Here’s another great review of my book OCA Oracle Database SQL Expert Exam Guide, this from R.C. Roper of Topanga Canyon, California, who says:
This is a great book, covering all of the relevant topics in detail. The chapters and sections are in the order the certification objectives appear on Oracle’s ‘Exam Topics’ page for this test, so it’s easy to navigate and find your trouble spots. There are over 200 end-of-chapter questions in the book, and that’s all I used to study for this exam. After only a week of study, I passed the exam with no other preparation except for the experience I’ve gained over the short time I’ve held my job. I can only imagine how well I would have done if I registered later for the test and gave myself more time.
Thanks, R.C.! The outline and overall structure was a major topic of discussion and debate in the original formation of the book, and frankly it made the job a bit challenging. It’s one thing to write a book that mirrors the exam objectives outline, and it’s another to create a book that conveys the information sequentially from start to finish in a way that initially made the most sense to me. Creating a single volume that does both simultaneously was tricky – but I think we did it, and did a great job. By “we”, I’m including the excellent team at McGraw-Hill, including Tim Green, Meghan Manfre (formerly Meghan Riley), and Molly Sharp, as well as the outstanding and brilliant technical editor Alistair Grieve who was tremendous and really went above and beyond with this effort. And even the legendary Kevin Loney provided some key input. So it was quite the team effort. (Click here for the complete Acknowledgements section from the book!)