It has been a while since I aimed to be an Oracle Certified Master (OCM). For those unfamiliar with this exam, it is (or was) an Oracle practical exam that consisted of two days somewhere in the world. It would test your Oracle skills to achieve the master’s and top certification from Oracle. It is a certification that gives prestige and recognization because a minority number of database administrators have this credential, and all because of all the value invested in the courses as prerequisites and other expenses. From the beginning of my career in 2011, I wanted to be the youngest OCM in Brazil. Unexpectedly, life happened, and the costs of travel, hotels, and the fear of never traveling abroad made me postpone this idea until 2015, which was a challenging year for me.
Still, as one of the people that attended the Oracle OCM course (a pre-requisite to be recognized as an Oracle OCM), I aimed to become OCM to feel inspired and try to overcome some hardships sometimes given to our lives. Surprisingly for someone that a few years ago had postponed a goal because of the fear of the unknown. In that case, it was to travel abroad; in 2016, I got a promotion from my job to move overseas, and only in 2018 I got back to my studies. Therefore, I even started blogging about it (https://www.techdatabasket.com/2018/12/13/oracle-ocm-12c-my-journey/) with the exam dates to 08th and 19 December of the following year (2019). However, with all the hustles of moving to another country (again and, the third in my professional career), I changed it to 2020, as in the image below:
And then, when I was about to take the exam scheduled for March 2020, by the beginning of the year, I and the whole world started to hear about one thing. Can you recall which one? Yes, COVID-19!
And then, with the “new” unknown, I postponed it to a month as I believed that it would be something that would disappear fast:
And then April 2020 arrived, and still chaos to travel, so then Oracle canceled the exam and offered new dates hoping that it would work out:
Then I decided to take the new attempt to June 2020:
Which happened to be scheduled for August 2020:
And after a few weeks after the confirmation, Oracle canceled the exam:
Then I kept asking Oracle a new updating about the availability of the program when I received the following info:
As I did not receive any updates, I contacted Oracle again in March 2021:
As I did not receive any answer, I tried again in April 2021:
Then again in August 2021:
Then I got the answer that by August 2021, the exam still is only available in China, which was out of the option to me:
The cancellation of this exam and the shutdown of the Oracle office in Reading, UK (the place where the exam was offered), affected me and other people that were also preparing as an Oracle OCM that was also studying and agreed to me to share their information here:
I also know three people (including one former OCM 11G) studying with me who were affected after this office’s shutdown. And then I gave up on the exam over the year 2022, and then in 2023, I was wondering how things were going with the exam and decided to contact Oracle again:
And after a while, even though the exam is still showing up as an option on the Oracle website as below, I was notified that the exam is currently retired and only offered to paid customers in China:
This exam has been on my mind for over a decade, and I did not take it until Oracle retired it. I am still determining if Oracle will have such an exam, which I hope because practical exams might be fun. However, I wish for an accessible price and more available locations to avoid unfair competition with people with high and low acquisition power to purchase the exam in their respective moments in life. However, this is all the information about the old OCM 12 exam by March 2023. If you get new updates about upcoming OCM exams or any other update of a type, let your comment below. Thus, Oracle DBAs can be aware of one of the most prestigious exams from Oracle.
Hi! I am Bruno, a Brazilian born and bred. Former Oracle ACE, Computer Scientist, MSc in Data Science, over ten years of experience in companies such as IBM, Epico Tech, and Playtech based in three different countries (Brazil, Hungary, and Sweden) and joined projects remotely in many others. I am super excited to show you my interest in Databases, Cloud, Data Science, Data Engineering, Bigdata, AI, Programming, Software Engineering, and data in general.
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Hi Bruno,
I just came across this post about 12C OCM exam and can’t help feel the disappointment and hopelessness as you. I went through an almost exact scenario or situation as you but with 11G OCM. I first took the exam in China in December 2019, I failed but immediately rebooked for a re-sit in May 2020. Covid-19 happened and there was a complete lockdown on travel. The exam ended up getting retired and Oracle China offered me only the 12C OCM as a replacement. As you know, you really have to prepare thoroughly for this exam and that was not an option at that moment. Travel was also still restricted anyway, and there was no chance of doing so. Long story short, Oracle China to my disappointment only refunded me with exam vouchers and have never felt more let down in my life.
Hi Tony,
Thank you for sharing your experience. My ultimate goal in writing this post was to highlight the unfortunate experiences many people have had, where we invest time, energy, and commitment in pursuit of a dream, only to have it taken away without any consideration. I have heard various theories about why the exam is no longer available, but regardless of the reasons, they should have implemented an alternative solution that would still provide us with an opportunity to take it.
Kind regards,
Bruno Reis.