Re: Assessment question on indexes

David Aldridge wrote:
> >> Therefore, the ability to extract meaning out of poorly worded
> questions, and the ability to make reasonable inferences in the face
of
> ambiguity, are very valuable skills for a DBA to have.
>
> No-one in there right mind would take action on a database without
> clarifying the issue, but you can't ask the exam for clarification --
> now if they asked "What further information would you request in
order
> to clarify the situation?", that might be an interesting question,
but
> unfortunately for OCP you just haver to guess some
> lowest-common-denominator situation. IMHO, it's not satisfactory.

Actually, right-mindedness aside :-) I often do this - people think I'm purposefully being difficult if I _make_ them give as much detail as they should but cannot be expected to. However, I always have a way to go backwards if it doesn't give expected results, and of course, test beforehand if possible, and of course, make sure I have access to tools to make observations. Something that seems oddly missing from OCP, and the whole idea of having DBA's do things manually as "experts" - one is expected to know the exact answer and syntax immediately. As if DBA's spend their whole day typing in obscure partitioning syntax from memory.

One of the benefits of experience is quickly decoding the ambiguity. Another is learning to script everything so you can forget about it until you need it again. Another is learning to know your application.  One thing I haven't learned is how to be inscrutable - that would be a useful skill.

jg

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