I bought this book for a database administration class. I read the other reviews and did not want to believe them as I had no choice but to purchase this book for my class. Unfortunately, the other reviewers were extremely accurate. This book is poorly organized and the lab exercises do not correspond to the information that is presented in the chapters or even the book itself. You really need additional sources in order to complete the exercises. Also, all of the screen shots are from a previous version of Oracle Database 9i, NOT 10g. This is unacceptable!! DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!!
Instead, try the following books:
-Oracle Database 10g DBA Handbook, by Kevin Loney
-Oracle Database 10g, The Complete Reference, also by Kevin Loney

This book is great if you are taken a college course or using it to study for the oracle admin test. It can become a little detailed in information, but for the most part, great study tool.

I only bought this item because it was the required text for a course I'm taking.

I dislike this entire series of Oracle 10g books. They are written in a scattered way that makes them relatively useless as a reference. If your not required to buy this book as part of a course, skip it.

This book has an entire class of students confused and lost. It does not explain things in a clear, concise manner. Instead, it goes around and around the point without ever saying what it means.

Trying to do the end of the chapter questions after reading the book and lecture still leaves students befuddled and lost.

If you want to be confused and enjoy reading a book filled with errors, read this. Otherwise DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY!!!!!!!!!

Horrible, horrible, horrible!

This book deserves ZERO out of 5, but 1 is apparently the lowest I can rate it.
This is one of the worst textbooks I've ever read. I bought this book for an online class. It's like the chapter hands-on assignments were not written by the person writing the chapter. The assignments are not in-line with the chapter. You must go outside not only the chapter, but the book entirely to find the answers to the lab assignments. ...Gee, what's the point of buying the book if it doesn't contain the necessary building blocks to produce the answers, right?

This book is the worst book that I ever purchased.

I have purchased two other Thomson Course Technology Books and both were excellent:

Oracle9i: SQL, with an Introduction to PL/SQL
Oracle9i Developer: PL/SQL Programming

This book was required for an Oracle Admin Class that I'm taking. I have a 4.0 cumulative GPA and I have already passed the 1Z0-042.

I had read the reviews prior to purchasing the book but I was hoping that they were a little exaggerated. Unfortunately I have to agree with the other negative reviews of this book.

To put it mildly, this book is very unstructured, inaccurate and repetitive.

To study in preparation for the Exam for my course, I had to create my own outline and Google to gather correct information.

If you need a good book try Oracle Database 10g OCP Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, or any other book...

unless like me you have no choice. I had to get this book because it was required for the course I am taking. You can believe what the other reviewers have said. I am looking for another book to use as a companion to get through the course. I am a 4.0 GPA student and I am worried about my standing trying to pass this course with only this book to study.

The author flips back and forth between Windows and Unix seemingly at a whim. Topics jump back and forth between chapters. Trying to answer the questions at the end of the chapters is impossible based on the material within the chapter. We are into chapter 5 and I have yet to find a redeeming thing to say about this book. I think that in over 8 years of reading tech books this has to be the absolute worst.

This author might know about oracle 10g but he does not know how to write a book. His exam review questions cannot be answered with going to other sources because this book is very vague on the subjects that pertain to the questions. After reading this book you will have to read another book just to really understand. This book jumps around so much that most of the information is useless if you do not know exactly how it is implemented and why.

I'm teaching two sections of a database administration course for which this textbook was selected. It's the worst textbook I think I've ever seen. The earlier edition, used with Oracle 9i, had all the problems Raymond noted, but at least it lined up with the Oracle release it described.

This edition lines up with Oracle release 10g, which is provided on a CD with the book. However, the authors were too careless or lazy to update the screen shots of the Enterprise Manager console from the old 9i ones. And they are completely different -- in 10g Oracle went to a browser-based EM console that looks and acts completely differently than the fat client one did in release 9i. There are also parts of the text that erroneously describe the way it used to be done in 9i (but is no longer done in 10g).

Needless to say, the students are very confused and frustrated. This book doesn't even merit one star, but that's the least it can be given.