Which books to refer for OCA

[bani kaali]

Hi,
I am new to this group and I am planning to take
Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL (#1Z0-007)
and Oracle 9i Database: Fundamentals I (#1Z0-031)exams.
I was wondering if its better to buy oracle press books or to go with self study CD Roms. I think the self study CD roms costs a lot between $400 to $750 where as the OCA Oracle9i Associate DBA Certification Exam Guide by Jason S. Couchman, Sudheer N. Marisetti costs around $90.
I would really appreciate if anyone could give me list of books that I can refer or tell me how to go about studying for OCA/OCP and which books/cd's to buy
thanks
bani

[Pinky Pandya]

Hi Bani,
I have just started preparing for Exam # 1Z0-007. I did some research on internet about reviews and recomendations for the preparation material. I found that the book "OCA/OCP: Introduction to Oracle9i SQL Study Guide" by Chip Dawes, Biju Thomas has very good ratings and reviews. And it's on sale (45% off) on www.bookpool.com!
Good Luck for the preparation!
Pinky

[Nagendra Prasad]

The best ones are almost/always from Oracle Press. So go for those. The language used in those books mirror very closely to the exams themselves. It would be a useful preparation tool to have.

[SJ Adnams]

I found the Oracle Press 031 book mock exams very different to the real think (I had 24 select n from m questions in the real exam, all mocks were select one from m).
That said I went for sybex perf tuning exam book. The real questions were very high level, yet the book was very much on column name technicalities.
[ June 27, 2003: Message edited by: Simon Lee ]