new SCJP in town :)

[leena rane]

Hi there,
Today i have become a sun certified java programmer(93% - 55/59)
because of your help and wishes.

Thanks to all of you
It feels so nice writing this post,today.From the first day i
saw this website,i longed for this day when i would write this post at this forum.And from that day onwards the bonding between this site and me has increased each day.I have visited so many sites for SCJP preparation,
but unarguably this one is the Best - javaranch- a place where everybody(including all bartenders and sheriffs) are so helpful,friendly - where learning java and getting certified is
a unique experience.
Now coming to my experience on exam:
1. I was surprised to see the questions to be so simple.
Even after 10 minutes after my exam started,i could not believe
i am giving SCJP exam.
Gradually i came in line with that level and completed it - very straight forward,simple questions,only testing your fundamental concepts.
2. I saw 1 question for which no answer was right.
the code was of only 3 lines - so no question of missing on
any word.I was sure there was no answer ,but to be doubly
sure i came and checked on my pc.
Indeed it was wrong.
But wannabe SCJP's don't worry about this because i have
checked so many posts of SCJPs
Hardly you will get 1/2 such questions.(hopefully zero)
3. I had two questions with options having not that clear language(this was really irritating).But otherwise the
question are very very very straight forward and clear.
4.There were some questions on code which did not compile.
e.g. wrong overriding
private/protected class
I just love these,so good you do not have to go through all the web of loops and nuts in the program,just say does not compile
5.There were some questions where you need to be thourough
with loops,questions like what is the value of j on line 13
and so on.For this ,you will have to do a lot of practice
and give mocks.But for people with programming background it
should not be difficult at all.These are the questions which
take maximum time in exam,so be thorough with it.
6.Surprisingly i found no difficult question on threads.
All basic with a little of trick involved.
But please understand all the concepts with multithreading
-then this topic is very easy to score.
7.I/o - do constructors of common classes
(which class takes which parameter).
Remember which are abstract and that they cannot be
instantiated.
8.I got a question where tricky casting was used.RHE is sufficient for conversions and casting.
9.Lot of questions on overloading and overriding.
Be thourough with this.You must score in this topic -it is easy.
10.
Be thourough with inner classes
Be thourough with inner classes
Be thourough with inner classes
(I hope this emphasizes it enough)
You cannot hope to score high in SCJP without being thorough
in this topic.
Do it from as many (good) books as possible.
(Special thanx to Gagan Indus who sent to me inner classes
xerox from Mughal from 1 part of country 2 the other to be
sent to me on time-Gagan i have got tired of thanking you )
11.Never forget these:
=>an array no matter where it is declared will have default initializations
=>Strings are immutable(100 % you will get at least 1 question which will test this)
12.For event handling RHE is more than sufficient.
(for some tips on Collections scroll down some messages )
13.Time is more than sufficient.I finished in 1 hour,then revised.So don't worry about this ,just get your concepts clear and you are through.
14. Overall it was an excellant experience.

mock exams i gave
(Marcus Green's Mock exams-not something that can be missed )
javaranch - 100%
Markus Green 1 - 93.33%
Marcus Green 2 - 88.33%
Marcus Green 2 - 90%
javaprepare 1- 95%(56/59)
javaprepare 2- 95%(36/38)
some others like john hunt,jxam...... but i did not keep track
of my scores.
books/notes i used
1.i started java with java2 complete reference
2.RHE
3.exam cram and jamie jaworski's book
I also browsed through Maha Anna's notes,Marcus green's tutorial,Jane's notes,Vel Murugan's notes,jq+ notes and others.Thanx to you all for preparing such good notes.

a small piece of advice for wannbe scjp's giving SCJP exam shortly
=>Sun is indeed testing your fundamental concepts only.
So do not give every mock exam that you find.Be selective,
each question has a concept hidden with it.When you are giving mock exams,it does not matter whether you get it right or wrong at first,understand the concept behind it,and see to it that a similar question in next mock exam that you give should
be right.
=>any doubts while studying immidiately post them to this site.
=>Read the code carefully in exam.See options before you attempt to press exhibit.
e.g if options say:
prints 1
prints 2
prints 3
prints 4
then 1 thing you know that it compiles and run fine and you
only need to concentrate on what the output will be.
But if there is a option like does not compile,or does not run
first search for traps and if sure everything is fine then go
on to calculate the output.
=>I can go on and on but let me wind up.
please feel free to ask more..........
It will be my pleasure
acknowledgements
I would like to thank everybody at javaranch.
My special thanx to Shrinath Rao,Gagan Indus,Valentin Crettaz,
Marcus Green,Michael Ernest,Jane,William Brogden,Marilyn deQueiroz,Manfred Leonhardt,Ersin Eser,Jose ,Gurpreet,Nain,Guoqiao, Ashik,Dave,Ragu,Shyamsundar,Yin,Alan and many more.

