Certification Books

Gaja knows his stuff, he is the guru. Tuning 101 clearly defines a method to the madness of Oracle tuning. Dig into the wait events, figure out where and what the problem is. While tuning is a art, a scientific methodology can resolve even the most difficult problem. Great writing style, with a bit of humor thrown in!

The book makes little assumptions about the readers skill level thus covering many otherwise ignored aspects of tuning.
It is interpersed by many highlights and references from outside the realm of databases to buttress some points.
Covers performance tuning and especially the important views v$system_event,v$session_event,and v$session_wait views properly
Great book to read

There is a lack of vision in this book as to what it wants to achieve. For a "101" book I was expecting to have a systematic approach to diagnosing and tuning system performance. Instead it wastes a lot of time on very general statements such as "choose the right balance", "find the bottleneck and then tune it" etc. I would expect that such things are obvious in fixing any problem.i.e. you understand the nature of the problems and then fix them.

There is a start along the direction of using a systematic approach but the author doesn't follow through.

Two stars may be a little harsh; I'm sure the author is very knowledgable. However, there is a difference between making a lot of true statements and imparting knowledge to someone else (explaining).

First, be warned the book only is relevant to Oracle 7 and 8i. Oracle 9 tuning is not addressed. A lot has changed in Oracle 9 because of the automatic tuning features, so I feel this book is out of date and it is shameful that book sellers disguise this fact.

There is a lot wrong with this book from the standpoint of someone who needs to tune Oracle. If you are a full time DBA and spend a lot of time studying Oracle and Oracle is your life, then perhaps this is a useful book for your collection. In that respect, the "101" in the title is perhaps accurate - it opens the subjects that you will need to dig a lot deeper into in order to really get something useful done. However, if you need a guide to tuning your Oracle database, you probably will be lost and frustrated using this book.

The author in opening chapters lays out a tuning methodology which is basically "measure performance; locate bottleneck; tune appropriate component". Then he pretty much abandons that methodology and stuffs the book with brief descriptions of how Oracle does this and that, some related parameters, and some very general advice to wrap it up. But unless you take it much further yourself with other references and deep study, you will be hard pressed to know how to fix anything.

Many Oracle books I have come across suffer from the problem of being either 3 times too long or 1/3 as long as necessary. In other words, the author needs to choose a useful format: either simply provide an overview roadmap to more detailed information, or go the distance and provide a detailed enough amount of information to get the job done. This author similarly needs more or less to make this text useful.

I can't say the book is useless. Occasionally the author does give a brief formula or rule of thumb for sizing some parameter. But they are few and far between, and usually not in very important areas.

What most of us need is a "Tuning Guide". That is, a step-by-step methodology where measurements are taken and parameters are estimated based on the measurements for tuning the database. Iterative tuning may be required, but that's OK if it is layed out as such. As you work your way through the methodology, your Oracle instance and application come into "tune". I don't know if such a methology can be designed; experts may claim it requires "intuition" and "experience". If so, then don't bother writing a book; otherwise, it is the author's job to turn intuition and experience into a methodology that others can follow.

If a "Tuning Guide" is not the intent of the author but rather more deep understanding, then the author must follow the approach of building a crystal clear "model" of the system which identifies measurement parameters for estimating the state of a real system and identifies the "control parameters" which affect the performance of the system. Then the reader should be able to measure the system and perhaps deduce how to control the performance. This book falls far short of that goal.

Here is an example from the book that left me helpless:

"CAUTION: It is very counterproductive to Oracle system performance to over-allocate memory to one or more components of your shared pool. Over-allocation of memory here can and will cause significant parsing delays (in some cases we have noticed ten-minute response times for a query such as - select * from dual;)."

Then the author does not provide any real criteria as to when I might be straying into such a disasterous region. He goes on to talk about "free memory" for various shared pool area pools, and on careful study you might deduce that too much "free memory" could be a related problem, but then rather than give any formulas or hard advice, he covers his "bases" with the wishy-washy statement: "The key here is to manage the space appropriately and make use of all the available pools in your version of Oracle." I'd love to - tell me how!

I won't dwell on his erratic writing style which frequently tosses in chirpy lingo such as the subheading: "Hey, Oracle - What Is Your Plan of Action (P.O.A.)?". His use of analogies is weak and half-hearted such as his analogy for resource contention with "children all wanting the same toy".

