Wow 98% : I made it with your wishes!!!

[Richard Brown]

Dear Pals,
Finally your wishes and my hard work bore the success i always wanted. I am really feeling to be on the top of the world. Its a great moment.
As i had planned and as adviced by friends like you, the only care i took during the exam was to keep my cool and it paid off. It was really really a great experience.
Firstly i would like to thank all the people who have been contributing at javaranch by their great conversations. It really boosted by moral.
Then i would like to thank Marcus Green for his great mock exams at www.jchq.net. It really helped me judge my performance. Then i would thank the whizlabs team at www.whizlabs.com/jwhiz for their wonderful test simulator specially because of the updated version of j@whiz with many more code based questions on inner classes, io and threads. I believe its bcoz of jwhiz only that i could score 100% in these topics. Then i would like to thank the team at www.javaprepare.com. Not to forget, the last day help i got, which was really very crucial, was from veenas notes and one liner tips from jwhiz. Infact the rules round up game at www.javaranch.com was also useful in last few days.
Coming to the actual test, it was really a good mix with little dominance in topics like io, threads and inner classes. There were 4-5 questions on overriding and strings each. There were 2-3 questions on shift operators. This is where i marked wrong and missed the century
There were around 70-80% code based questions. Few of them were around 20-25 lines long.

What i believe as suggested by others as well is to write as much code as possible to test your knowledge in any topic. This is the most efficient and effective way to improve your performance.
Overall i will say, the journey to scjp can be sailed smoothly provided you are focussed and have done proper planning according to your strengths and weekenesses.
Once again THANKS A LOT to ALL OF YOU for a GREAT and TIMELY HELP!!!
I hope my experience will be helpful to you guys.
I can still continue writing without any limit. But i feel it will be more helpful if i can help by answering to your questions i can answer. I promise to help any one of you in whatever way i can.
ALL THE BEST TO ALL OF YOU,
Richard

[swati bannore]

Hey,
Congrats...!
Now,I need u advice on,how to study for java.awt , java.io ? These topics r really bugging me and I guess they are very important.i ve been asking help here and follwing everybody's instructions..
Thanx

[asheet anand]

CONGRATULATIONS..
fantastic performance.i'm also preparing for the same hey u talked about some stimulators.can u give it to me.although i knowone has to buy it,but if it is possible... then please help.
also guide me in THREADS please.if there are some good tutorials in it on web.please tell me.
once again my heartiest congratulations.score is wonderful
all the best
bye
asheet

[Richard Brown]

Hi Swati,
Thanks for your wishes.
Its true that IO and AWT is not too interesting and difficult to master. Look from exam perspective.. give very high importance to the constructors of all the file classes. Use JavaDoc API for that. Specially to File and Data Input and Output classes.
Another good way is to code real examples like write code to :
1.) Read from a file.
2.) Write to a file.
3.) Copy from one file to another file.
4.) Read some part of text from a file
5.) Append to a file.
6.) Take keyboard input and write it into a file.
and so on... I feel by doing these.. you will have a good feeling of the basics.
Try to use both char streams (readers and writers) and byte streams (input and output). Also try to write some real code using Random access files.
For AWT.. i think Layouts is the most important part. You can get really good tutorials specially on gridbag layout from sites like java.sun.com and searching on google. Here also try to write some code and test is by modifying few things.
After doing all these efforts you need to test yourself by giving mock exams. Here marcus greens and j@whiz mock tests were really great. There were few very similar questions in the exams.
Also give more imp to threads and inner clasess.
I hope it will help you.
All the best
Richard

[Aakanksha]

Fundu score man...Congratulations... But do stick around javaranch to guide us..
Congrats once again,
Aakanksha

[Richard Brown]

Dear Asheet,
Thanks for your wishes.
Regarding threads :
For studying I will recommend RHE: Robert Hellers Book. Also you can find some useful links from here : http://www.devdaily.com/Dir/Java/Articles_and_Tutorials/Threads/
Do write lot of code as most of the questions were code based.
Then for evaluating your self as i told : jwhiz and marcus mock exams were great help.
Regarding giving you the simulator like j@whiz, i personally believe only when you pay for something, you get the max out of it. And if you are paying 150USD for SCJP then 30USD or Rs500 (if ur in india) is definitely worth it.
I hope it will help you.
All the best
Richard