Hope i didn't bore you
(actually i had some other work ,
so was a little late for this post)
After posting now i actually feel i am an SCJP

[This message has been edited by leena rane (edited November 13, 2001).]

[sandeep bhatnagar]

Wow!
Congrats Leena. U really deserved it.
sandy

[Valentin Crettaz]

CONGRATULATIONS Leena,
very good job
------------------
Valentin Crettaz
Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Platform

[Dave Vick]

Leena
Excellent score!! Congrats on passing, I know you've been working very hard at it so you really deserve it!!
Now that you've passed just don't become a stranger in town.


------------------
Dave
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform

[Anonymous]

Congrats Leena...Great Score...and excellent tips too...What next?
And how tough were the questions on exceptions and Collections ?
Shyam
[This message has been edited by Shyamsundar Gururaj (edited October 29, 2001).]

[Vikrama Sanjeeva]

Great job Leena.....U have DONE It!
Here are my questions from 93% SCJP..
1:

2. I saw 1 question for which no answer was right.
the code was of only 3 lines - so no question of missing on
any word.I was sure there was no answer ,but to be doubly
sure i came and checked on my pc.
Indeed it was wrong.
But wannabe SCJP's don't worry about this because i have
checked so many posts of SCJPs
Hardly you will get 1/2 such questions.(hopefully zero)

Many SCJP's says that question was wrong then which answer we have to select.Either we select any answer or leave it blank.In which case we will get the marks of these wrong question/s?.And how we know that we have got marks or not?.
2:

7.I/o - do constructors of common classes
(which class takes which parameter).
Remember which are abstract and that they cannot be
instantiated.

What about the methods of classes.Does we have to remember all the methods of every class.Which is the best book which covers whole I/O of SCJP.?.Frankly speaking....what 1 have to do in I/O & what Not.?
What about UTIL.What i have to do & what not?
By the way u have really shared UR wonderfull experience with us in depth
bye
Viki

[Fei Ng]

wow... great score!!! Congratsss!!!
what next for you?

[ersin eser]

Great job and an excellent feedback ( now we have another great link for new comers )
GO get a Great job now if you already don't have one !
Good luck with your future studies..
ersin

[Fei Ng]

Originally posted by ersin eser:
Great job and an excellent feedback ( now we have another great link for new comers )
GO get a Great job now if you already don't have one !
Good luck with your future studies..
ersin

hehehe..
"GO get a Great job now if you already don't have one"
heheh..

[leena rane]

Hey i forgot to add 1 thing,
Thanx to these ranchers for wishing me before exam/congratulating me on another thread:
Ersin eser(thanx a lot for answering my questions in last 2 days),
Fei Ng (you gave me an SCJP certificate yesterday itself saying that you think i already passed - thanx for the confidence),
Sandeep,Jim Petersen,Valentin,Shamsunder,Gagan,Manish Hatwalne,Roopa Bagur,Muhammad Farooq.

[leena rane]

Originally posted by Dave Vick:

Now that you've passed just don't become a stranger in town.

Dave,
are you hinting at my subject?? ,good joke

[leena rane]

Originally posted by Shyamsundar Gururaj:

And how tough were the questions on exceptions and Collections ?