Basically, you know when you have a killer book that is a great tool in your toolkit. This one ain't it.

This guy has a clue. "Good" ratios don't mean anything if the users are complaining. EXAMINE THE WAIT STATS. Anyway, this fellow is an Oracle genius and actually has a sense of humor. Loved his explanation of pctfree/pctused. Even a child could understand it!

My big complaint though (and the reason this did not get 5 stars) is that the #&)@! book falls apart. The binding is cheap or something. I have other books in this series and they have all fallen apart too. I guess Elmers Glue doesn't work on 400 page books. Other than that, awesome book.

A great companion book for CAPM exam takers. The book made the Project Management principles easy to understand. The online tutorial is very useful as well. I can say I could pass the exam because of the book. A word of caution though: There are few things the book might not have covered and also the actual questions are a little tricky on the exam compared to the one on the book. But overall its a great value for money and takes you very close to passing the exam. Put a little more effort and you will do just great. Good luck.

This book explain concepts in very lucid way. Questions after the chapters and final exam were very similar to the CAPM exam. Not only tells you your answer is wrong but also explains why it is wrong. I do recomend reading PMBOK guide along with this.

I just passed the exam last night. I used this book for 90% of my studying. I was surprised to find the practice exam questions in this book are completely different then the questions found on the PMI exam (I had assumed the questions would be somewhat similar). The positive side of doing the practice exams found in this book and on the weekly trial via the website helped me absorb the information I needed to understand PM body of knowledge and successfully pass the exam. Overall, this book did very well in helping me understand the PMI standards and ultimately gave me the edge in passing the exam. I recommend this book to anyone looking to gain the CaPM.

I used this book with Dr. Sanghera's CAPM Exam Quicklet and passed the CAPM exam on the first try. I recommend it highly. Easy to understand. I also recommend this to my students.

I passed on the first try as the title suggests. Much of the credit is due this book. There was no need for an expensive week long crash course. I am very pleased with the purchase. I think the book might have missed the mark on how much attention to give to the Communications Management process as I scored "Below Proficent" in this area. However, I did well in all of the other areas. Obviously, I would recommend this book.

I wrote and past the i-Net+ (1K0-002) today (Mar-5-2004). This book contributed 60% of the content.

Though the questions in the book assisted with the material of the book very very few actually came in the exam.

The book help moreso with understanding the concepts.

The exam was hard... damn hard. I passed with a 83% mark.

used this book along with the cramsession pdf and as many online sample test as possible to study for the i-Net+ cert.

only found one typo in the book and its on the review sheet at the front of the book. the Class A subnet mask lists 116K instead of 16 million.

the questions at the end of the book are much simpler than the actual test questions.

however, you'll get a good idea of the topics to be covered on the test from the book. actually the book covers more topics than the test itself.

you'll find a few semi-verbatim questions on the actual test that the book has simply paraphrased, but that's about it for question similarities.

i'd say this book will help you pass, but don't think it should be your only source for the cert.

good luck.

When the contents of this book are read an memorized it is a certain guarantee for suc6. Spot on the money, but please realize everything is on the exam, and you cannot NOT memorize all of it and hope to get away with it on the exam. (a friend of mine failed that way). I only missed the stuff on CORBA in this little book, but passed easily.

Good exam prep for a pretty easy exam. Even tho its a bit outdated, it does the trick.

I used three different books, and this was the best, by far. It goes into more detail and covers more topics than the other texts I used, and was packed with info. Definitely one to buy!

To start with, this is the only book i read for the exam.
The objective questions at the end of each chapter, are exactly in the format that they appear in the exam. It helps you a lot in having the right mind-set, when you actually face it.
The exam covers exactly the same topics, that are emphasized in the book.

I have read plenty of programming books... ok skimmed. I really wish there was a training guide out there that would show real world scenarios. I didn't care for the examples in this book. I learn best by doing. When I do the work I really wish I could relate using the code in my job. That would assist me in learning it more. The whole cram the book then take the test doesn't work for me.

Very good. I recd. the book on time and condition the book was excellent...

This book is very well organized, has good examples, and is based very closely on the exam objectives. I had co-workers who used the Microsoft (red) books and didn't like them who switched to this one and were much happier. Studying this book and using a Transcender practice test enabled me to pass the 305 exam. Recommended.

