Passed with 96% (57/59) - One "bad" question!

[Peter Bugla]

Hi,
I just passed the Test with 96% (57/59).
The overall test was not very difficult as far as I am concerned. I had enough time to go through all questions a second time, which was good, because I was able to spot and correct two mistakes.
The JQ+ questions, that I've seen discussed in the Certification Study board are a lot harder, I think, but that's fine, because the ability to solve these gives you a deeper understanding (of the meening of liff ) and more overall confidence in answering all these questions.
I took a lot of time since mid January to prepare for the Test, not to mention my 5 years of Java programming experience.
Books:
Buy "Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide"
from Roberts, Heller, Ernest (often referred to as "rhe" here). You don't need another book.
Be sure to go to Sybex to check the errata list for it!
Read everything (besides Developer Exam related pages) and do every Test.
I also bought "Exam Cram Java 2" from Bill Brogden
and I wouldn't do it again, because a) it's still full of errors and b) his writing/language is not very precise and precision is the main non-technical point in this test. If there is a word in the question, it's there for a purpose!
RHE is excellent concerning this point.
Mock exams:
Do every mock exam you can get your hands on and make sure you understood why the correct answers are correct. If you consider buying one, go ahead,
but it's not a necessity
Java Ranch:
Have a look at the discussions in the Programmer Certification Study section: learn and participate (if you can answer questions).
If there are more complex things you don't fully understand you might find the solution here.
---
Now for the interesting part :
I had one Question, that was definitely missing
a correct answer.
I just tried it out (programming):
None of the 6 possible answers is right,
and I had to check 2!
I added a comment for the question, but I don't know, where this goes to and if it is read by anyone at all.
Does someone has an e-mail address of Simon Roberts or some other guy from SUN involved in the
test?

[Nikki Nguyen]

Dear Peter Bugla,
Congratulation on your exam. I have one question for you: There is question with multiple answers. Do they give you a hint how many answer should be?
Thanks,
Nikki

[Holmes Wong]

Wow, congrats:
I have 2 years of programming experience in Java
before, I am not at work now.How much time do you think I need to prepare this test? It seems that lots of Java programmers got fired here. I am wondering if this will be useful.

[Valentin Crettaz]

Excellent job Peter
I hope you'll stay around and answer to some questions

[Mark Nolan]

Congratulations that was an excellent score !!
Mark

[Rob Ross]

Good job Peter!
Sorry about your bad test question...but I have to wonder, if people can score 100% on this test, there has to be a correct answer, even if what they indicate is correct is really wrong. Then I guess it comes down to luck...guessing which of the wrong answers they are counting as correct.

[Peter Bugla]

Originally posted by Nikki Nguyen:
Congratulation on your exam. I have one question for you: There is question with multiple answers. Do they give you a hint how many answer should be?

Thanks, Nikki.
As it is mentioned at a lot of related websites and books:
Whenever you get a question with more than one answer to check, you get told how many checkboxes to check (e.g. "(check 2)") in the current version of the test, which makes it a lot easier, of course.

[Peter Bugla]

Originally posted by Valentin Crettaz:
Excellent job Peter
I hope you'll stay around and answer to some questions

Thanks Valentin,
not only for the congratulations, but also for your excellent answers! You seem to sleep with the Java Language Specification under your pillow.

[Peter Bugla]

Originally posted by Rob Ross:
there has to be a correct answer, even if what they indicate is correct is really wrong.

Well, I just can tell you I tried out every mentioned answer (and a few more) in a small program about 20 minutes after I took the test (the test center is quite close to my office)
and there is no really correct answer.
It may be, of course, that the guy who wrote this question actually said, e.g. 1. and 4. is the correct answer.
Anyway ... another possibility for some people scoring 100% might be that the questions are not always the same, but taken from a pool like in many of the mock exams. I didn't read anywhere about this point, so I can't tell if it's always the same 59 questions or 59 out of let's say 1000.
(If I would have written the test I would have done the latter, to avoid some guys passing around the real questions and answers. Threats of punishment in case of NDA breaking is "nice", but I don't think it is able to keep a small amount of fixed information secret for a long time. But that's, of course, just my personal point of view.)

[Valentin Crettaz]

Originally posted by Peter Bugla:

Thanks Valentin,
not only for the congratulations, but also for your excellent answers! You seem to sleep with the Java Language Specification under your pillow.

Yeah... I guess so... The JLS is my Bible or Quran or whatever the hell people call it
I still hope you'll stay around for some virtual beers

[Anup Batra]

Great score Peter !!
Congrats
Anup Batra

[Ghulam Rashid]

Congrats Peter

[Peter Bugla]

Originally posted by Valentin Crettaz:

I still hope you'll stay around for some virtual beers.

Sure. A Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster would be nice.

Nice smilie.

[Valentin Crettaz]

A Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster would be nice.

I see you have done some hitchhiking, gooooood
Which one do you want? The Terran version?
[ February 21, 2002: Message edited by: Valentin Crettaz ]

[Dan Lastoria]

I seem to remember a question where I thought there was no possible answer. However it was because you had to scroll down to see the answer. The GUI was confusing on the piece of crap PC they had at the test center.
Maybe this was the case here too?

[Rashid Ali]

Congrats Peter for the great score you made.
Now the experience pays you with your hard study.
Rashid

[Erik Dark]

First of all congrats.
In another topic, here, I carefully mentioned I heard of not answerable questions before...then maybe they do exist in their question-pool and it's just bad luck to get one!
Erik Dark

[Bob E. Lee]

nice score! Now you finish with this task what are you going to do next?!
visit Disney world!!
Bob

[Peter Bugla]

Originally posted by Valentin Crettaz:
Which one do you want? The Terran version?

Well, I don't think I still qualify for "mostly harmless" with 96% , so I think it needs to be a bit harder than the Terran version.

[Peter Bugla]

Originally posted by Dan Lastoria:
... scroll down to see the answer. ... piece of crap PC.
Maybe this was the case here too?

Nope. No more answers. Nice try.
I think the monitor was 17" or sth. like that. The interface is not that great. The exhibit window for longer source code is a bit annoying,
because you need a small amount of time to arrange yourself with the windows, but it's not too bad.
(Tip to everyone: If you haven't taken this test before, you might want to spend ~10 min on the small trial test they will offer you to learn how to deal with the GUI.)

[Peter Bugla]

Originally posted by Bob Tai:
Now you finish with this task what are you going to do next?!
visit Disney world!!

Sure, but first I will take a walk on the moon
(some small steps for me ).
Well...at some time in the future I'd like to take the Developer Test, but I don't know, when I will start this.