Shamsunder,
I got very simple questions on collections,
For collections:
1.if you get question on
unique storage requirement -> Set
Set(or a class which implements this) is the most likely candidate but it depends
e.g. if req. is that unique storage of something like ssn no.
and also some extra info has to be stored then definitely Map would be the answer
2.any question with storage req. in order or in sequence
or in sequential order->List
(now here instead List you could have a class which implements List as an answer so you should know which class implements
which interfaces)
3.This could be handy to you to answer questions in exam:
(if you get a question say, which class rejects duplicates
and Set and HashSet are among options and told to select
one - HashSet is the answer because Set is not a class
so know which are interfaces and which are classes)
interface->implementing classes
Set->HashSet(HashSet null allowed)
SortedSet->TreeSet
List->ArrayList,LinkedList,Vector(all allow null)
Map->HashMap,HashTable(HashMap allows null,Hashtable does not)
SortedMap->TreeMap
(if you have not much time for collections,do only 1,2,3 but
if you have sufficient time and don't want to take any chances, do following points as well)
4.To be on safer side,
i did methods in Collection and Map(but i did not get any
question this,so if you want to really score read this point4 else you can skip this).
On the same page after partition, i wrote methods in Collection on 1 side and in Map on other,as follows(i am not writing details of methods,but if you are doing going to this please write complete methods from api-if any of you wants,i will modify this and make it complete so that you don't have to look here and there for colletions)
Collection | Map
-----------------------------------------------
common methods
size |size
clear|clear
isEmpty|isEmpty
equals|equals
----------------------------------------------
to add
add|put
addAll|putAll
---------------------------------------------
to get/remove
remove|remove
removeAll|get
---------------------------------------------
to check for some element
contains|containsKey
containsAll|containsValue
---------------------------------------------
retainAll|(none such)
iterator|keySet
toArray|entrySet
to Array|values
--------------------------------------------
(all the formatting that i did is not shown so i edited,sorry for the non-readability of above-but i don't know how a table or formatting is done at this site )
5.
some imp.points in this chapter
=>SortedSet and SortedMap have comparator method,so do
TreeSet and TreeMap(since these implement former)
=>SortedSet - all elements inserted must implement Comparable interface or be accepted by a specified Comparator.
=>some methods are optional in Collection so we can get UnsupportedOperationException
if it is not supported.
(e.g trying to add to a read-only collection)
=>a Set can only contain 1 null element.
(when duplicate element is added to a Set no exception only
add method returns false)
(in case of Map:
- if the key already exists it is replaced by
new one and old value is returned)
- if the key does not already exist null is returned
=>add,addAll,remove,removeAll,retainAll return true if the collection was modified
else return false if intended operation did not succed
(e.g. if unmodifiable collection - add will fail)
=>Collection is an interface but Collections is a helping class
(which has static methods to get unmodifiable or synchronized versions of the input parameter.It also has some other helping methods -these are not reqd. in exam)
=>where hashing is involved the implementation(e.g. HashSet) does not guarantee the order of it's elements.e.g. you could add "B","A","E"
output would show say "E","B","A"
but
TreeSet and TreeMap always sorts input elements
so if you add say "C","A","B"
output would always show "A","B","C"
(note TreeMap sorts on keys)
=>also note in Map keys must be unique but values can be duplicated.
key+value=entry in a map
=>Arrays class exists in java.util(don't go in details of this )
just know it has some static methods which help in things like ->
(say a is an array)
Arrays.sort(a);
Arrays.fill(a,intial_value);//all the elements are initialized with initialvalue
Arrays.binarySearch(a,value_to_be_serched);
Arrays.equals(a1,a2);
=>remember Vector and Hashtable are threadsafe
so if you see any question,say an implementation of List which should be thread-safe
definitely Vector is the answer.
Hope it helps,

-----------------------------------------------------------

[This message has been edited by leena rane (edited October 29, 2001).]
[This message has been edited by leena rane (edited November 10, 2001).]

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much Leena...your comments are really helpful...Do hang around...
Shyam

[Anonymous]

Leena...
Try putting your formatted stuff within a code block

[Anonymous]

<font size=2>                                         Collection
                                         {interface}
                                             |
                                             |
                                             |
                              +-----------------------------+      (Null Allowed in all
                              |                             |          the three)
                              |                             |           | ArrayList 
                              |                             |           | 
         HashSet ------>     Set (Only 1 null)            List     <----| Vector(Thread Safe)
       (Null Allowed)     {interface}                {interface}        |
                              |                                         |LinkedList
                              |
         TreeSet ------>  SortedSet ->(all elements inserted must implement  
       (Null Allowed)    {interface}   Comparator interface or be accepted by 
                                       a specified Comparator) 

                            HashMap ------> Map <------ Hashtable (Thread Safe)
                           (Null OK)    {interface}   (Null not Ok)
                                             |
                                             |
                                             |
                        TreeMap ------>   SortedMap  
                                        {interface}
                                                           
</font>

Thanks Leena...
Hope this helps
Shyam

[This message has been edited by Shyamsundar Gururaj (edited November 07, 2001).]

[leena rane]

Originally posted by Vikrama Sanjeeva:
Many SCJP's says that question was wrong then which answer we have to select.Either we select any answer or leave it blank.In which case we will get the marks of these wrong question/s?.And how we know that we have got marks or not?.