This is a valuable book, it explained topics which were missing in some other books. In the other hand, the previous reviews did not mention some shortcomings in this book. The OOP part of this book is not good. The language in many parts of this book is ambiguous, it lures people to read these parts again and again, but after that the meaning is still not clear, while this repeated reading of such a big book wastes time. The sample code in this book is not available for download, although they are in the CD, but the CD is made in a mean way that the "copy" function is disabled, so this book is not good for busy people.

I would recommend this book to anybody that is about to take 70-270. I would say a word of caution though about this book. It is truly intended to be a suppliment to actual training from either a interactive self-paced class like Test Out or Prep Logic. If you try to pass the 70-270 with this book alone you may run in to difficulty. Also, I would recommend exam insurance from Microsoft if your testing center allows it.

This book helped me to pass the 70-270 test. It had some information that I did not see anywhere else. I have used cram exam books before and I love the series. I would recommend this book and others for anybody studying to pass any tests. Awesome book!

Overall, I find this particular book useful in combing through a lot of intricate details of the Windows XP operating system. Though given that, I don't think this resource alone will help you adequately prepare for the exam, which is something the authors themselves note. This book I feel tries to strike a middle ground, but fails in a few regards:

(1) As many topics like IPP printing is inadequately covered, readers will not be able to install and configure, IPP for example, with the scant coverage.

(2) There is over emphasis on tools like that are not apart of Windows XP, like USMT and RIS. I have never come across such questions in the exam.

(3) Material is not aligned with the actual Microsoft study material, and as such important topics are inadequately covered, omitted, or over covered.

The bottom line is that you might be spending more energy studying unnecessary material, while at the same time, not studying key concepts and topics needed to pass the exam. One definitely needs additional material to study and pass the exam, but still despite my grief this book did actually help me, and rigorous relentless study combined with actually tinkering with Windows XP on material related to the book, did help me pass the exam. I am now a Microsoft Certified Professional.

Having passed my MCSE NT 4 exams using the Exam Cram guides, I knew that getting my 2003 MCSE would be no different. This is the first exam I have taken for my 2003 MCSE and I'm glad I picked up this book. It totally prepared me for the exam with the exception of an exam simualtion. I would say, however, that this book gave me 80-90% of what I needed to pass the exam. To sum it up, I will be going to the bookstore tomorrow to buy more Exam Cram books to finish out my quest to get my 2003 MCSE.

This book provides a real good start with less than 500 pages. But you will never pass the test just from the material in this book. Taking the advice of others before me, I obtained all the info I needed from this book, plus the Windows XP resource kit (available free online or in paperback) and "Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2" (Also an online microsoft resource).

I got this to use the online tests to practice, but there were only 3 so that didn't help much. It also didn't explain why the ones I got wrong were wrong. I liked the Mosby computer practice tests better because they explained why the answer was wrong. This book was good for review though, I didn't study much but the questions were similar to the content and format of the Federation test. I didn't take the national, but I assume and have heard that the Mosby book & questions are more similar to the national test. I wish I had just borrowed a copy instead of spending money on it.

This is the PERFECT book to use for review/studying for the National test. I would recommend spending time looking up more info on the five element theory and the Chakras other than that there is nothing more needed and the free website was a great help. I passed the first time.!

This is the best book to buy to study for the exams..the best!!

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much for the FAST delivery. This book is AMAZING and I am happy it was recommended for the National Exam. A book everyone should have.

