* Marc Dver <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2004-01-18 18:30 +0100]: > 1. What is the format of the test questions? I.e., are they multiple > choice, free answer, essay, etc.?
They are multiple-choice (but very tricky) and fill-in-the-gaps. For example: "Assume a column in a MyISAM table has type VARCHAR, BLOB, or TEXT. Which of the following specifies this table type correctly to save space? Mark all answers that are wrong: [ ] ROW_FORMAT=Static [ ] ROW_FORMAT=default [ ] ROW_FORMAT=dynamic [ ] ROW_FORMAT=compressed [ ] all of the above [ ] none of the above" > Are they theory based or is it fact based, i.e., memorize the books to > pass? For the CORE certification, it's balanced. In many cases they show you some tables's contents and you have pick either the statements which do some job, or the result if you rune some statement. For this type of questions, memorizing the books is just not enough. You need to *understand* the facts. For the PROFESSIONAL certification, it's different. Here you don't need SQL, but you should memorize every aspect of performance- and security-tuning. > 2. Upon the recommendation of someone on this list, I purchased two > books, one entitled, "MySQL" by Paul Dubois, and "An Introduction to > Database Systems" by C.J. Date. Would these materials, together with > practice on a live server, suffice to give me the knowledge to pass the > certification test? I haven't read them. For the CORE certification, I found O'Reillys "Managing & Using MySQL" by Reese, Yarger, King, Williams" plus 6 years of M(y)SQL experience not too bad. You might want to try XML-Mentor's practice test <http://www.xmlmentor.net/mysqlcore.htm>. I only tried the free demo, which has 10 of 215 questions. For the PROFESSIONAL certification, I printed and read the MySQL reference manual <http://www.mysql.com/documentation> and actually bought a practice-test from <http://www.xmlmentor.net/mysqlprof.htm> at 89,- US$. XML-Mentor's practice test for the professional certification was not as hard as the real (beta) exam and it had 10% wrong answers, but it pointed me to the locations of the manual I had to reread. After having passed the real exam, I must admit the practice test was worth the money. And it was fun, too. BTW, I sent a long list of corrections to that xml guy; if he's put them in, the test should be fine now. > 3. What version is the test geared for? It's about version 4. -- Johannes Franken MySQL Professional mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.jfranken.de/ -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
