The training trainwreck in Bushkill, PA

The first week of the Oracle 9i training camp in Bushkill, PA started off somewhat ok, all of the experienced DBAs were passing the exams but the newbies weren't passing the exams. The beginning of the second week is when everything started to go sideways. I think the problem could be traced to how the instructor wasn't aware of how many multiple multiple questions (pick 2 of 3, 4 of 6, ...) were on the exam and how much more detail was on the 9i exams as compared with the 8i exams.

While we were sent pre-reading material they were mostly useless for exam purposes because they weren't really targeted at the high level that you need prior to starting the course. Even with the lack of quality pre-reading materials, we might have been able deal with all the additional details if we would have been provided with an extensive outline of the books so we wouldn't need to be frantically taking notes for 12 hours a day.

I still made it out of the training with being an Oracle Certified Associate for 9i and I have three exam passes to take the 9i DBA II (again) exam, the 9i Performance and Tuning exam and the 10g upgrade exam. My boss and I are both pressing Training Camp to offer a partial refund or comp the costs of lodging to retake the second week of training.