I used this book and did well on the nationals... the secret is that about a quarter of the questions on the actual test have to do with eastern modalities .. namely shiatsu and the chinese KO cycle... go to wikipedia and look up the KO cycle ... there it has a chart shaped like a star with a circle around it... print it out and come up with a way to memorize the chart (my secret was FEM Wild Woman.. like Fire Earth Metal Water Wood) then make word associations to remember the colors, (like water is blue, wood comes from trees that have green leaves, fire is red, dirt is yellow with some other colors mixed in and it comes from the earth)directions, organs, tastes, energies (like corporal soul, spirit soul etc), and emotions associated with each element...it sounds goofy but this technique saved me...memorize where and what each meridian is... MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO THIS!!! all of the things that i just listed ARE on the test.. other than the origins and insertions of the muscles it's the hardest thing about the test... i was shocked at how much of the test was this stuff that i was never going to use anywhere else! there was also a tiny bit on the chakras (a 5 minute review is probably enough)... ).. and a lot of the thinking questions (don't worry they're not as bad as the book put out by the national board makes them out to be) like "if an elderly person has a raised hip which muscles are weakened?" this exact question isn't asked but there are many like that..
the questions in the book are very similar to those on the boards...if you can pass the tests in this book the first time you should be able to pass the nationals (i thought that i was going to have a heart attack the day before the test because i was so overwhelmed.. i really didn't think that i'd pass because i'd only been cramming 8 hours per day for 2 weeks and didn't feel prepared and i actually, not only passed, but did well) .. just study this book and you'll be fine
i just thought that i'd write a little something to help out other people going through what i just went though... don't panic... i passed the first time and i attended a school that taught to the state boards and had no eastern modalities in it's curriculm ... if you study this book and the stuff that i just listed you'll be fine.. my mom also read that chewing gum helps when test taking because it helps the left and right hemispheres of your brain communicate better and i swear that it worked! Good luck!

I wanted a book that wouldn't waste my time with a bunch of background info and long winded explanations. This book does a fairly good job of giving me only what I need for the exam. There are some sections that it tries to teach you stuff though, and you have to read through the whole thing in order to pick out what you need. Highlighting key sentences and terms would help out. Otherwise the information is very close to what you get if you drop cash to get the Sun books. The Practice Exams at the end of each section are indispensable. They'll tell you what you're weak in, and are the closest to the real test that I could find. It would be great if they had a couple more. What makes this book so useful is that it provides all the important info in one location. It was my major study aid, for Part 1, and my only study aid for Part 2. I got 90/85 pretty much using only this book.

If you put in the time to read it, it will get you a passing grade. Helps gratly to read again sections you are not very familiar with, since some questions get very detailed.

Study "everything" in this book, you'll pass both exams. It's very good for part 1 exam but not really enough for part 2. There are some errors, too.

This is a great suppliment guide to any certification it focuses on "Cramming" what you need to know to pass the test, however dont count on it to learn. the Solaris Cert is a tough test be prepared, this book can help.

I tried to use this for both exams. Passed the first one, but failed the second one twice. I was able to get 90 on the practice exam for part 2, but failed miserably when it came to the real exam. Was really disappointed in the book overall.

This is a good book to use in addition to other books (study guides). I read this book cover to cover first, then read the Windows NT Workstation 4 book by Dennis Maione ISBN #1-56205-918-1, then I read it agian. I took the test I was done in a half hour and passed with a 866! YMMV ;)

Would recommend highly, but is it " The first and last book you need to read", a little puffery there, you do need *more*, good luck, I did it, you can too.

I used this book as the last piece of my studying. I read a Dummies book and used a CBT course. This book was the only one that was close to the exam. The questions in the book were structured just like questions in on the adaptive test. This is an excellent book to refine and enhance knowledge needed to pass.

I just passed the Network Essentials Exam with the help of this wonderful study resource. I also used the Microsoft Official Curriculum and this book did alot to clarify some of the material. A super resource! Use it!

After reading this book, i went to sit the Networking Essentials Adaptive exam. I was out of the exam in 7 minutes with a pass.

Need I say anymore.. Absolutely fantastic!

This book is a great example of how to write a study guide for an MCSE exam. I believe that out of the many Exam Cram titles I have used to date - this one covers the intended material the best. The language is just technical enough to be professional, yet not overwhelming. The diagrams and tables are very useful and as far as I have seen - error free. One word of caution - I do not recommend using this book alone to pass the exam. I also bought the Microsoft Press MCSE Core Exam pack which includes the Net Essentials course - the Net Essentials course can also be bought as a stand alone course. At any rate - two very good resources - and when combined with the Exam Cram Net Essentials book they make an unbeatable study combination. Net Ess Transcender exams are also a great addition - but I wouldn't use them as a crutch in lieu of hard study time or you'll be dissapointed! The Exam Cram and Microsoft books are no substitute for experience, but if you do not have much - they certainly do more than just help you on your way. To sum it up - EXCELLENT BOOK! Passed on first try! Would not take the test without this book!

