OCP Oracle Database 10g : New Features for Administrators Exam Guide (Oracle Press)

Rating:
Summary: Ideal book to learn new features of Oracle 10g
Review: Author has done a pretty good job, topics are well covered. However as indicated by some other reviewers, there are some typos and minor mistakes found in the book. But if the topics covered in this book were referred along with Oracle's documentation, I don't think anything is left untouched.

Overall, a book worth to read if the objective is to become familiar in Oracle 10g features and pass the Oracle 10g upgrade exam.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent 10g New Features Book
Review: Great coverage of all 10g DBA new features for the OCP upgrade test. The questions simulate real Oracle OCP test questions as well. The coverage is interesting and the material is substantially more than previous OCP upgrade exams (this book is twice the size of the 9i upgrade book) Heartily recommend the book to all DBAs who are planning to take the test.The book is also the best 10g new features reference for DBAs that I've seen.


Rating:
Summary: Way too many typos and errors.
Review: I am amazed at how many typos and mistakes are in this book. It makes me wonder if I just got the first draft. I have not taken the exam yet, but I have purchased another certification book from Sybex. I hope that book will contain fewer errors than this book. I don't have enough confidcnce in this book to use it as my only study guide.

Rating:
Summary: quality book for upgrade test and much more
Review: I am preparing for the 10g DBA upgrade test with this book now. To my pleasant surprise, I am able to easily understand many of the new 10g features which confused me before I bought this book.
My confidence level in my 10g abilities has increased many fold after reading the chapters and taking the chapter end tests and reviewing the answers carefully.
I really love the care with which the questions were chosen - they follow the typical OCP test question style, which increases my confidence in the book.
The book is technically to the point, with concise and accurate explanations of the numerous new 10g dba features.
Congratulations and thanks to the author for putting in the effort to make so many hard technical features easily understandable.



Rating:
Summary: Good but needs some corrections.
Review: I previoulsy reviewed this book back in December 2004 (see below my previous opinion on the book). The book is good for the certification exam and has some relevant information you need to know for the exam. I was just disappointed about the amount of errors in the book. If you notice those errors you are fine.

I took my exam today (Tuesday January 25, 2005) and score 51/61. The reason I came back to update my review is to give some credit to this book. I would admit that I learnt from this book. But I did not rely on this book alone. I also used the Sybex study guide and the OOD (Oracle Online Documentation). All of three provided me a valuable assistance in studying for the exams. The practice exam questions in the Oracle Press Book and the Sybex Study guide were helpful and I did not have to buy a practice exam software.

My advice for the exam: make sure you understand clearly the following concepts: ASM, Datapump architecture, Materialized Views, Security Policy,Index with partitions, and Advisory Framework. I was heavily tested in those areas.


December 24, 2004 (review)
I agree with most of reviewers about the amount of errors in the books. Only people who read without paying attention to the contents and not following the logic will have a hard time finding those errors. I bought this book because of the author reputation since I read one of his books before. I would say that Sam Alapati is an expert in Database area, not doubt about it. But the book was written in a hasty approach with the goal to grab the market share before the competitors. I strongly believe the book is still useful. Beside the typos and some misleading errors, the book has very important information you need to know for the exam. It just gives you a lot of work to double check every thing.

I will admit that I was surprised by the first two reviews written back in November 2004. At that time I already went through about 3 chapters of the oracle press book and started seeing those mistakes in the book. I was struck by the fact that they were praising the book without mentionning those mistakes in the book.

As I always do, I don't use one source to prepare for the exam. I bought both oracle press books and sybex study guide at the same time. I have to switch to the sybex book due to those frustating mistakes you have to check all the time. So far I feel pretty comfortable with the sybex study guide. I already went through the entire sybex book and going through it for the second time.
I am planning to go back to the oracle press book too before I go take the exam. The exam questions in the oracle press are OK but not the best.

I don't know if I will recommend this book to anyone but it is just matter of choice. I don't regret buying it and I am planning to keep it around.

I give 3 stars.
Good luck!!!

Rating:
Summary: Errors galore!
Review: I think I am the first guy who is doing proof-reading of this book. There are so many typographical errors, wrong names of the fixed tables/views/packages. For almost everything I had to go back to the Oracle Documentation to confirm the names.
The content is real good but errors are frustrating!

Rating:
Summary: Strongly recommend as a reference for 10g new features
Review: I'm having fun reading this book! It is much larger than the previous test guides, with exhuastive explanation of all the new DBA 10g features.
I bought this book to prepare for the DBA 10g OCP upgrade test. I think I'll also use it as a reference for the new features.
The exam questions seem very realistic - the author took the beta exam and got certified as OCP DBA, and that's why I think the exam questions (a total of over 350 questions) seem well written. I think once I get through he book, I should pass the test without a problem!

Rating:
Summary: A good fiction book about 10g
Review: This book is too wordy for the techical book. There are many paragraphs without end point what it is about -"we are just talking about Oracle" Simple examples are supported by many words that sometimes don't help to understand the topic.
Some topics are without clear descriptions. For example, after reading a chapter about jobs and programs I wasn't able to say what is the difference between them. There is no clear description what is a job and what is a program. Some chapter contains some historical information what doesn't really help to understand how to use new 10g features.

600 pages can be easily put into 300 pages of good tecnical book.
I cannot say that I can use this book in my daily practice - it is not easy to find quickly interested topic among so many pages of instructor's conversation about how good a new feature rather then about this feature itself.