730 done ... next up, paper 731

FINALLY took the certification for the db 2 fundamentals paper today after such a long delay (supposedly there were some issues with the changeover to Prometrics as their certification provider and also the schedules of staff here). I passed with moderately bright colours (not 'flying' ler...) with 73.4% which I consider OK for a weekends' worth of studying. The paper wasn't hard, just really confusing, especially the questions about SQL of which I bombed quite badly; scoring 4/7 only. There were literally subnested-subnested-subnested-nested queries which really got me so riled up until I just tembak a few of them.

What did I learn out of all of this? Well ...

• No two books and/or web sources actually say the same thing. At times, reading one book will contradict the contents of the other. This is true even for references such as the IBM tutorials and IBM DB2 help center. Its just plain wierd.
• Many people attempting this test would probably have located and downloaded the e-book version of the book "DB2 9 Fundamentals Certification Study Guide" by Roger E. Sanders. Word to the wise, buy the original to study else take everything you read in this pirated copy with a large pinch of salt. There are many mistakes in the book but the sample questions and paper do help you to gauge how much you need to know about each chapter. Those looking for this e-book can probably try here
• There are 7 chapters in the IBM tutorials but only 6 are covered in the exam. Mistake or a lucky break for exam takers? No such luck unfortunately because chapter 7 covering XML using Xquery and XML extenders is actually listed under the SQL chapter. I think I got 6 questions using XML extenders/Xquery.
• Can't find a DB2 9 reference book? Use a DB2 8 one for the majority of the text since the same SQL concepts still apply. Then just use chapters 1 and 7 to cover the changes in the latest version. I got a copy of SAMs Teach Yourself DB2 UDB for RM10 only ... a bargain really since the original price was RM179.00!!

There were a few people seated in front of me during the exam who failed the paper. This makes me wonder whether it was because they did not study or did not read the questions carefully. My second round of checking revealed so many blunders which I missed out during the first round. which brings me to the last point

• Always read the questions and answers multiple times.

Now that thats done, its off for the next paper in June - DBAM 731 for Linux/Windows. Ughs

P/S: Turns out I have a paper published in the MJCS journal vol 20 and I didn't even know about it ... go figure. Hee hee hee