Hi everybody,
Today I cleared
SCJP with 85%..that's a 52 out of 61. Hmm..not a very good score...but I should be satisfied with it for the one month of effort I've put in.
I thought of sharing with you all my experiences today.
I was expecting a lot about the
testing centers. But I'm shocked to see a 14" monitor there accompained by a horrible noisy CPU. Also, I did not get any Id from the prometric guys when I registered for the exam and there, on the screen, it was the first thing I was asked for. I had to wait for the center administrator to find a way. Thank God! I started the exam at 12:00 (late by half an hour) and spent more time on every question so that I don't need to revisit any. I finished the exam in less than 80 minutes. And, I used another 30 minutes for revising the exam. So, I suggest all not to worry about time management. Time shouldn't affect you, I believe.
Another surprising point that surely has got one of my answers wrong is a typographic mistake in the exam. I can't reproduce the question but I would like to say something about it. It was a question involving multiple loops with a println statement at the end. There was missing a '}'. That was really frustrating since our friend 'the code doesn't compile' was one of the answers. I thought a lot about it and unwillingly selected that answer. I'm sure it's definitely a typo because it's not a complete code, just a snippet. So, I warn you..be careful about such typos. For some questions (of course, including the one I talked about just now) the indentation was not good. Maybe, it's a strategy. As a whole, it should be very easy to clear the exam. But if you want to get a great score spend some more time practicing more mock exams.
I used Khalid Mughal for my preparation. It's a great book and I like it very much.
Coming to the practice exams: I would definitely suggest JQ+ from Enthuware and J@Whiz. Both give you enough confidence to get a nice score. And, other exams you know well: Marcus Green's practice exams on Examulator.com and Dan's exams. I wish I had more time to practice all exams of Dan. It's a real good way to master the language. Don't miss it if you have time.
Finally, I would like to thank all the javaranch guys, authors, Dan, Marcus Green and the JDiscuss.com guys who gave me the Beta of JQ+ simulator.
Good luck to all the SCJP aspirants.
Thanks,
Chaitanya Vakkalanka.
[ February 03, 2003: Message edited by: Chaitanya Vakkalanka ]