What's the Deal?

IT Certifications are meant to reward the people who have taken the classes and exams identifying them as people who have a good hold of the technology they hold certificates in. These certifications are taken as a measure and proof of the proficiency of the holder; people who have taken their toil understanding the technology, have a clear, working knowledge of real world solutions and applying practical and logical solutions to them. They're supposed to be given sparingly, and they're supposed to be difficult.

So tell me, what gives? Oracle has previously required its participants to take at least 4 exams to receive an Oracle Certified Professional merit with its Oracle 9i Database; now, with the introduction of Oracle's latest 10g database technology, the number of tests has been reduced to only 2. Don't get me wrong, this would be good thing, especially for people who do not have the means and financial resources to get 4 separate exams. But I would've expected something more than being able to pass the first exam by taking a "Oracle Database 10g: 2 Day DBA" class. Two Days??? two days to learn Oracle??? Stop. Oh, puuuh-leeeaaze.

I guess I veer towards the traditional view of "time spent is equivalent to knowledge and experience earned". We know that there are simply people who can learn things faster than others, and I admit, I feel a slight resentment when it comes to that inequality. I know friends who can simply digest something in days what will take me a week to accomplish. And for that fact, I admit it is simply a reality in life. But for a technology that has hundreds of pages of documentation, so many different aspects and facets to its functionality, 2 days is simply preposterous.

Don't mind me though, I just can't believe it. Instead of attending the class to see for myself (and not to mention cash out some bucks just for this) I'll probably just self learn this whole thing by myself. In case anyone out there has attended this class, I'd sure like to get their feedbacks how the classes came along. I still can't believe 2 days is enough to prepare a person for a Oracle database administrator certification, but maybe, that's just me.

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I still think its preposterous, though. :)