oracle

The book cover all the Oracle objectives exam, but it does not dig into the interesting/hard topics. Too many pages are dedicated to references stuff like single row and group functions which are not so deeply asked in the real exam. The exams included in the CDrom are not to tide to the Books material and go beyond exam objectives, watch out because these questions can mislead you on how well you are prepared for the exam.
I recommend using Self Test Software as well with this book and the one from Oracle Press.

I have more than 6 years of experience working with PL/SQL, but let me tell you one thing - don't attempt the 1Z0-007 exam without reading a exam guide. The fine points tested in the exam are not what every day PL/SQL programming is about. This book does an excellent job of covering all the exam objectives and just reading it cover to cover will give you adequate preparation for the test. I did all the practice questions twice along with the two bonus tests provided on the CD. I found that the level of questions in the real exam was slightly easier than that of the practice tests on the CD. How do I know? I used just this one book for preparation and scored 54/57 today afternoon. Wish you luck!

I think that with these Oracle certifications there is confusion as to who these exams are geared toward.

I just got done taking the first test and I passed but I believe that is because I've had some education and experience with Oracle.

This book is a great REVIEW tool for those of us who know how to write medium level and up SQL queries. The book is strait forward, easy to understand, and pretty thorough. However, the actual test requires a little bit of knowledge beyond the basics of what is written in the book. I thought the questions in the practice exams where very good, and in some cases, harder than the ones on the actual exam.

This book is NOT for people who are just trying to learn Oracle for the first time or who only have limited knowledge of SQL, RDBM theory, or programming knowledge.

Here are some questions you should ask yourself before starting the exam process:

Can you write a SQL statement with a subquery?
Do you know what a function does?
What is the order of a select statement?

For those of you who are wondering my background is I have a BS in Computer Science and two years of Oracle experience and I still thought this test was hard.

I hope this helps with your selection.