I passed the
SCJP 1.4 today with 80%. I studied 10 weeks 10-15 hours/week but never more than 2 hours at a time. I had no previous OOP programming experience. I am 51 years old. Has anyone older passed the exam? (Just call me �Grampa Rock�)
I have the following tips to pass on:
The
Java Ranch Programmer Certification Study FAQ link is an excellent reference site.
I used Velmurugan's notes at:
http://www.geocities.com/velmurugan_p/notes.html Veena�s notes
http://www.geocities.com/korayguclu/docs/VeenaNotes_inform.htm Ashraf Fouad's concentrated guide to SCJP at:
http://www.geocities.com/valoxo/scjp2 I used
http://www.geocities.com/technofundo/tech/scjp/scjp1_4.html to study the areas of JAVA 1.4 that weren�t covered adequately in my books.
Dan Chisholm�s tests
http://www.danchisholm.net/ are an absolute MUST.
Use them as a guide to learning JAVA fundamental�s � just as Dan suggests.
They would be an excellent companion to any to any of the many recommend books. (I used RHE Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide and The Complete Reference Java 2 by Herbert Schildt.)
Do not be discouraged if you score poorly on Dan�s exams. I never did better the 50%, but I printed out Dan�s questions and studied his answers and learned a great deal from them.
You only need 51% to pass the exam so learn the fundamentals.
Develop your own checklist of things to look for on mock exam questions:
1)Top level Class cannot be private
2)Local variables referenced out of scope
3)Scope of Static Methods and Variables
4)All keywords start with small letters and none are plural
5)Learn the methods of the Math Class and Wrappers
6)Learn the basics on collections (like which implement Map and Collection ect.)
Dan�s Exams are on excellent guide to the above, but stick to the basics and don�t get discouraged if you can�t remember everything � unless you have to score 90% or above to be happy. 80% was plenty good enough for me.
Marcus Green�s Exams
http://www.jchq.net/ are excellent for simulating
test conditions. (Dan�s are not. Take your time studying his material.)
Before using any mock exam check to see that the quality of the answers to the questions is good (ie clear explanations and references). There are enough exams out there with good explanations and references that it is not worth bothering with mock exams that don�t have them.
Good Luck!
