Oracle CertificationProgram

Oracle CertificationProgram

The Oracle Certification Program certifies
candidates on skills and knowledge related to
Oracle products and technologies.
Credentials are granted based on a
combination of passing exams, training and
performance-based assignments, depending on
the level of certification. Oracle certifications
are tangible benchmarks of experience and
expertise that help you stand out in a crowd
among employers.
There are 5 levels of Oracle Certification
credentials:
Oracle Certified Associate (OCA),
Oracle Certified Professional (OCP),
Oracle Certified Master (OCM),
Oracle Certified Expert
(OCE)
and Oracle Certified Specialist (OCS).
These credentials are spread across 9
technology pillars and further broken down into
product family and product groupings.
Certifications are also defined by job role on
the Oracle Certification website.
The Oracle Certified Associate (OCA) :
credential is the first step toward achieving an
Oracle Certified Professional certification. The
OCA credential ensures a candidate is
equipped with fundamental skills, providing a
strong foundation for supporting Oracle
products.
The Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) :
credential builds upon the fundamental skills
demonstrated by the OCA. The Oracle Certified
Professional has a command of a specific area
of Oracle technology and demonstrates a high
level of knowledge and skills. IT managers
often use the OCP credential to evaluate the
qualifications of employees and job candidates.
The Oracle Certified Master (OCM):
credential recognizes the highest level of
demonstrated skills, knowledge and proven
abilities. OCMs are equipped to answer the
most difficult questions and solve the most
complex problems. The Oracle Certified Master
certification validates a candidate's abilities
through passing rigorous performance-based
exams. The certification typically builds upon
the fundamental skills of the OCA and the
more advanced skills of the OCP.
The Oracle Certified Expert (OCE):
credentials recognize competency in specific,
niche oriented technologies, architectures or
domains. Credentials are independent of the
traditional OCA, OCP, OCM hierarchy, but often
build upon skills proven as an OCA or OCP.
Competencies falling under the umbrella of the
Expert program range from foundational skills
to mastery of advanced technologies.
The Oracle Certified Specialist (OCS):
credentials are typically implementation-
oriented certifications targeting employees of
current Oracle partners, though the
certifications are available to all candidates,
partner or not.
These certifications are built on
very focused products or skillsets and provide
a solid measure of a candidate's level of
expertise in a particular area.
The Oracle Certified Junior Associate (OJA):
credentials target students in secondary
schools, colleges and universities who are
studying computer science focused on
Database or Java.
Requirements:
Oracle University offers different certifications
for different Oracle products and services. A
candidate chooses a certain certification that
he/she wishes to earn and then follow the
requirements for that particular certification.
Requirements may include passing an exam
offered by Pearson VUE, earning a prerquisite
certification, completing training, or submitting
a course verification form.
Prior to taking an Oracle Certification exam, a
candidate must register for a Pearson VUE
account and authenticate their CertView
account as well.
An exam voucher can be
purchased from Oracle University or the
candidate can register for and pay for the exam
directly on the Pearson VUE website without
a voucher.
Vouchers can also be purchase
from an authorized Oracle Partner. The
candidate should bring two valid forms of
identification; both must contain your
signature, one should contain a photo, one
should be government-issued.
A purchased exam voucher should be used
within 6 months or it will be forfeited without
any refund.
A candidate can prepare for the exam by
attending training and prep seminars, offered
by Oracle University and practice tests from
Kaplan and Transcender. These are optional
and not required to have a certification.
If the candidate failed the exam, a 14-day
waiting period should pass before retaking the
exam. The 2nd exam attempt must be paid in
full. If the candidate fails to show up on the
scheduled testing time and date, the exam will
be voided and no refund shall be given.
There
are restrictions for candidates who are coming
from Cuba , Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and
Syria . A candidate who is minor should have a
consent from his/her parent or guardian.
Typically, one exam is associated with a
certification. However, some certifications
require two. Aside from a passed exam, some
certifications requires the candidate to attend
training at Oracle University. For Java EE
Master certification, the exams are not
multiple choice, instead an assignment which
should be finished and an essay exam as well.
Both the Assignment and the Essay must be
completed within 6 months of purchasing the
Assignment. Failed Assignments must be
resubmitted within 30 days.
Some certification levels build on each other;
for example, an Associate certification is
required for Professional, while a Professional
certification is required for Master. The Expert
and Specialist certification does not have any
prerequisite certification like Associate.
Oracle
has recently introduced Junior Associate
certifications (e.g., "Java Foundations Junior
Associate 1Z0-811" exam) that targets school
and college students.
Oracle Certified Associate Java
SE Programmer I (formerly
the Sun Certified Java
Programmer)
The Oracle Certified Associate Java SE
Programmer (7 and 8) exam is the basic exam
required to demonstrate solid understanding of
Java as a programming language and is a
prerequisite to being a certified Programmer.
While most advanced certifications focus the
test on your knowledge of the API, this entry
level one focuses on variables, class and
interface definition, arrays, exception handling,
encapsulation, polymorphism and flow control.
Basic API knowledge is required about strings
and arraylists. The version 8 of the test was
made available as a final release since
12/2014, testing for the lambda language
construct and knowledge on the old
autowrapping feature of the language, while
also testing for the new API of date and time.
Oracle Certified Professional
Java SE Programmer (also
formerly the Sun Certified
Java Programmer)
Java Certification Path
Oracle's Certified Professional Java SE
Programmer (OCPJP) exam is the
fundamental exam required to demonstrate
solid understanding of Java and some of its SE
APIs and is a prerequisite to a number of the
other Java certificates.
It is designed as a fairly detailed test of
knowledge of the core features and constructs
of the Java programming language. It tests a
wide range of Java's APIs and core features,
starting from basics such as looping
constructs and variables, to more complex
topics such as Threads, Collections and
Generics . It does not cover specific technology
domains such as GUI creation, Web or network
programming , though it does cover part of the
APIs included in the standard library. The exam
tests how well a programmer has understood
the language constructs and mechanisms.
However it's not a goal of the exam to test
the programmer's ability to produce purposeful
or efficient programs. It does not test the
programmer's ability to write efficient
algorithms, for example, though it does test
knowledge of which collections should be
selected in order to implement efficient
algorithms without re-inventing the wheel.
It is assessed through an automatically
administered multiple-choice test system and
consists of 60 questions which the candidate
has 150 minutes to answer. At least 37
questions are needed to be correct to pass
(around 61%).
To take the test a candidate
must buy a voucher from Oracle
(approximately US$300 in the US, £150
(excluding VAT ) in the UK, AUD 316 plus tax in
Australia, Rs. 8000 plus taxes in India) and
book the test at least a week in advance.
The test consists of multiple choice questions.
In June 2011, Oracle moved from Prometric to
Pearson VUE as their test provider.
The OCPJP 6 exam tests a candidate on
knowledge of declarations, access control,
object orientation, assignments, operators, flow
control, assertions, string handling, I/O,
parsing, formatting, generics, collections, inner
classes, threads and the JDK tools. The test
is available in English, Japanese, Chinese,
German, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and
Spanish.
The OCPJP 7 exam includes a few new Java 7
features such as NIO 2, try-with-resources,
catching multiple exceptions, and fork/join
framework. The OCPJP 7 exam has 90
questions and one has to answer 65% of the
questions to clear it. In case, you have older
version of Java Programmer certification (such
as SCJP/OCPJP 6) then you can appear for
upgrade exam (1Z0-805) to get OCPJP 7.