This is a very difficult question and i don't think you will get answer for this from anyone.But as i have said it is nearly impossible that u get more than 1/2 such questions.
If you ask for my personal answer,I had started the exam with 1 thing very very very sure in mind that no matter how the question is i am going to answer it to the best(i answered "that" question also after a lot of timepass over what to do)treating every question as correct.This approach will definitely help
e.g. if a code has stmt. like,say
setLayout(BorderLayout);
and then some other code which would produce some output,which is not among the options,please note the code is anyway not going to compile,it should be:
setLayout(new BorderLayout());
so if thinking that the question is wrong,you are going to leave the question unanswered,you are going to be loser
In general if there is an option "does not compile"
take a hard look at the syntax.
Our job is made easy if there are options like :
"does not compile because of line 4/5/so on" - look at that line carefully.
I hope this answers your question

What about the methods of classes.Do we have to remember all the methods of every class.Which is the best book which covers whole I/O of SCJP.?.Frankly speaking....what 1 have to do in I/O & what Not.?

1.know which classes in io are abstract
InputStream,OutputStream,Reader,Writer are all abstract.
If you get any question in which you see(most probably you will surely get 1 such question) that these are instatiated,you know that it is not valid(because abstract classes cannot be instantiated)
2.prepare a chart where you write all imp. class constructors.
know a little more on those constructors,e.g. what happens if
FileOutputStream has true/false in constructor.
an e.g. from sun's epractice questions:
InputStream j = new FileInputStream("Reid.txt");
->"Reid.txt" file is opened for reading.
->it does not create the "Reid.txt" file.
----
(again from Sun)
Given that the "Den.txt" file does not currently exist on the file system and this line of code:
OutputStream o = new FileOutputStream(new File("Den.txt"));
What is the result?
ans en.txt file is created, but not opened.
----
Also do not forget the valid modes for RandomAccessFile
are only "r" and "rw"
(note no "w")
also note it is String - so 'r' or any other varieties are not valid.Such things will be clear after you create a chart of all imp. constructors.

3.Do not memorize explanations for methods which you do not understand(memorizing spoils the whole fun )
e.g what is the difference between mkDirs and mkDir?
ans: mkdirs() method of the File class creates the specified directory, including any nonexistent parent directories.
but
mkdir() method creates the specified directory only
Doesn't it look simple now .I am sure now you will not forget the difference between them now.
4.know that if a input parameter is InputStream, then you can have object of any valid subclasses of InputStream there,
but definitely not (say) a File or RandomAccessFile.
5.I did get a question on a method in 1 of the classes in i/o.
But it was a basic question and simple.There is no need to memorize anything.Prepare notes where you write all imp. methods logically(all related together as shown above for collection-map)

What about UTIL.What i have to do & what not?

I think the answer that i gave to Shyamsunder will answer your question also.(Please feel free to ask if it doesn't )
Regards,
leena.

[Gagan Indus]

Congratsss leena !
very good job
and very cool score
U deserved it
this calls for a treat sure , , ask bartender 4 ur fav drink
i am already having mine
and wow ! such a nice tips , these shld be gr8 help to wuld be scjp's
next plan? or yet to plan?
Good luck for ur future efforts
Best Wishes

------------------
Gagan (/^_^\) SCJP2
Die-hard JavaMonk -- little Java a day , keeps u going .

[Manish Hatwalne]

Congrats again Leena
Great score and best tips I've seen till date. I am bookmarking this thread.
Just one more thing, could you please explain casting w.r.t. classes, as I had requested earlier in this post?
Thanks,
- Manish

[Ashik Uzzaman]

Ooow, our dearess Leena, congrats! What a score!!
And then you also have experienced some misquestions... ...No prob, you achived what u deserved... ...and an excellent feedback, really!
So what's ur next plan?
------------------
Muhammad Ashikuzzaman (Fahim)
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform
--When you learn something, learn it by heart!

[Sudhir Bangera]

Congratulatios Leena ! All the best for your future...
Sudhir - SCJP2

[Marcus Green]

Congratulations leena, well done.
Marcus
------------------

http://www.jchq.net Mock Exams, FAQ,
Tutorial, Links, Book reviews
Java 2 Exam Prep, 2nd Edition by Bill Brogden and Marcus Green
=================================================
JCHQ, Almost as good as JavaRanch
=================================================

[R K Singh]

congratulations!!!
it gives strength to us who are preparing ...

