Road to Datastage certification - Day 01

I have been planning my datastage certification for quite some time now.
I am planning to take it up on 21st of this Month (05/21/08). So, I have around 17 more days. And, I will be posting about the topics and random stuff (which I hope would help somebody some day!) which I use to prepare for the certification . Here is a link to a Google public notebook, which I thought of using to document my journey ( But, I scrapped that idea in favor of blogging) Road to datastage certification, This notebook has links to some very good resources.

Before I begin, here is some background info on how it all started. On 05th of March, My friend challenged me that I could not complete any certification (I had paid for an Oracle PL/SQL my vouchers had expired, Was very lazy to take up that certification). I said that, it was a piece of cake for me ( I bluffed ; ) ). We thought two months was a fair amount of time to prepare for certification. The bet was worth Rs 500 ($12.50), And I would win it if I scored more than 80% in the certification, and my friend would win otherwise.

Two months passed in no time. On 03 of May, I told my friend that I wouldn't be able to finish my certification and would need some more time to finish it. My friend, being the generous guy he is ; ) changed the date to 27th of May. But, there was a catch, I had to pay him Rs 250 now, and pay another Rs 750 on 27 May, if I lost, If I won, I would get back my Rs 250. I readily agreed, and here I am on my "Road to Datastage Certification"!!

I have a rough plan in my mind. I would want to finish all the stages in two days, i.e. 05/5 and 05/06. And, then I would plan to tackle the topics in the certification. At the end of my certification, I am planning to put up all the demo jobs and the knowledge I gain from this certification on my blog.