Better Than Nothing... I had already begun using Oracle 10g, but had not used many of the new features before buying this book. I found this book useful in learning some of these new features, but frequently found myself flipping back and forth when contradictions appeared. Most often, there were contradictions and inaccuracies right next to each other on the same page. Even the Self-Tests had questions written wrong with respect to answers.
I found that I had to consult the Oracle documentation over and over again to figure out what was correct, and occasionally never found the right answer anyway. I almost ran out of ink correcting the mistakes in the book in the margins (Which should be made larger in future editions.)
I have bought several other better-written exam guides in the past - the Osborne 9i New features exam guide, and Sybex 8i full certification set. This 10g guide seems incredibly sloppy compared to my past experience. I am currently looking for an 11g Exam guide, and See that Sam Alapati has written that one for Osborne again. I will try to find something else if possible because I don't trust the Author or Editors of this book.
The only reason I give this book 2 stars and not 1 is that I did pass the exam. I did not feel like this book prepared me as well as it should though.
I failed the exam by reading this book Not to blame the book as the reason I failed, I realized when I went to the testing room, there are alot of items that this book doesn't cover. I recommend you read some other books for your upgrade exam.
Good book This is the only guide you need to pass the exam. It may not have the depth, but it covered the objectives well.
Then again, what kind of depth does one require for ASM? I've not seen it in use yet here.
10g Certification If you are planning on taking the Oracle 10g upgrade exam this is the book I used to take the test, and I passed. A few questions on the test on nowhere to be found in the book and that could be because they are new questions or something along those lines. The practice exams are ok and may be a bit easier than the questions on the exam. I looked at some other publishers for Oracle exams and I say Sybex are the ones I am most comfortable with. I purchased this book and scheduled the exam for 6 weeks out. If I would have failed I would have blamed the book :)
As a reference book you will need additional sources as this book focuses on the Oracle exam. Good luck with the exam.
Typos, contradictions and poorly worded questions. I just finished passing the test. I admit this guide helped me study for the test. The guide was well organized and covered the topics in enough depth. The writing was good. However, the typos, mispellings, contradictions, poorly worded questions and just plain bad sample questions and examples were annoying. The sample tests provided by the book were okay, but had typos and problems too. The end of chapter tests had several problems: some questions were poorly phrased or the answers contradicted the main text of the book.
I marginally recommend the guide, but you need another reference. I used the Oracle online documentation constantly to double-check the facts. My advice is buy the guide because it is well organized, but you need to be careful and double-check syntax and the facts.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
