I've used Sybex's study guides for my 9i OCP qual and found them to be ok. As a DBA working closely with 9i and 10g databases, I assumed this 10g New Features guide would round out my practical experience and help me pass this exam first time. Turns out that I was wrong. This book contains more errors than it should, is contradictory or ambiguous in places, and is not comprehensive enough to pass the exam - although you might get lucky I guess (I was short by 1 question, but luck shouldn't play a part in certification!). To be fair to the book, I also think that some of the questions in the exam itself are needlessly ambiguous and obfuscating, so I'm disappointed with Oracle too! I have copies of Sybex's DBA I and II guides, which will possibly be helpful on my resit.

anyone who finds this guide is unusable or contains too many errors should read the oracle press study guide instead. i think that doing so may change your opinion of how bad this guide really is.

i found this book to be well written and in a format that was (at least to me) easily digestible. the examples were concise and thoughtful and the information was presented in a very even-handed manner (tho i thought that they did spend a disproportionate amount of time on a few of the EM advisor screens). yes, there were a few errors, but running thru the examples will likely uncover those for you and, as another reviewer noted, a few are to be expected. keep in mind that it's a study GUIDE, not a guarantee that you ace the exam if you know it by rote. overall a good read, i really wish that i'd found this one first.

I used it to pass my DBA OCP exam. There are a few errors in the book, but that is to be expected. You have to learn everything to be prepared for the exam. It is also wise to get a second book so you can track omissions in this books by answering all the questions and sample exams in the other book.

I passed my 10g OCP upgrade exam using this book, together with the 10g New Features book (Oracle Press), the 10g DBA Handbook (Oracle Press), the Oracle documentation, an actual 10g database (several in fact), the Self Help Software practice test and, just for fun, the PrepLogic Audio Training CDs. Having been an Oracle DBA for nearly 17 years, my motivation to take the OCP exams is not just to pass. It's to get as close to 100% as I can. That being the case, I am very careful with my studies and take my time working through every single subject area, frequently building actual working examples of the new features.

Passing my 10g OCP upgrade exam had more to do with my thoroughness than it had to do with this book. I prefer to use a published study guide in conjunction with the Exam Topics published by Oracle. Starting with my 7.3 certification, I have always used the Oracle Press exam study guides, but decided to switch to this Sybex title due to the number of errors and pieces of misinformation I was finding in the Oracle Press books. However, I was appalled to find this title to be as bad, if not worse, than the Oracle Press 9i upgrade book.

I accept that writing a technical (exam prep) book is a difficult undertaking, but there is absolutely no excuse for getting published syntax wrong. By way of example, p367 states the RMAN command to specify a duration for a backup is:

RMAN> backup tablespace users duration 2:00;

WRONG! Try it and you'll see the RMAN syntax error message. It is in fact:

RMAN> backup duration 2:00 tablespace users;

Chapter 4 Q11 asks about the main differences between COPY_FILE and PUT_FILE. The given answer includes the option which states PUT_FILE requires a destination server name. WRONG! It requires a database link to know how to connect to a destination server, but to say PUT_FILE itself "requires" a server name, i.e. as one of its parameters is clearly not true. A question in one of the bonus exams makes reference to a Resource Manager parameter called MAX_IDLE_BLOCK_TIME. WRONG! It's actually called MAX_IDLE_BLOCKER_TIME.

Whilst on the subject of the tests found on the book's CD, I found several questions that were worded in a very obscure way or that asked for a level of extreme detail that was simply unrealistic. There were even questions where you had to choose 2 answers from 4, but the answer selection method was a radio button, not check boxes, so you could only choose one answer! Also many questions asked about subjects or aspects of subjects that were not covered in the book itself!

Nit picking? I don't think so. These are important details and the further I got into this book, the less I trusted it. Second guessing what you read in a study guide is not ideal exam preparation. The icing on the cake was several questions on the actual exam which were not covered by any of my preparation materials, but that always happens and I like to think that's just Oracle's sense of humor! :-)

Bottom line is, anyone giving this book maximum stars and high praise could not have read it carefully enough. Personally, I'll be switching back to the Oracle Press book for 11g unless another option presents itself. If you use this book as your primary study guide, be very careful and double check often with hands on practice and reference to the Oracle documentation.

Good luck with your studies.

