RE: v$sqlarea update frequency

Yes, as K mentioned - many of the stats (e.g. disk_reads) aren't updated until the end of the call. For more up-to-date stats, you can monitor v$sesstat for the sid that is currently executing the sql, e.g.  

select sid from v$session where sql_hash_value = <hash_value for query you're interested in>;  

Then select the stats of interest from v$sesstat for the sid(s) returned from the above query.  

Regards,
Brandon

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