to follow to get certified, now the details on the DB2 certification program.
Each
exam has a time limit of 90 minutes, except the upgrade exam which has
a time limit of 60 minutes. The number of questions and the cutscore
for each exam varies. For example, exam 730 has 64 questions and you
must score 59 percent or higher to pass it.
How do I prepare to pass an exam?Here is the recommended path I suggest you take to prepare for a DB2 exam:
1)
Choose the exam you want to take based on your job role. The DBA and
AppDev certifications first require that you are certified as a
Database Associate. To help you decide where to start, see the
certification roadmaps.
2)
Read through the exam objectives. Every question on the exam relates
directly to one or more of the exam objectives. For a breakdown of the
exam objectives and the recommended study materials, see
ibm.com/software/data/education/certprep.htmlHere are the exams that cover the DB2 9 product:
*
Exam 730 - DB2 9 Fundamentals
*
Exam 731 - DB2 9 DBA for Linux, Unix, and Windows
*
Exam 732 - DB2 9 DBA for z/OS
*
Exam 733 - DB2 9 Application Developer
*
Exam 734 - DB2 9 Advanced DBA for Linux UNIX and Windows
*
Exam 735 - DB2 9.5 Developer. Although not specifically written for this exam, the book
DB2(R) SQL PL: Essential Guide for DB2(R) UDB on Linux(TM), UNIX(R), Windows(TM), i5/OS(TM), and z/OS(R) (2nd Edition) might help you prepare for this exam.
*
Exam 736 - DB2 9 Database Administrator for Linux UNIX and Windows Upgrade. See also
Kate's blog entry about the upgrade exam! *
Exam 737 - DB2 9 System Administrator for z/OS
3)
If you are experienced with DB2 and feel that you are prepared to pass
the exam based on what you saw in the exam objectives, take an
assessment exam.
You'll get a report after taking the assessment exam that can help you
pinpoint your weaknesses. Assessment exams cost $10 per take, so if you
really think you are ready, come and take the exam to see.
4) If you are NOT experienced with DB2, download a free version of
DB2 Express-C and give it a try!
5)
Decide on how you want to increase your skills:
a) Consider buying one
of the Certification Study Guides to refresh and deepen your skills:
ibm.com/software/data/education/bookstore.
For exam prep, the best books are these:
DB2 9 Fundamentals Certification Study Guide by
Roger SandersDB2 9 Database Administration Certification Study Guide for Exam 731 by
Roger Sanders DB2 9 Database Administration Certification Study Guide for Exam 732 by
Susan Lawson and
Daniel Luksetich DB2 9 Database Administration Upgrade Certification Study Guide for Exam 736 by
Roger SandersDB2 9 Advanced Database Administration Certification Study Guide for Exam 734 by
Roger Sanders and
Dwaine Snow.
All
five of these certification prep guides were written by members of the
exam development team. That is, they created the questions for the
certification exam that you are about to take! Also, each chapter of
the book corresponds directly to a section on the exam. So, if you take
the assessment exam and find out that you are week on a single topic,
you simply need to read the chapter that corresponds to the topic where
you need improvement. Lastly, the authors created a set of sample
questions for the book that provides you with the correct answer to the
question as well as an explanation as to why the correct answer is
correct and the incorrect ones are not.
For reference and guidance beyond the exam, I suggest the following:
DB2 9 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows: DBA Guide, Reference, and Exam Prep (6th Edition) by
George Baklarz and
Paul Zikopoulosb)
For self-study, also check out the free tutorials that IBM provides for
most of the exams. The tutorials are broken into hour long segments of
information based on the exam objectives. If you have a great deal of
experience, this may be all you need to prepare for the exam. To see
the full set of
exam prep tutorials that are available, see ibm
.com/software/data/education/selfstudy.html.
c)
Take an education class from IBM or one of its partners. These classes
typically have a fee, even for employees, so check with management to
see if you can take one of these classes. Classroom education is an
excellent way to learn, but may be difficult to justify due to costs.
Don't forget to look into ILO training as this type of training gives
you all the benefits of classroom education, but eliminates the travel
costs. The best place to start to determine the classroom education
that best fits your needs is with the training roadmaps: ibm.com/software/data/education/roadmaps.html.
6) If this is your first time taking a certification exam, review the steps on this site: ibm.com/certify/process/t_proc.shtml.
Can I gain experience by reading DB2 Forums and Blogs?
Absolutely!
There are several DBAs who firmly believe helping out on the various
forums have helped us gain a deeper understanding of subjects that were
on the exams. So, contribute to those forums. You're not only helping
other people, you're helping yourself as well! Most likely you'll find
members of the DB2 development team actively taking part in the forums
as well.
Here are the sites that I recommend, at the least:
Planet DB2 - a blog aggregator that combines DB2 blogs from around the world.
IBM developerWorks - DB2 Portal
IDUG – International DB2 User’s Group
My blog: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/SusanVisser/
Kate's blog: ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/katedawson
I hope you find this information useful! Good luck on your journey towards certification!
Susan
Build your Skill on Information Management: books, certifications, tutorials, and more
Likes 1
Excellent links Susan. I used Roger's recent DBA certification books and the DB2 Fundamentals self-assessment online tool to prep for the 730 and 731 last week. That seemed to do the trick.<div> </div> Keep up the blogging... cheers<br /> Grant