How is Oracle OLN for Exam Prep?

[darkman0101]

The boss has supplied me with a professional subscription to OLN as it is cheeper than sending me on a course.

I am in the process of working through the eLearning classes on Architecture and Administration in the hope of sitting the exam at the end.

I have little DBA experience but find that the eClass module generally make sense and are fairly easy to understand.

The question is this...Has anyone used these module in preparation of taking an OCP Exam?
Are they enough preparation with a bit of practical experience thrown in or should I go out and buy a book?

Thanks in advance
Jas

 

[wushutwist]

I found the OLN courses good as a general overview but as an exam study aid I think they are pretty much useless. I would read a book or two and then go through the OLN courses as an overview/refresher. The amount of emphasis placed on the different sections in the OLN courses is consistent with the exams so it will give you an understanding of how important Oracle feel different subjects are. For example, a lot of emphasis is placed on RMAN in the Backups and Recovery courses and this is pretty much the case with the Exam.

I was pretty much in your same situation, the OLN stuff was free so why not use it? Just don't expect this to be nearly enough to pass the exams. The quiz questions are a joke (not at all similar to the actual exam) and the practice examples are trival.

Definitely you need to supplement with the OLN with a set of good books. I recommend the Sybex series though the Couchman book is not terrible.