🎯 MCA DBMS Study Plan for Scoring High in College

We’ll break it down into:

📘 1. Important Theory Topics (Frequently Asked in Exams)

💡 2. Expected Questions from Each Topic

💻 3. Basic SQL Practice (For Viva / Practical Exams)

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📘 1. Important Theory Topics

Unit	Topic	Must-Know Concepts
1	Introduction to DBMS	Definition, advantages, DBMS vs RDBMS, applications
2	Data Models & ER Model	Entity, attributes, relationships, ER diagrams
3	Relational Model	Tuple, attribute, schema, keys (primary, foreign)
4	Relational Algebra	Select, Project, Join, Union, Set Difference
5	SQL Basics	CREATE, INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, WHERE, JOINS
6	Normalization	1NF, 2NF, 3NF, BCNF, functional dependency
7	Transaction Management	ACID properties, commit, rollback
8	Indexing & Storage	B+ trees, hashing, file organization

💡 2. Important Questions to Study

✅ Short Questions:

• What is DBMS? List its advantages.

• Define primary and foreign keys with examples.

• What is normalization?

✅ Long Questions (most scoring):

• Draw and explain the architecture of DBMS.

• Explain ER model with an example and convert it to tables.

• What are the types of keys in DBMS? Explain with example.

• Write and explain different SQL commands with examples.

• Explain all normal forms with suitable examples.

• What is a transaction? Explain ACID properties.

🧠 Tip: Draw diagrams in theory exams — ER diagrams, DBMS architecture, relational schema — these fetch full marks.

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💻 3. Basic SQL Commands (Exam Viva Focus)

-- Create a table
CREATE TABLE student (
    id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(100),
    course VARCHAR(50)
);

-- Insert data
INSERT INTO student VALUES (1, 'Adarsh', 'MCA');

-- View table
SELECT * FROM student;

-- Update a record
UPDATE student SET course = 'MCA Part 2' WHERE id = 1;

-- Delete a record
DELETE FROM student WHERE id = 1;

💡 Learn:

• INNER JOIN

• GROUP BY and HAVING

• Subqueries (simple SELECT inside WHERE)

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📅 Weekly Exam-Focused Study Plan (Short-Term Revision)

Day	Focus Area
Day 1	DBMS Intro + Architecture + Advantages
Day 2	ER Model + Diagram Practice
Day 3	Keys + Relational Model
Day 4	Relational Algebra + Set operations
Day 5	SQL Basics (DDL, DML, DQL) + Practice
Day 6	Normalization (1NF to BCNF)
Day 7	Transactions + Indexing + Storage

📝 Bonus: Exam Writing Tips

• Write definitions in your own words.

• Underlined keywords: DBMS, Primary Key, ACID, etc.

• Use diagrams: ER model, Architecture.

• Give examples always — even for short answers.

• Neat formatting = easy marks!