How to become an Oracle Certified Master

Being an OCM is really an accomplishment in a DBA’s career. This is something that gives you a recognition among pool of elite group of oracle professionals. This day came into my life few days back and i was more than happy when i got the confirmation mail from oracle saying that I am OCM now.

While preparing for my OCM exam, i had lot of doubts regarding the infrastructure provided during the exam, the version of Linux that would be available, availability of documentation, hands on trainings etc..etc…I used to read blogs from other OCMs (who had already gone through the practicum) to get as much information as i can for the exam. After all, it was matter of $$$$$ spent to book the exam as i myself was paying for my exam,it was not company paid.

All OCMs are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement during the exam, so they are not supposed to share any information about the exam.

Below are few tips for people preparing for this elite certification

1) Be an OCP

The OCM exam requires you to be already an OCP –10g/11g depending upon the exam (10g/11g) you are going to choose.So Be an OCP(10g/11g) first. You can check http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=151 to see details on how to be OCP.

2) Take 2 hands-on trainings from Oracle

After OCP, you are required to take 2 hands-on trainings from Oracle University. These trainings are pre-requisites and required to be taken before you send request for OCM kit to oracle. I had taken only one training from oracle before appearing for the exam. So was not sure if it is mandatory to take both the trainings before appearing for the exam.The answer to this is its not mandatory to take both the trainings before exam but immediately after the exam, you need to submit your hands-on courses to oracle. The result of OCM exam will not be declared unless and until the 2 hands-on course requirements are completed. So better to finish both trainings before exam, they will help you in preparation. In case you have not taken them before exam, take them immediately after the exam and submit for approval on http://www.pearsonvue.com/oracle/ on Submit Course Form link.The hands-on course requirements are available at http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=99

I took one of my trainings after the exam.You will get your result of OCM exam only once both the trainings are approved. You can check the hands-on courses that can be taken for Oracle 10/11g OCM at http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=244. As a personal recommendation, I’ll suggest to go for RAC and SQL Tuning.

3) OCM Exam registration

Before writing the exam, you need to register at OTC.(Oracle Testing Center) Probably you can check with the Oracle Testing Center in your city. In case there’s no OTC in your city, you need to travel to other location to take the exam. If you are required to travel to another city, my suggestion is to reach there one day prior to exam and don’t book your return flight for 2nd day. There are possibilities that you are required to stretch your day.

Also, there are chances that the exam date mentioned to you gets postponed, be in touch with the oracle representative about that. There are lot of chances that exam gets postponed/cancelled. It happened with me when i booked my exam in another city but I was lucky enough to get the 2nd date in my own city.

4) Exam Preparation

Cover everything mentioned at http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=41&p_exam_id=10gOCM or http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=41&p_org_id=&lang=&p_exam_id=11gOCM.

5) OCM Result

The result will be declared once you are done with submission of hands-on course requirements.I got it within 1 week after hands-on course requirements were approved.

6) Tech Details

RHEL 4 was available for Oracle 10g exam.Not sure why they mentioned KDE here http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=41&p_exam_id=10gOCM, but GNOME was available for me.

OEM is not available for everything.

6) My tips

3P’s to succeed in the exam..Practice, Practice and Practice…..Even if you are champ in doing things at work, practice each and everything mentioned in syllabus to do the things right at first attempt in less time.You will hardly get time to re-attempt things.

There’s no substitute for experience. If you don’t have real life experience as a DBA, its not your baby.Better have a real life experience for few years and then go for the exam.

Time is the biggest killer in exam. Even if you know things, try to set benchmark for most of your tasks.

I used to create a database with a manually written parameter file in 6 minutes before going for the exam.I can write whole listener.ora and tnsnames.ora manually without any documentation or sample files.

Why these things are required is because the scenarios given in exam are required to be completed very fast and if you think that you will see syntax from documentation, you will end up in loosing time.

Documentation is available without SEARCH function. MASTER index of documentation will be available.And its my personal experience that documentation was not of any use. Believe me you will have documents but not time to open and search these documents.

Drop me a mail @ mahajan.rishi@gmail.com for any queries.