[Thomas Paul]

Moved to cert results.
------------------
Tom - SCJP --- Co-Moderator of the Programmer Certification Forums

[Percy Densmore]

CONGRATULATIONS Richard!!
I appreciated your observations of the Exam. Unfortunately some have a higher level of difficulty than others. You've earned it :-)
Percy

[Vanitha Sugumaran]

Congratulations Richard! Great Score, Thanks for sharing your experience. Stick around!!
Vanitha.

[Deep Krishna]

Dear Richard,
CONGRATS Man. You Have Done It!
Great score and thanks for sharing ur experience. It willl definitely help others.
Once again my heartly Congratulations.
And Whats next....after scjp
Cheers for Richard
Deep

[Richard Brown]

Dear Pals,
Thanks for your wishes.
Once again i need the help of people have earned the honor of SCJP.
I am very happy to be SCJP. But i am not able to decide to what to do next. Considering various options like j2ee certification as stated at jcert.com, ibm xml certification or scjd.
I would sincerely request experience ppl at this forum to advice me.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks andr regs
Richard

[Marcus Green]

Excellent to have helped, congratulations!
Marcus

[Richard Brown]

Dear Marcus,
Its so great to get a reply from someone like you.
Would you please help me in deciding as to which path to choose?
Thanks a ton in advance.
Regards
Richard

[Donald Nunn]

Congrats, Richard. Great score and I wish you well on your Java endeavors.
Donald

[ankush mehta]

hi Richard!
congrats on this achivement.
also urs score is kinda great
cheerio
ankush

[Ashu Garg]

Hey dude,
Great Score... CONGRATS....
We knew it that you will make it.
We are thankful to you for sharing your great experience. It will surely help others taking the right step.
Dont go away from this wonderful sharing place and help others achieve their dreams.
All the best for ur future
Ashu

[Arsin Delve]

Congrats, Well done!

[San Sharma]

Congrats Man
All the best
san

[Ashu Garg]

Hey Richard,
Pl tell us more about the questions from threads and io.
Best wishes
Ashu

[Richard Brown]

Hi,
There were 7-8 Quesitons on IO. Many of them were on file constructors.
One question on random access file.
Make sure you know all file input streams well with their constructor definitions.
I hope it helps.
All the best
Richard

[Jane Griscti]

Congratulations Richard, excellent score
You may want to poke around in the Developer and Architect forums or check out the new component based certification. What you do next depends on where you want to go
------------------
Jane Griscti
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform

[Richard Brown]

Dear Jane,
Thanks a lot for your input.
I will definitely look for this new certification. It really looks promising as compared to scjd and scea.
My work involves lot of j2ee stuff and i believe it will really be helpful.
Any inputs about IBM XML Cetification???
Regards
Richard

[Raghav Mathur]

after scjp the ideal certification would be an scjd .
[e-mail]

[Jane Griscti]

Hi Richard,
Check out the XML discussion group here on Ranch, you'll find alot of good tips from Ajith and Map.
------------------
Jane Griscti
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform

[Richard Brown]

Thanks a lot jane. I will surely devote time for xml certification on the suggested forum.
Regards
Richard

[Mayank Dalal]

Hi Richard,
I am new to this place but heard a lot about this. For last few months i have been working on java and due to mkt slow down, i believe any kind of certification will give me an upper edge. And being in java, scjp2 would be a good start.
Thanks for sharing your experience. As i need to get the certification soon, i have tightned my preparation plan. As suggested by you, i have started giving marcus green exams and have ordered j@whiz.
My score in the first marcus mock exam is 78% and in the diagnostic test of j@whiz, its 75%.
I will be appearing for the exam around a month later. It would be great if you could advice me, where do i stand looking at my score and what path i should follow to achieve the kind of success you had.
It would be a great help.
Yours
mayank

