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Oracle Database Implementation Specialist 1Z0-514 vs 1Z0-497 [message #612571]

Tue, 22 April 2014 02:47

rleishman
Messages: 3728
Registered: October 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Senior Member

Just doing my annual rounds of the Oracle Certification web site and found the new 12c exam for Database Certified Implementation Specialist.

I did the exam for 11g (1Z0-514). As a developer, I felt I could highly recommend this exam to other developers to bridge the knowledge gap with DBAs, who all too often have poor dev skills. Even better, the 2-Day DBA tutorial in the online manuals is tailor made for the exam - all the topics presented in the same order as the exam topics.

Imagine my surprise at seeing the scope of the 12c version (1Z0-497). It seems to have at least 50% new topics and a lot of the old topics have been dropped or rearranged in a pattern that could most politely be described as "random". Worse, the 2-Day DBA tutorial has not been (appreciably) updated - it still matches the 11g exam structure.

Anyone know what Oracle is playing at here? Did they just write-off the 11g exam as "too much like OCA DBA" and start from scratch? Or is the new exam much the same as the old one with a light smattering of new-features questions?

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Re: Oracle Database Implementation Specialist 1Z0-514 vs 1Z0-497 [message #612576 is a reply to message #612571]

Tue, 22 April 2014 03:22

rc3d
Messages: 213
Registered: September 2013
Location: Baden-Württemberg

Senior Member

Matthew Morris wrote a study guide "Study Guide for 1Z0-497: Oracle Database 12c Essentials: Oracle Certification Prep"

http://www.amazon.com/Study-Guide-1Z0-497-Essentials-Certification/dp/1941404006

If you have good Oracle DBA background, this summary guide is for you (as study resource).

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Re: Oracle Database Implementation Specialist 1Z0-514 vs 1Z0-497 [message #612577 is a reply to message #612576]

Tue, 22 April 2014 03:27

rleishman
Messages: 3728
Registered: October 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Senior Member

Yes, I saw it on Matthew's web site. I know he cruises this forum regularly and expect he will chime in pretty soon.

I'm not all that interested in taking the new exam; just curious as to why it is such a departure from the previous exam.

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Re: Oracle Database Implementation Specialist 1Z0-514 vs 1Z0-497 [message #612630 is a reply to message #612577]

Tue, 22 April 2014 21:34

matthewmorris68
Messages: 258
Registered: May 2012
Location: Orlando, FL

Senior Member

Chiming in...... wait for it.... now.

Unfortunately, I don't really have any information on the question you are interested in. I have no idea why OU (actually OPN) decided to make 1Z0-497 so different from 1Z0-514. I haven't even done a guide for 514 and had only glanced over the topics one time when I was considering doing so. I could not have gotten to it before 12c was released, and after 12c went production... it was sort of pointless. The 'Essentials' exams have a much shorter lifetime than the OCA/OCP exams since they are primarily targeted at employees of OPN companies. The companies get brownie points from Oracle when they have a certain number of specialists.

I did write a review of the exam that posted at GoCertify yesterday. That may be useful to you:

http://www.gocertify.com/certification-exam-reviews/oracle-1z0-497-quintessential-12c.html

It might help if you understand that the essentials exams are created by a different group than the people who create OCA/OCP/OCE/OCM exams. The 'they' who made the content decision on 497 (based on the relatively tiny window I have into the workings at Oracle) are not the same 'they' who make the content decisions on 062, 063, etc.

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Re: Oracle Database Implementation Specialist 1Z0-514 vs 1Z0-497 [message #612635 is a reply to message #612630]

Tue, 22 April 2014 23:50

rleishman
Messages: 3728
Registered: October 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Senior Member

I'm prepared to take a stab at what is going on. 1Z0-514 was really just a cornflakes-packet OCA Administrator (same topics, easier questions) with a handful of Dorothy Dixers on new features like Edition Based Redefinition and Security Options.

Those Dorothy Dixers would help you to explain some of the features that might attract a buyer to 11g, and it seems the CIS certs are moving more towards that "advocate" model and leave the technical expertise to the OCA/OCP/OCE/OCM certs. Certainly the new Beta 1Z1-417 (Performance and Tuning Essentials) looks more like a pre-sales checklist than a technical exam.

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Re: Oracle Database Implementation Specialist 1Z0-514 vs 1Z0-497 [message #612657 is a reply to message #612571]

Wed, 23 April 2014 02:47

rc3d
Messages: 213
Registered: September 2013
Location: Baden-Württemberg

Senior Member

Quote:

Those Dorothy Dixers would help you to explain some of the features that might attract a buyer to 11g, and it seems the CIS certs are moving more towards that "advocate" model and leave the technical expertise to the OCA/OCP/OCE/OCM certs.

What is not a bad thing. But sadly Oracle never releases study guide for 'Certified Implementation Specialist' exams.

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Re: Oracle Database Implementation Specialist 1Z0-514 vs 1Z0-497 [message #612704 is a reply to message #612635]

Wed, 23 April 2014 08:01

matthewmorris68
Messages: 258
Registered: May 2012
Location: Orlando, FL

Senior Member

Quote:

Certainly the new Beta 1Z1-417 (Performance and Tuning Essentials) looks more like a pre-sales checklist...

Yep. When I first got an email from OPN about that exam, I requested a free voucher for the beta from the OPN team. The request was denied -- and I was told they were out of the free vouchers. By then I had looked at the topics and was pretty much relieved for the reason you state above.

Then about a month later, out of the blue, they sent me a voucher. At that point I decided 'what the heck' and started to put together a study guide for the exam. I spent a couple weeks trying to research those topics. In the end, I simply gave up on that exam because the topics were so confused that I didn't think I'd be able to write a good study guide. I have no interest in writing a bad study guide. I returned the voucher to OPN and told them they were welcome to give it to someone else.

That said, you are correct in that the implementation exams are at least as much about selling Oracle as they are about using it. However, I do like the fact that some of them cover topics that the OCA/OCP/OCE don't (yet).

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Re: Oracle Database Implementation Specialist 1Z0-514 vs 1Z0-497 [message #612706 is a reply to message #612657]

Wed, 23 April 2014 08:23

matthewmorris68
Messages: 258
Registered: May 2012
Location: Orlando, FL

Senior Member

Quote:

Oracle never releases study guide for 'Certified Implementation Specialist' exams

'Oracle' (the company) never releases study guides for any exam. 'Oracle Press' (the arm/division/product-line of McGraw-Hill) does not almost assuredly because the 'Essentials' exams have too short of a cycle. Because the specialist exams are largely intended as a vehicle for training Oracle re-sellers about the features of the latest release, their lifetime is much shorter than the technical exams. People were still taking the Oracle 9i DBA track right up until OU retired it last July. OU had to postpone retiring 1Z0-147 -- which was developed during 9i -- because of push back due to the popularity of the exam.

Books published by Oracle Press (or any traditional publisher) don't make a profit on a given book until the ####th copy is sold (the actual number depends on lots of factors). The Essentials exams may never reach that number or may not exceed it by enough to be worthwhile. Because my series is done via a Print-on-Demand model, I don't have the same restriction.

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