- Complete the OCP credential in the release they hold the OCA in. Then take one or more upgrade exams required to bump their OCP to a more current release.
- Start from (almost) scratch to earn the OCA and then the OCP in the later release.
Both options require a minimum of two exams. For people that hold the OCA in 9i, the only option since that track was retired last year has been to start over with the OCA in a later release. The introduction of two new exams by the Oracle Certification team has changed the game. Either exam will allow Oracle Certified Associates to upgrade directly to the 11g or 12c Oracle Certified Professional credential. The beta period for the two exams started June 7th:
- 1Z0-034: Upgrade Oracle9i/10g OCA to Oracle Database 11g OCP
- 1Z0-067: Upgrade Oracle9i/10g/11g OCA to Oracle Database 12c OCP
I had speculated in a previous blog post that an exam of this type was on the horizon. I will freely admit that I did not expect OU to create two exams. I envisioned a single hyped-up version of the 1Z0-060 exam to upgrade candidates to 12c. I have been developing study guides for these exams since learning of them. After going through their topic lists, I have to wonder if the Oracle Certification team has a recent new hire named Victor Frankenstein, PhD. 1Z0-034 and 1Z0-067 have been pieced together from a number of earlier exams and both are monsters.
1Z0-034
While I had not foreseen that OU would create this exam, the topics list matches what I would have expected... had I been expecting anything at all. The test mixes and matches topics from the 11g Admin II (1Z0-053), Admin I (1Z0-052), and New Features (1Z0-050) exams as well as some from the 10g Admin II (1Z0-043) and New Features (1Z0-040) exams. In all, this exam has 112 topics in 25 sections. I was stunned by the sheer scope of the exam, until I realized how much 034 is eclipsed by its big brother.
1Z0-067
I am reasonably certain that this exam is the largest by topic count of any that I have ever seen from Oracle University. The test contains over 220 topics under 42 different sections. The topic list contains most everything that is in the 1Z0-034 exam plus a heaping helping from the three 12c administration exams (1Z0-060, 1Z0-062, 1Z0-063). Oracle professionals who are upgrading from a 9i OCA in particular will be introduced to a wide array of new features. Candidates preparing for this test need to plan on setting aside a significant amount of study time in order to have a reasonable chance of passing on the first attempt.
As I assumed in my earlier post, neither of these exams eliminates the hands-on training requirement to earn the OCP designation. The new exams will not eliminate that expense, but they can save candidates the expense of at least one exam. In addition, even though both are heavyweights, preparing for a single test will consume less time than preparing for two or more separate ones. If you decide to pursue one of these exams, make sure that you understand from the outset that while they represent a simple way to upgrade your credentials, that is not at all the same thing as an easy way. You will need to put in some work for these.
Despite their length, I expect that these exams are likely to be fairly popular. Certainly I see posts by OCAs fairly regularly asking how they can upgrade their credential to a current release of Oracle.
For people who are interested, I have started gathering links to certification-safe study materials on my website for these exams:
1Z0-034: Upgrade Oracle9i/10g OCA to Oracle Database 11g OCP
1Z0-067: Upgrade Oracle9i/10g/11g OCA to Oracle Database 12c OCP
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