So, for whatever good it will do me, I can call myself an Oracle Certified SQL Expert. It was a good pass (78, with 66 being a pass). For those of you who have never done it, that's the equivalent of a 90%+ on most tests as there are so many, "choose 2", "none of the above", "choose all that apply" that when combined with questions that have multiple concepts embedded in them, they're like 5 questions in one, at times.
Before I drove down to take the test I tossed the book and all of my notes. Had I failed I didn't want to be tempted to try again. So I burned the boats on the beach. Finally, for whatever they are worth, a few thoughts.
1. Transcender didn't help. This is hard to explain but with Transcender it felt like every question was trying to trick you. Oracle feels like, "well, yeah, we're gonna trick you and be mean to you and kick your dog because that's how we roll." I just don't think Transcender was good enough on this test.
2. I don't think it would be possible to over prepare (especially if you come from another platform), unless you have a lot of time writing Oracle SQL. I, literally, memorized the study guide (700 pages) and spent a ton of time hunting through the online documentation, and still, there were a couple of questions I felt lost on where I knew the topic. They did something with a regular expression that was either a typo or I didn't understand what they were doing. Also, the online documentation was insufficient in more than a few places and I had to turn to third party sources. The study guide is, by far, the best resource.
2a. You have to memorize syntax, all of it. If there are 3 ways to do something (and lets be honest you do it the same way every time) you better know all 3.
3. I only saw a couple of repeats, and it did help on one question, but I didn't go, "aha, I know that one because I remember it" all through the test.
4. I think I had a bad draw last time. Yes, I'd done it before, and, yes, I studied like crazy, but it really did seem easier. For instance, no crazy SQL that took 10 minutes to find the errors in it. But, my eye is so much better now that when they did that I spotted the syntax errors very quickly. I can understand, now, how some people hit 90+ on the test.
5. The testing center really does matter. The other place I took the test had cramped cubes, lousy chairs and a small monitor. This place was the reverse of all that and it really helped.
Anyways, that's done. I'm sure it won't net me much, or anything for work, but I can at least claim to have a certification from Oracle, MySQL (ok, technically I already did have something from Oracle) and Microsoft.
(Gorn: added more descriptive title. Hope that's ok!)