I passed my test.This is a good book to bridge the knowledge between the transcenders and the Moc.However if this is the only book you use, you won't get your cert.I would highly recommend this book if you are using it for this purpose.

Read through the MCSE 2000 Professional by Microsoft Press and then read this Exam Cram and you are ready. It took me three week days and a weekend to prepare for 70-210. Thanks to Exam Cram.

This is not a book to teach you to use Win2K - this is for the test.

Having said that, this book is Excellent!! Several of the questions in the book were actually ON MY TEST! BTW, I passed and am now reading the Server Exam Cram book.

It took me close to just one month to teach myself the core of Windows 2000 Professional with LITTLE knowledge of the proprietary Microsoft OS. I started with basic Windows knowledge, lacking knowledge of Group Policy Objects, NTFS permissions, MMC, RIS, etc. Essentially speaking, I was your typical daily Win9x user.

To my surprise, I managed to score 860 / 1000 on the actual 70-210 exam taken at a Prometric exam center USING THIS BOOK ALONE (even though I had the Windows 2000 Professional MCSE Training Kit book by MS Press). The book has its good and bad points.

Good points
- 300 some odd pages
- Straight and to the point; it'll get you up and operating Win2k instantly
- Easy read (as oppose to the Win2k Pro MCSE TK by MS Press)

Bad points
- Doesn't elaborate with greater details on some of the more important concepts (i.e. RIS, network protocols, Windows registry, printer administrations, etc.)
- Unclear / ambiguous explanation on certain concepts (i.e. Group Policy Objects, software assignment / publishing, etc.)

I had to go back and refer to the MCSE Training Kit on Win2k Professional to review the areas that were -not- covered (or not thouroughly covered) in the Exam Cram.

I recommend this book as a -SUPPLEMENTARY- guide. To get the most out of Windows 2000, I suggest reading the Windows 2000 Professional MCSE Training Kit by Microsoft Press (it's about 600 some odd pages and a boring read); but you will not regret it, especially if you want to learn the ins and outs of Windows 2000 Professional [especially important in the workplace] !

Has all the information needed to pass the Exams. I referred this book and successfully cleared the 210 Exam. Recommended.

This book does its stated purpose very well. Not too indepth, not too shallow. Find a property, check it out, and back to work.

Probably a good reference if you already know CSS.
Not useful if you're learning CSS from scratch.

Developing accessible, standards-based websites that work and look properly on everyone's screen (I'm looking at you, IE) can be a real struggle sometimes, but this book has been a life saver for me. Having the book at my desk and being able to quickly look up this syntax or that modifier is extremely helpful. I can't recommend this book more for anyone who does a lot of web development and is just looking for a quick, to the point reference guide.

You know CSS, but you are not using it every day thus not remember every single attribute and specific syntax for every style there is?

You are like me and you will appreciate this little helper. It is very compact and filled with every CSS 2.0 style there is.

It also shows which properties and styles are compatible with which Browser. It is up to you if you want to use the latest styles available or rather fall back to the styles and properties that virtually every browser in use today can render correctly.

This is a compact reference for CSS and not meant for people who want to learn CSS. It would make a good addition when you buy a book to learn CSS and get this reference for quick look-ups of the already learned styles.

Not as Handy as It Should Be

I liked the Idea of a quick reference for CSS, because I always struggle with remembering the exact syntax (or confuse them with HTML or JS attributes) or can't recall which properties can be applied to which HTML element. I have to problems with this reference, which makes it for me less effective than I wish it to be.

1) This is not and issue with the content, but the page layout. It wouldn't be too hard to print the chapter and the property that can be found on the page at the top of every page to make scanning of the book easier and reduces the need for a detour to the index.

2) It would have been great if there would have been not only a list of attributes sorted alphabetically, but also a list of HTML elements sorted alphabetically with the information for each of them, which CSS attribute can be applied to it. It makes the book thicker, but you could have compensated that by using thinner paper and use less empty line in the content.

I hope that my suggestions might find it into a future, version of the book, which also incorporated the CSS 3.0 attributes that are supported by some of the latest browsers like Mozilla Firefox.

By the time I was taking my second or third CSS course, this book became a life saver. Even now, 2 years later, this is the one book I cary around with me for syntax.

Mr. Meyer also adds a lot more flavor and discussion than I would expect from a desk reference. Impressive!