April 22, 2013 at 7:27 am
Just passed the 70-461 SQL Developer Exam Today.
This exam is much harder than I expected.
Its quite syntax heavy, and asks a lot of questions on correct syntax, things that if SSMS didnt like the syntax it would take 30 secs to g00gle the proper syntax. Syntax memorization isnt a real test of knowledge IMO but regadless, its in the exam. correct syntax on index creation, table altering, view creation, grouping, xml, windowing, xml, xml and more xml all came up.
Lots of XML, know the different ways to convert rows to XML, and the differences between those ways to get xml out of tabular data.
Know your windowing functions well.
Know grouping very well.
Know UDF's well, different types and syntax.
Types of triggers and their usage.
Pretty much everything that the exam covers came up so not many shortcuts.
I used the microsoft training book as prep. book is great, but the sample exam is worse than useless. I wouldnt use it AT ALL if doing this again.
Best of luck to all taking this exam.
April 22, 2013 at 11:05 am
I did fairly well on the practice exam last Friday (even with CNN playing in the background), so thanks for deflating my confidence. 😉
April 22, 2013 at 11:38 am
Just a warning, discussing what's in the exam is a violation of the NDA that you accepted when writing that exam, so watch what you say about the contents of the exam.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
April 22, 2013 at 12:10 pm
No worries, I intended to, and stayed very general, much less detailed than other posts on this site about the exam, but I won't mention anything further on the exam.
April 22, 2013 at 12:21 pm
Not being funny but it's a SQL exam...
DDL (index creation, table altering, view creation), queries with grouping, various join types is what you would expect, no? If it's as bad as Oracle's SQL exam it would probably include lots of generic functions that are used once in a blue moon but somehow make it into the exam~
no idea about "windowing" or xml though 😡
Dird
April 23, 2013 at 7:08 am
Thanks for the advice about the prep book practice exam. I tend to use those to get in to exam answering mode. Maybe I'll spring for a different exam test suite. Of all the exams this is the one I'm worried least about, The BI exam that's a totally different story. Looking forward to the material, dreading the exam.
September 19, 2013 at 7:43 am
Just passed the 70-461 today so wanted to add my 2 cents.
I actually didn't find it as bad but then again I was expecting it to be murder after reading OP's comments. I wouldn't say that the questions in the Training Toolkit CS are useless but the exam questions are definitely harder. What I would do is read the book carefully, which is great by the way, do all the exercises and practice questions and then do the practice exam since it's more of a warmup than an actual exam simulation.
I can't say anymore because of the Terms and Conditions signed but I would say that it's challenging but doable.
October 30, 2013 at 7:30 pm
I'm reading the Training Kit Book and there are sections with a "key" icon. What are the relevance of these verses the sections labled "exam hints"
Also is 2 hours more than enough time for the 200 question exam?
October 31, 2013 at 3:20 am
db808 (10/30/2013)
I'm reading the Training Kit Book and there are sections with a "key" icon. What are the relevance of these verses the sections labled "exam hints"Also is 2 hours more than enough time for the 200 question exam?
If you know your T-SQL, 2 hours is enough time.
I did it in a bit over an hour.
Need an answer? No, you need a question
My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP
October 31, 2013 at 6:39 am
db808 (10/30/2013)
I'm reading the Training Kit Book and there are sections with a "key" icon. What are the relevance of these verses the sections labled "exam hints"Also is 2 hours more than enough time for the 200 question exam?
200 Questions? Do you mean test questions as when I sat my exam there was only 44.
MCITP SQL 2005, MCSA SQL 2012
October 31, 2013 at 6:48 am
Koen Verbeeck (10/31/2013)
db808 (10/30/2013)
I'm reading the Training Kit Book and there are sections with a "key" icon. What are the relevance of these verses the sections labled "exam hints"Also is 2 hours more than enough time for the 200 question exam?
If you know your T-SQL, 2 hours is enough time.
I did it in a bit over an hour.
Oh right, didn't read the question well.
You don't get 200 questions like on the test exam. You get around 50.
Need an answer? No, you need a question
My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP
October 31, 2013 at 6:57 am
I started studying for this one but I'm thinking of switching to the 2008 track since:
1.) it expires at the end of Jan 2014
2.) most of our customers are still on SQL 2008 R2
Any thoughts on weather the 2008 track is worth going after at this point? Or just move on to 2012?
October 31, 2013 at 7:02 am
I'd do the 2012. Sooner or later those DBs with get upgraded and new servers will come with SQL2012 installed on them. Other than the new features everything i the 2012 exam is still applicable to 2008R2, so why not get the newest? This saves you the bother off upgrading later. I'm thinking of skipping 2012 and waiting for 2014, but I already have the materials(had them for a year now, still haven't written), so I'll probably still do the 2012 exams.
October 31, 2013 at 9:45 am
RTaylor2208 (10/31/2013)
db808 (10/30/2013)
I'm reading the Training Kit Book and there are sections with a "key" icon. What are the relevance of these verses the sections labled "exam hints"Also is 2 hours more than enough time for the 200 question exam?
200 Questions? Do you mean test questions as when I sat my exam there was only 44.
oh wow, thanks...
Yes the test exam had 200 questions with a 2 hour time period, thus I assumed that's how the exam was as well.
October 31, 2013 at 10:05 am
db808 (10/30/2013)
I'm reading the Training Kit Book and there are sections with a "key" icon. What are the relevance of these verses the sections labled "exam hints"
The "Key" items are things that the author of the training book guessed might be on the exam. In my experience, they may or may not, and any corrorlation between the Key items and exam questions is coincidental.
Without violating the NDA, I'll describe the actual exam questions as geared toward how to get things done and which actions will or will not produce a desired outcome within the conditions that are presented, not factoids that can be summaized in one or two sentence key items.
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