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This past year has seen the introduction of SQL Server 7, along with its accompanying certification exams. These exams comprise the core of Microsoft's latest certification: the MCDBA (Microsoft Certified Database Administrator). Encountering new exams for a new certification that covers a new application can be part of the challenge of studying for the SQL Server 7 core exams. With everybody starting off with a clean slate in their studies, where do you begin?
You can't rely on older study materials or exam software. SQL Server 7 is such a departure from its 6.5 predecessor that few procedures hold true for both. Brain dumps are just beginning to trickle in, and they are rife with errors, speculation, and pranksters. This isn't Networking Essentials where the answers have been settled for the past few years. In SQL Server 7, even experts are still disputing how to optimize the replication of a database in dynamic situations.
Moreover, those just-in-time study guides for new exams are sometimes the most treacherous. When scouring through the few SQL Server 7 study books that were available at the time I was preparing for the exams (more and better books are coming out monthly), I was exasperated to discover numerous typos and errors caused by a publisher's rush to be first to market. SQL syntax examples didn't work. Code that was supposed to be on the accompanying CD just wasn't there. Indexes listed the wrong pages for their subjects. This is unfortunate. A few errors make a student question the accuracy of the entire book.
So how do you begin to study for the SQL Server exams? In this article, I'm going to explore some of the tips and techniques I used to help pass the exams.
Where do you start?
If you listen to what some say in the SQL Server 7 study groups, you'll come away believing you need eons of professional experience with SQL Server even to fantasize about passing the exams. You get bombarded with inspiring comments like "I've been a Database Administrator for an international high-tech firm for the past 10 years and I still failed these excruciating exams!"
With all due respect to the mavens of data-processing, I think they're overdramatizing. In fact, if you've...