, 2008 at 10:00 pm

    Hi, and congratulations on passing the exam. I took my OCP exams last year (Forms 9i stream), so I did the PL/SQL exam on the way.

    I agree with your comments - it is a strange exam, concentrating so much on subjects that form a small part of everyday PL/SQL programming. I’d have thought it would have done better to focus on things like understanding exception handling, block structure, basic syntax, rather than on dependencies and triggers. Still, that’s what’s in the exam, so that’s what you’ve got to know.

    My best advice to anyone studying for any of these exams is to pay the money for the practice questions - there are links from the certfication pages on Oracle’s site. They are produced by two companies - Self Test Software and Transcender - I think I went with Self Test. It’s money well spent as the practice questions prepare you very well for the obscure stuff that you get in the actual exam.

    best of luck
    Andrew
    UK

  7. Inside Oracle APEX: Do we need a certification program for Oracle APEX? Says:
    January 3rd, 2008 at 11:28 am

    [...] I sometimes have mixed feelings about all this certification programs. You hear stories about the PL/SQL exam which asks questions about triggers, triggers and triggers. I’m not quite so sure if you [...]

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