I passed my 10g OCP upgrade exam using this book, together with the 10g New Features book (Oracle Press), the 10g DBA Handbook (Oracle Press), the Oracle documentation, an actual 10g database (several in fact), the Self Help Software practice test and, just for fun, the PrepLogic Audio Training CDs. Having been an Oracle DBA for nearly 17 years, my motivation to take the OCP exams is not just to pass. It's to get as close to 100% as I can. That being the case, I am very careful with my studies and take my time working through every single subject area, frequently building actual working examples of the new features.

Passing my 10g OCP upgrade exam had more to do with my thoroughness than it had to do with this book. I prefer to use a published study guide in conjunction with the Exam Topics published by Oracle. Starting with my 7.3 certification, I have always used the Oracle Press exam study guides, but decided to switch to this Sybex title due to the number of errors and pieces of misinformation I was finding in the Oracle Press books. However, I was appalled to find this title to be as bad, if not worse, than the Oracle Press 9i upgrade book.

I accept that writing a technical (exam prep) book is a difficult undertaking, but there is absolutely no excuse for getting published syntax wrong. By way of example, p367 states the RMAN command to specify a duration for a backup is:

RMAN> backup tablespace users duration 2:00;

WRONG! Try it and you'll see the RMAN syntax error message. It is in fact:

RMAN> backup duration 2:00 tablespace users;

Chapter 4 Q11 asks about the main differences between COPY_FILE and PUT_FILE. The given answer includes the option which states PUT_FILE requires a destination server name. WRONG! It requires a database link to know how to connect to a destination server, but to say PUT_FILE itself "requires" a server name, i.e. as one of its parameters is clearly not true. A question in one of the bonus exams makes reference to a Resource Manager parameter called MAX_IDLE_BLOCK_TIME. WRONG! It's actually called MAX_IDLE_BLOCKER_TIME.

Whilst on the subject of the tests found on the book's CD, I found several questions that were worded in a very obscure way or that asked for a level of extreme detail that was simply unrealistic. There were even questions where you had to choose 2 answers from 4, but the answer selection method was a radio button, not check boxes, so you could only choose one answer! Also many questions asked about subjects or aspects of subjects that were not covered in the book itself!

Nit picking? I don't think so. These are important details and the further I got into this book, the less I trusted it. Second guessing what you read in a study guide is not ideal exam preparation. The icing on the cake was several questions on the actual exam which were not covered by any of my preparation materials, but that always happens and I like to think that's just Oracle's sense of humor! :-)

Bottom line is, anyone giving this book maximum stars and high praise could not have read it carefully enough. Personally, I'll be switching back to the Oracle Press book for 11g unless another option presents itself. If you use this book as your primary study guide, be very careful and double check often with hands on practice and reference to the Oracle documentation.

Good luck with your studies.

After taking the exam three times using this book, I finally realized that the book was missing a lot of information that was on the actual exam. It is poorly written, and the examples are poorly illustrated. If you want to pass the exam on the first try, I do not recommend this book! The CD software that came bundled with this book did not reflect the questions on the actual exam(?) The authors of this book need to head back to the drawing board and start all over again. What a waste of time and money....

This book will definitely teach you the new features in 10g and prepare you for the exam. The material definitely covered the test areas well, although often there are mistakes in the text and questions. The online tests and flashcards are very useful and (good or bad) provide additional information that the book does not cover.

After doing 9i using the Oracle Press books I believe I will continue with this series when the next release comes out.

Today I passed the OCP upgrade exam with a 52/60 score and this book is principally responsible. I used the practice exams to find holes in my knowledge and revisited the text in those areas. By the way, the 10g Upgrade exam is a lot more work than the last two upgrade exams. Prepare to spend more time studying. I have only one criticism: the book has to much detail in some areas(the lesser new features like merge, model, etc.) and leaves a few things out of the big-new features. All in all, this test covers 92% of the material for the test. Aside from the upgrade exam, the text is also an excellent reference and learning book.

This book gives you a CD with one 20-question exam per chapter, plus two 52-question "bonus tests," plus a 25-question "assessment test," plus a 250-question set of "flashcards." This is enough to get you into good shape for the Oracle exam to upgrade your DBA certification.

I had no trouble loading any of the CD stuff onto my Windows computer, but you must install MacroMedia's Flash Player for it all to work (just follow the link provided on the CD to access the site to install this from).