[Richard Brown]

hi mayank,
Its my pleasure for being cosidered to advice some one.
Definitely certification like scjp2 would give you an edge. Its great to hear from you that have shortened the time span for your preparation. Actually it reflects the confidence one has. I am sure you will certainly give a great shot in the actual exam.
Your score in marcus green mock exam and j@whiz engine's diagnostic test is not bad, given the fact that you have a month ahead for preparation.
The most imp thing which matters a lot according to me is how much time you give analyzing your performance while giving mock exams be it marcus one, j@whiz or any other. Don't try to complete these mock exams in hurry. After each exam do go through the explanations even if you have marked it right.
After 2-3 exams, you will be able to know your weak areas. Here the customization option of j@whiz helped a lot specially for areas like threads, io and inner classes.
Plan your preparation for the time you have and keep the last 2-3 days free just for review and keeping mind fresh for the final battle.
Im sure you will coming up with flying colors.
All the best and do share your exp and score
Richard

[Mayank Dalal]

Dear Richard,
Thanks Thanks a lot for your inspiring advice.
It will definitely help me. Will ask you more whenever i need your help.
Once again thanks for your help.
Yours
Mayank

[Sudeepa Basu]

Hi Richard,
Many Many congratulations on your commendable performance.
Whats next?
All the best for your great career ahead.
Sudeepa

[Rizwan Khan]

Im doing o-leveles. can SCJP study and my regular (o-level) study go side by side???

[Desai Sandeep]

Great score..Richard!Keep it up

------------------
Sandeep
Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Platform Scored 93%
Oracle Certified Solution Developer - JDeveloper
-- Oracle JDeveloper Rel. 3.0 - Develop Database Applications with Java Scored 56 out of 59
-- Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with UML Scored 73%
Oracle Certified Enterprise Developer - Oracle Internet Platform
-- Enterprise Connectivity with J2EE Scored 72%
-- Enterprise Development on the Oracle Internet Platform Scored 44 out of 56

[Ashik Uzzaman]

Hi Richard,
Congrats! Nice score
How many mock exams did u take earlier and how many do u suggest to take me?. I m appearing next month.

------------------
azaman

[Richard Brown]

Dear Azaman,
Thanks for your wishes.
Regarding taking number of mock exams, although it varies from person to person depening on the knowledge of the person but my experience says giving TOO MANY is not the mantra for success.
What's important is not the number of exams you give but how seriously you give those exams. And more important how carefully you do the analysis and read the explanations.
For me 3 marcus green one exams and 11 j@whiz mock exams were enough. I gave all the exams seriously after getting the feedback from the diagnostic test of j@whiz.
Similary i will suggest you that 10-15 mock exams are more than enough, but make sure you do them properly as if each exam is the real one and go through the detialed explanations.
I hope it will help you.
All the best
Richard

[Poonam Akash]

Hi Richard.You have done very well.But know it is time for me to appear in SCJP.I am appearing in SCJP in couple of weeks.I have JQ+ and will buy J@Whiz soon.I have done almost all mocks present on Maha site.Know i want to give more mocks as many as i get i will solve them.And yes, your valuable advice.
Poonam.

[Poonam Akash]

And yes, one another thing which i forget in my last postis that what is the procedure of buying [e-mail] how much time it will take to come.And does it will come as an attachment with mail or by shipment.
Thanks is advance.
Poonam.

[Ashik Uzzaman]

Thnx Richard!Very valuable advice indeed!!

------------------
azaman

[Ajith Kallambella]

Congratulations Richard and welcome to the XML forum.

[Richard Brown]

Hi poonam,
Thanks for your wishes.
Regarding j@whiz, you can anytime download from their site: www.whizlabs.com/jwhiz -> go to buy link. After you pay, you will get the key by mail to run j@whiz. it takes not more than few hours.
One advice : give sufficient time for each test by going thru explanations.
I am sure you will achieve the success you worked for.
All the best
richard

[Poonam Akash]

Thanks Richard for your valuable help & advice.And thanks in advance for wishing me
Poonam.

[Richard Brown]

Dear Ajith,
Thanks for your wishes.
Yes i am surely going for XML Certification Now! Meet u there for you advice.
Regards
Richard