User Guides Guide to Getting Oracle Certified ( OCA ) in 45 days

I had recently got my oracle certification, OCA Developer track and now preparing for OCP Developer track. The reason I’m writing this is that i never found enough information for my preparation and neither did I find any clear cut answers on googling :(

So here we go :)

Certification Path

In order to get OCA developer you need to clear two set of exams.

Set I

1Z0-001 (Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL)
1Z0-007 (Introduction to Oracle9i SQL)
1Z0-047 (Oracle Database SQL Expert)
1Z0-051 (Oracle Database 11g: SQL Fundamentals I)

From the above 4 exams you can choose to give any one of these exams. I had chosen "1Z0-007 (Introduction to Oracle9i SQL)" as it was the most relevant for my future track and this one is non-proctored exam so that means you can sit at home and give this exam ( I know what you
are thinking :p).

Set II

1Z0-147 (Program with PL/SQL)

[BREAK=1Z0-007 (Introduction to Oracle9i SQL)]

1Z0-007 (Introduction to Oracle9i SQL)

This exam covers very basic SQL commands and you are basically tested on whether you can create tables, retrieve data from them and manipulate the data according to your needs. If you have done Btech then this shouldn't be a problem for you. But I would advise you to go through the books anyways because there are some details that we were not taught in college
(in ours at least :( ).

Btw please throw your favorite IVAN BAYROSS in the dustbin.

Resources for passing this exam:


Always go through the assessment that is given at the end of the chapter. You will get many questions based on those lines. You should also go through the Practice Test listed at oracle site Practice Test
You can register online on Prometric Online Testing - Home or you can go to any of the prometric center near your place and give the exam. It should cost you around 4.7k bux for this exam.

Strategy:

Since this exam doesn’t have any hardcore questions, you will have to face a lot of long questions. Don’t even bother reading those in start, just mark them and skip to next short question. You can easily finish the short questions within the first 30 mins. So now you have 90 minutes to solve those long questions. For the long questions, please read the options before you start reading the question because sometimes you will be able to figure out the solution by reading just the first 3-4 lines.

Level of Difficulty: Easy - Moderate ( avg marks : 85- 95 % )

[BREAK=1Z0-147 (Program with PL/SQL)]

1Z0-147 (Program with PL/SQL)

This exam is not as easy as 1Z0-007 and you can't pass this one without reading thoroughly, it covers packages, procedure, functions, triggers, LOBs, etc. I would suggest that you go through the book. Also please don't neglect the Oracle docs, they are the ultimate thing ( they are damn boring) and no book can beat it when it comes to the details.

Resources for passing this exam:

You should also go through the Practice Test listed at oracle site
Program with PL/SQL

This is a proctored exam so you would have to go to one of the prometric center or Oracle university for the exam and the cost for this one is 6.7k

Strategy:

This exam unlike the 1Z0-007 paper won't be having huge questions ( at max there will be 4-5), please don't rush through the paper. See the question, analyze and then select the answer. You will have enough time to answer all the questions, so don't panic. This test requires a deep understanding of how things work, so don't ignore the minor details while reading the book ( like where is the status of the procedures stored, where are the dependencies stored). There will be some very stupid questions with obvious answers, don't think too much about those ( these will be just after very tough questions to confuse you).

Level of Difficulty: Moderate ( avg marks : 78 - 85 % )

Download oracle 10g and practice on it because
1) The more you practice the easier it becomes for you to remember the syntax.
2) You will make a lot of stupid mistakes ( :p ), and you will learn things which even books cant teach.
3) You will get to see the results of your statements and see where you have messed up and why.

One last thing, i know there are dumps out there, but please don't rely on those for Sun or Oracle certifications coz the answers are not accurate and even if you get through oracle guys can cancel your certification if they find out that you have used dumps.

You can download Oracle 10g for free by registering with OTN ( oracle technology network) and then download the 2 zip files of size 650 mb and 270 mb. After this download the Oralce 10g Client ( size: 470mb). While installing remember the password that you give :).

If you guys have not got any prior experience in DBMS then i would suggest picking up a RDBMS book and reading it side by side with the books suggested. It wont help in clearing your certification but it will give you the basics of database design and all.
Please do study the following topics at least( if you haven't had exposure to RDBMS yet)
-> Codds Rule
-> Normalization

If you are wondering is it possible in 45 days, then yes it is, I did this while working. I opted not to go for Aptech, NIIT, etc because it was too expensive for my 20k/month salary :( and you can basically do it yourself :)

If you have any trouble after installation just leave a comment i will try to help you out.

Anyways if you ever want to find more oracle related stuff you can visit my blog at Oracle Resource
 
Click to expand...
UV..

Now if i get the OCA certifications done, are there opportunities for a fresher like me?

If not, where can i get some worthwhile experience before jumping in?

And whats the best book for learning PL/SQL from scratch? (I dont think you have mentioned any books for that)

PS: I ve done my M.A :ashamed:
 
Sorry for the late replies guys .. i was busy with work

@priyamvada : if you read carefully i have mentioned the book names in the article.

@|Anish| : To really get a good job, you need to do OCP after OCA. As for learning PL/Sql from scratch please refer to : Beginning-SQL-Queries-From-Novice-to-Professional-Beginning-from-Novice-to-Professional

It is not as simple as books from Indian Authors but it will give you very strong fundamentals for building Pl/Sql queries

:)
 
Thanks a lot buddy. This will help me hugely as I just gave SCJP, and was planning to give OCA soon.

Now I am gonna trouble you very often with my doubts :)
 
U failed to mention that after OCA u need a course completion certificate to qualify for OCP.

Technically u can appear & even pass the OCP but u won't get the OCP certification from Oracle until u submit a course completion certificate from Oracle certified institute (~25k course fees) or online training module (again ~25k)

So if anyone's serious about this, better take a full package course from an institute like SQL Star, NIIT,etc. which would include course & certification fees.

My friend who used to work at IBM previously found this out after completing OCA & he had planned for OCP DBA track 10g. Now he's cursing Oracle :p
 
Procedure in the above post only applicable for DBA track OCP, there's no such restriction for Developer track OCP.
 
Hi.. I have a question to ask.I have completed my BE. I want to do the OCA course now.Like for OCA we need to clear two papers. For the first paper we need to make a choice among the following:

1Z0-007Introduction to Oracle9i SQL®

or

1Z0-047Oracle Database SQL Expert

or

1Z0-051Oracle Database 11g: SQL Fundamentals I

and for the second paper:

EXAM

Program with PL/SQL 1Z0-147

OR

Oracle Database 11g: Program with PL/SQL 1Z0-144

Now i want to ask what should be our criterion to select the option from the above choices or which ones are better?

These are the developer based exam . Can anybody tell me which one has more scope and growth the developer one or the DBA one?And i should go for 11g or 10g?

Thanx..

Please reply..
 
hmm first clear iz0-007 ie ur sql easy questions

marks 100

passing 70 marks

learn from dumps as they are best friends for this exam

u get 2 hrs time in which u got to ans and score 70 as passing marks

focus on multiple ans question as those are tricky

after than while learning for Sql get all concepts of DML,DCL,joints,indexes etc clear

some chapters arent that useful

hmm what else yes all constraints name etc need to remembered

for second PLSQL is hard a bit ,u should go with PLSQL paper

again dumps will do that magic for you

mostly in industry 9i is still accepted still it will be better if you know about 10g
 
hi thanks for the gr8 info.I have completed my MCA few years back and couldnt work for years.I have a plan for doing OCA.If u have more useful suggestions then please provide those too
 
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