How to Prepare for the Exam

About the Book

We suggest that you read this book from front to back. You will not be wasting your time, because nothing we have written is a guess about an unknown exam. We have had to explain certain underlying information on such a regular basis that we have included those explanations here.

After you have read the book, you can brush up on a certain area by using the index or the table of contents to go straight to the topics and questions you want to reexamine. We have tried to use the headings and subheadings to provide outline information about each given topic. After you have been certified, we think you will find this book useful as a tightly focused reference and an essential foundation of information systems and controls auditing.

Each Exam Cram 2 chapter follows a regular structure, and provides graphical cues about especially important or useful material. The structure of a typical chapter is as follows:

• Opening hotlists Each chapter begins with lists of the terms you will need to understand and the concepts you will need to master before you can be fully conversant in the chapter's subject matter. We follow the hotlists with a few introductory paragraphs, setting the stage for the rest of the chapter.

• Topical coverage After the opening hotlists, each chapter covers the topics related to the chapter's subject.

• Exam Alerts Throughout the text, we highlight material most likely to appear on the exam by using a special Exam Alert that looks like this:

  This is what an Exam Alert looks like. An Exam Alert stresses concepts, terms, or best practices that will most likely appear in one or more certification exam questions. For that reason, we think any information presented in an Exam Alert is worthy of unusual attentiveness on your part.

  
  

  Even if material is not flagged as an Exam Alert, all the content in this book is associated in some way with test-related material. What appears in the chapter content is critical knowledge.

• Notes This book is an overall examination of database design and implementation. As such, we delve into many aspects of business systems. Where a body of knowledge is deeper than the scope of the book, we use notes to indicate areas of concern.

  Cramming for an exam will get you through a test, but it will not make you a competent database implementation professional. Although you can memorize just the facts you need to know in order to become certified, your daily work in the field will rapidly put you in water over your head if you do not know the underlying principles.

  
  

• Tips We provide tips that will help you build a better foundation of knowledge or focus your attention on an important concept that reappears later in the book. Tips provide a helpful way to remind you of the context surrounding a particular area of a topic under discussion.

  Much of the performance of a database system comes out of a strong design. In contrast, a poor design will not perform well after it's implemented. Take the time during the initial stages of design to put together a sound foundation for the system.

  
  

• Practice questions This section presents a short list of test questions related to the specific chapter topic. Following each question is an explanation of both correct and incorrect answers. The practice questions highlight the areas we found to be most important on the exam.

The bulk of the book follows this chapter structure, but we would like to point out a few other elements:

• The Cram Sheet This appears as a tear-away sheet inside the front cover of this Exam Cram 2 book. It is a valuable tool that represents a collection of the most difficult-to-remember facts and numbers we think you should memorize before taking the test. Remember, you can dump this information out of your head onto a piece of paper as soon as you enter the testing room. These are usually facts that we have found require brute-force memorization. You need to remember this information only long enough to write it down when you walk into the test room. Be advised that you will be asked to surrender all personal belongings other than pencils before you enter the exam room itself.

  You might want to look at the Cram Sheet while in your car or in the lobby of the testing center just before you walk into the testing center. The Cram Sheet information is divided under headings, so you can review the appropriate parts just before each test.

• Self-Assessment This is a quick look at your current status in preparing for the 70-229 Exam. This section contains some quick questions to ask yourself prior to diving into the book. Answer the questions honestly, and the advice given will allow you to make better use of your preparation time.

• Glossary This is an extensive list of important terms used in this book.