I did bad on the mocks and expected to score in the 60's, but instead got 89% somehow even though I didn't really know AWT or java.util.
Concentrate on exactly what the objectives say will be tested. Like many have said before, expect around 6 questions on Threads (reconize deadlock conditions) and know all the java.io constructors mentioned in the objectives. My sincerest thanks to everyone on this site who has mentioned the importance of these two topics in the past 6 months.
Got 100% in all categories except :
Flow control and exceptions - 85%
Lnaguage Fundamentals - 88% (I expected better)
Operators and Assignments - 71 % (I expected much better)
Java.AWT.package - 50% (exactly what I expected)
I took 3 JQplus tests a few weeks before the
test and averaged 60% and I took Jwhiz a few times about a month before the test and got in the 70's each time. So going into the test I was a little scared since people have said the mock tests were easier than the real thing. In my case however those mocks were harder.
Overall I liked Jwhiz slightly better even though it had worthless questions on deprecated methods and
applets which aren't on the test.
I scored 78 in the Marcus Green mock(I think it was his latest).
I haven't heard anyone talk too much about the online mock test that Sun sells for $75 and lasts for 3 months. In my opinion it is by far the most accurate indicator of the level of difficulty you can expect for the real test. But it does not explain the answers very well and is not too helpfull to learn from. I also found two errors in the answers which would not compile which I have reported. Never the less if I had to do it over again I would choose only the Sun test, not Jqplus or Jwhiz for training purposes.
But that my also be because I had every decent
Java book there was to study from (Mughal, RHE, Exam Cram, Exam Prep, Syngress, and few other general books) and didn't need to use the mock to learn from. I spent about 9 months studying. Started with "Java in 21 Days" which took me a few months. Then concentrated on the first 5 chapters in Mughal's book for about 4-5 months.
Overall, RHE is the best for exam purposes assuming you have some other book you have already read concerning java. Mughal is good also, but covers more than is needed for the exam and I thought he needed more examples for Threads. The Syngess book is vastly underrated; it is actually very good despite what the reviewers said on Amazon.com. Any of those three books will get you through the exam with no problems.
I jumped around reading about 5 other Java books and never did spend the proper amount of time on AWT, Threads,
String, IO, and Collections that I should have. The 2 days before the test I created customized tests on JWhiz, JQplus, and the Sun mock, focusing only on Threads and IO.
Thanks to everyone on this site who has replied to my postings or has posted usefull information. I love you all!