------------------
Regards
Ravish

[Dave Vick]

Originally posted by leena rane:
Dave,
are you hinting at my subject?? ,good joke

It is, isn't it!!
Actually though, I was just pointing out that it seems like some people get their certification then we never hear or see them again. We dont want you to be one of them

------------------
Dave
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform

[leena rane]

Originally posted by Marcus Green:
Congratulations leena, well done.
Marcus

I was going to post a question - "When would i receive my certificate(approx.)"
But now i am not concerned, because i think i have already
received my certificate Marcus Green has congratulated me
Wow!!Thanx Marcus - i am on cloud nine
For all those who are new to java certification arena,he is an icon.I would strongly recommend taking all his 3 exams(at jchq.net), before taking your actual exam.
Also to get confidence for exam(and if you are ready to spend some $),i would recommend jq+/JWhiz(they are worth their cost)
regards leena

[leena rane]

Thanx Sudhir and Ravish,
Thanx Manish for your remarks
I will answer your question as soon as i get time
(i hope you are not giving SCJP in the next 2/3 days)
I will try to cover all that is there for object
conversions and casting for certification so that
you don't have to refer to any book fo this topic
regards,
leena.

[ashok khetan]

congrats Leena!! amazing~~~~ great~~~~ score!!!
sorry! i am a bit late..I knew U are going to hit the bird...Really very nice score....U deserve it!!
congrats again! Keep it up!!
ashok

[Puneet Narang7]

Congrats Leena,
Very Great SCORE.
Many Wsihes for the Future,
Puneet

[leena rane]

Hi Ashok,
It's so nice to hear from you after so long.
No you are not late,
early or late ,your wishes mean a lot to me
must be busy in SCWCD ,right !!All the best
Hit the bird again
Thanx Puneet too
I liked the joke about Jayalalitha
[This message has been edited by leena rane (edited November 01, 2001).]

[Guoqiao Sun]

A late congratulation, leena! Very nice score!
Good luck!
------------------
Guoqiao Sun
Sun Certified Programmer for Java™ 2 Platform
try my mock exam¹²³ at my homepage.

[shrinath r]

Hi Leena,
Congrats. I came here just to congratulate you for the score.
Shrinath Rao

[Anonymous]

Wow leena,
This score is great. I was reading your post as and when it got updated. I couldn't stop myself Congratulating you seeing your fabulous tips. Wow! That is great.
You deserved your high score. All the best for your future endeavors. But don't forget to hang around.
Chandra!

[Muhammad Farooq]

Congrats Leena, I thought your post from Certification forum has been moved here, but instead its a new thrtead.
--Farooq
[This message has been edited by Muhammad Farooq (edited November 02, 2001).]

[leena rane]

Thanx Guoqiao,Shrinath,chandrashekar,Muhammad
for your congrats and wishes

[sonir shah]

Hi Leena.
Can u give me the notes on Inner classes by Khalid Moghul..
PLease its a request.
Thanx sonir

[leena rane]

Sure ,
but it's not actually notes.
That is xerox of that chapter from Mughal's text book.
If you do not have Mughal book,it could be helpful to you
If you have difficulty in understanding object conversions and casting chapter,i could give you my notes.
regards,
leena
(I had planned long back to prepare notes of all chapters for SCJP,and make them available to all ranchers ,but this slowdown......i am forced to concentrate on some other stuff)
[This message has been edited by leena rane (edited November 06, 2001).]

[sonir shah]

Thanx..
Ya the xerox ones will do..atleast it will help me.
So how will u send it to me.
my mail id is : [e-mail]
reply soon

[leena rane]

Sonir,
All the Best in your SCJP preparation.
Please check your mail-box.
regards leena

[Malar Ravi]

Hi Leena,
Its very kind of you to offer help for people who are perparing for certification. I would appreciate if you could forward your notes on "Object conversions and casting chapter" to my email id at [e-mail].
Thanks & Regards,
Malar.

[Neha Sawant]

Hi Leena,
I think it would be very nice if you could post your notes on this site itself so that everyone will have a chance of taking tips from your notes.
Thanx
Neha

[Anonymous]

Hello Leena and Shyamsundar,
Thanks for the tips on Collections Frame work. One small correction. There is no class HashTable.
We have Hashtable.
public class Hashtable
extends Dictionary
implements Map, Cloneable, Serializable
thanks
Chandra!
------------------
Where there is a Will, there is a Way.

[This message has been edited by chandrashekar munukutla (edited November 07, 2001).]