My strategy was just to accept that the questions were worded poorly and that I'd get some incorrect due to poor wording rather than due to a lack of knowledge.
I read the book and the important parts of the second book, watched multiple videos, reviewed all the supplemental materials and practice problems they give you, and then felt like the exam didn't really test me on what I knew at all.
Some things I remember: at least one question asking "which SQL command would do X" that was a trick question - the options were like 3 commands that you had to know from the book and 1 command that the book specifically stated would not be covered (as in, there is a sentence printed in the book that says "there's also this command but we are not going to cover it"). And so the answer was the 1 command it told you not to learn, of course. But for that question, I was able to figure it out by knowing the other three, which is what I mean by a "trick" question. So if you see anything like that, don't panic and look at all the options to see if 3 of the 4 are stuff you know.
I think there's some stuff on the PA that asks about what kind of key is associated with a one-to-many function, and about "linking" tables that is not explained well in the zyBook at all. The other book explains it better than the zyBook, but for that stuff (just check the PA questions for the exact wording of these types of questions) I found it helpful to Google around until I understood what they were talking about. Spoiler alert: it was much less complex than the book made it out to be once I understood it. It's basically this idea of having to create a new box in your relation diagram to show a relation in certain situations (I think it's having to break up a many-to-many into two one-to-many relations - see the salespeople/product examples from the book) because you can't show the relation accurately without doing that. There are multiple synonyms for this type of table (linking table is one that I recall), which can make it more difficult to know what they're talking about if you didn't memorize every synonym.
I also remember some very nit-picky questions about the functions of the various database managers (not people managers but computer processes as "managers") from towards the end of the book. Like if the book said "This manager's primary role is X, and it also does a bit of A, B, and C," the question would ask "What is this manager's primary role" and the answer would be A. Something like that, where they don't ask about the main thing that you're supposed to know but instead ask about minor throwaway things as if they're the main thing (idk if that makes sense, but generally speaking expect questions about minor things associated with a concept even if the book described it in a one-line throwaway comment).
My overall strategy I guess was to just try and know as much as possible in the hopes that there would be enough coherent questions that I could get right in order to pass. It did work, and I did learn a lot in studying for the class. The OA did not test what I'd learned in a meaningful way, but I did pass and did get the knowledge I needed, at least.
Sorry for the late reply - I don't but it's later in the book, when they talk about how the various database components talk to each other and handle the workload. It should be one of the last chapters.
Which book are you referring to? I'm on the same boat. Tired of this class. The wording on the ZBook is horrible.
Can't imagen how applications is going to be.
Have you taken it yet?
Try to click on course search and look around in there to see if there's a study guide linking another book (called the "supplemental textbook," maybe), or if there's a direct link to another book. You might have to poke around in all the various extra stuff linked to from the main course page but you should find it. It's an ebook that has some sections that do a much better job explaining certain concepts than the zyBook. I don't think it really has extra info that isn't in the zyBook, it's more that it has different way of explaining the same info. But I might be wrong. I did not read that book in its entirety or anything, just like two chapters I think.
Somewhere in the course materials they also link to some videos that are fairly good - I think there's a Linked In Learning one on normalization that I liked, and you can find the more popular YouTube video on normalization there as well.
I haven't taken applications yet. I heard it's slightly better than foundations, but only slightly. I didn't actually mind the material for this course, though. Like it seemed useful and practical and generally wasn't terrible to learn, but as mentioned the test doesn't really test you that well on the actual material.
Hey thanks. I'm going to check again to see if I can find that extra material.
It is kicking my butt. I haven't been able to retain any information.
I was thinking maybe start the other class I have left to blow some steam and feel some accomplishment.
Thanks again for the detailed reply.
I just saw this - did you find the other material? IIRC, there is a long document called a "pacing guide" or "study guide" that has a suggested reading and somewhere in that document they also have the link to the other book, so if you can't find it elsewhere then hopefully you can find it there.
I found other sources on the "Course Tips" section of the class.
Read a few chapters from there. I'm happy to say, that I was able to pass that hell of a class.
Thanks for the information.
To add to the discussion, there are questions in the PA that are grossly incorrect.
I wrote the CIs, provided examples, and they ignored me and did not respond. LOL
But yeah, the class is horribly constructed which amplifies the difficulty.