The book is clearly written (with the possible exception of chapter 8, which was a little weaker). The book has very few errors in it, unlike other "upgrade test" books out there. The "quality control" appears to be pretty good on the Sybex Oracle books. I've been happy with every one I've bought, whereas I've encountered both excellent and sub-par books from Oracle Press.

I bought the Selftestsoftware (STS) questions along with this book and believe I will pass the exam next week. I feel confident and would definitely recommend this book.

I like the book, the authors did a great job. Sybex sucks! The e-book can't be opened by either Acrobat 7 or Acrobat 6 (included on the CD). My computer/OS satisfy all the requirements, yet I get "Missing Component Not Found" error when I try to open the ebook. I even removed my Acrobat reader 7, and installed 6 from the CD. Same thing. Sybex support unresponsive. In my opinion this product just lost half of its value. Yes, I hate Sybex now...

Thanks to the combination of this book and STS Software, I was able to pass the exam. On a side-note, If you plan on using STS SW, be careful, I found a few discrepencies with a few of their questions. The STS tech people confirmed my suspicions. Use the mentor button if your unsure of a question. I'm still a big advocate of STS to complement your Certification preparation - I purchased 7 of their practice exams and passed 7 Oracle exams (8i, 9i, and 10g).

I highly recommend this book to anyone considering 10g certification. Matter-a-fact, I plan on using this book at work to assist me with some of the 10g features. It provides some great examples.


Good Luck

Howard
http://www.oracle-base.com/Links/oracleocp.pdf

Today I passed my exam with score 42/61. I used this book togerther with STS. STS has very basic questions. Real exam questions are more difficult. Thanks the book I passed the exam.

Book is good organized. Easy to read. Not too many fonts and note pictures. All examples in the book are tested and are easy to repeat on home PC.

I used this book to pass my OCP test. This book covers all topics in detail and in few cases with examples. The book contains test examxs which helped me in preparing for the exam and the flashcards helped me in revising before appearing for the exams.

I took my exam today (Tuesday January 25, 2005) and scored 51/61. This study guide is very detailed, and informative. I used this book along with the Oracle Press Book and the OOD (Oracle Online Documentation). This book covers all the objectives on the exam in a clear way. I was well-prepared for the exam. I went through this book at least 3 times. I took my time to prepare for the exam. The screenshots in the book were good. I had a few question on them. The OOD was also helpful. I used it constantly if I wanted to double check something said in the book. I strongly believe if you use this book alone you can pass the exam. There was not a question on the exam that this book has not discussed. I give a lot credit to the authors for the book. They did a good job writing this study guide.

My advice for you on the exam: make sure you understand the concept of ASM, Indexes with Partitions, Advisory Framework chapter, Materialized Views, Security Policies, and Datapump architecture. I was heavily tested on those areas.

The practice exam questions in the Sybex study guide and the Oracle Press Book were very helpful. I did not have to buy a practice test software.

I will recommend this book to candidates for the upgrade exam. I give 5 stars

I used this book to prepare for my OCP exam,this book has added many useful materials, Its great,
Thanks, Mr.Bob you did good job.

This book was effective for passing the exam. There was too much detail in some areas, mainly from chapter 8. From ch.8 the exam mainly covered FGA, VPD (also understand the policy types), and a few questions on materialized views. The ASM section of chapter 5 is very helpful, but review the Oracle Documentation as well. The rest of the book is practically flawless. My second resource for studying was using Self Test Software. This is my ninth Oracle exam using STS and they have been very accurate covering the exam topics and simulating the exam questions; this is a very effective test question tool. It will also help you focus on what exam concepts are most important. Overall, I do recommend this book for helping you pass the test, but the questions at the end of each chapter are not that helpful and do not really reflect the type of questions asked on the real exam. Using this book and STS I passed this test with a good score.

I have passed the OCP 10g upgrade exam this afternoon(Nov. 20th). I found this book an excellent reference to prepare for the exam. It was a matter of preference that I chose this book. Make sure that you have read each page, reviewed all the questions and the bonus tests on the CD, before you go for the real test. The authors have covered the topics well and also shown them where to check these features in Enterprise Manager. This book would serve as a good reference to check the new features of Oracle 10g database.