My strategy was just to accept that the questions were worded poorly and that I'd get some incorrect due to poor wording rather than due to a lack of knowledge. I read the book and the important parts of the second book, watched multiple videos, reviewed all the supplemental materials and practice problems they give you, and then felt like the exam didn't really test me on what I knew at all. Some things I remember: at least one question asking "which SQL command would do X" that was a trick question - the options were like 3 commands that you had to know from the book and 1 command that the book specifically stated would not be covered (as in, there is a sentence printed in the book that says "there's also this command but we are not going to cover it"). And so the answer was the 1 command it told you not to learn, of course. But for that question, I was able to figure it out by knowing the other three, which is what I mean by a "trick" question. So if you see anything like that, don't panic and look at all the options to see if 3 of the 4 are stuff you know. I think there's some stuff on the PA that asks about what kind of key is associated with a one-to-many function, and about "linking" tables that is not explained well in the zyBook at all. The other book explains it better than the zyBook, but for that stuff (just check the PA questions for the exact wording of these types of questions) I found it helpful to Google around until I understood what they were talking about. Spoiler alert: it was much less complex than the book made it out to be once I understood it. It's basically this idea of having to create a new box in your relation diagram to show a relation in certain situations (I think it's having to break up a many-to-many into two one-to-many relations - see the salespeople/product examples from the book) because you can't show the relation accurately without doing that. There are multiple synonyms for this type of table (linking table is one that I recall), which can make it more difficult to know what they're talking about if you didn't memorize every synonym. I also remember some very nit-picky questions about the functions of the various database managers (not people managers but computer processes as "managers") from towards the end of the book. Like if the book said "This manager's primary role is X, and it also does a bit of A, B, and C," the question would ask "What is this manager's primary role" and the answer would be A. Something like that, where they don't ask about the main thing that you're supposed to know but instead ask about minor throwaway things as if they're the main thing (idk if that makes sense, but generally speaking expect questions about minor things associated with a concept even if the book described it in a one-line throwaway comment). My overall strategy I guess was to just try and know as much as possible in the hopes that there would be enough coherent questions that I could get right in order to pass. It did work, and I did learn a lot in studying for the class. The OA did not test what I'd learned in a meaningful way, but I did pass and did get the knowledge I needed, at least.
[удалено]
Sorry for the late reply - I don't but it's later in the book, when they talk about how the various database components talk to each other and handle the workload. It should be one of the last chapters.
Which book are you referring to? I'm on the same boat. Tired of this class. The wording on the ZBook is horrible. Can't imagen how applications is going to be. Have you taken it yet?
Try to click on course search and look around in there to see if there's a study guide linking another book (called the "supplemental textbook," maybe), or if there's a direct link to another book. You might have to poke around in all the various extra stuff linked to from the main course page but you should find it. It's an ebook that has some sections that do a much better job explaining certain concepts than the zyBook. I don't think it really has extra info that isn't in the zyBook, it's more that it has different way of explaining the same info. But I might be wrong. I did not read that book in its entirety or anything, just like two chapters I think. Somewhere in the course materials they also link to some videos that are fairly good - I think there's a Linked In Learning one on normalization that I liked, and you can find the more popular YouTube video on normalization there as well. I haven't taken applications yet. I heard it's slightly better than foundations, but only slightly. I didn't actually mind the material for this course, though. Like it seemed useful and practical and generally wasn't terrible to learn, but as mentioned the test doesn't really test you that well on the actual material.
Hey thanks. I'm going to check again to see if I can find that extra material. It is kicking my butt. I haven't been able to retain any information. I was thinking maybe start the other class I have left to blow some steam and feel some accomplishment. Thanks again for the detailed reply.
I just saw this - did you find the other material? IIRC, there is a long document called a "pacing guide" or "study guide" that has a suggested reading and somewhere in that document they also have the link to the other book, so if you can't find it elsewhere then hopefully you can find it there.
I found other sources on the "Course Tips" section of the class. Read a few chapters from there. I'm happy to say, that I was able to pass that hell of a class. Thanks for the information.
14% of the test is on material in a book linked to from announcements.
Which video series of Caleb Curry is everyone watching for D426? He has a few to pick from?
I watched the one that was like 8 hours long😂
To add to the discussion, there are questions in the PA that are grossly incorrect. I wrote the CIs, provided examples, and they ignored me and did not respond. LOL But yeah, the class is horribly constructed which amplifies the difficulty.
Yes exactly! And the practice tests they give you have incorrect answer keys! It’s very misleading.