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SCJP 1.4 Passed - My experience

 
Greenhorn
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Hello all,
I just took the SCJP1.4 exam and passed it this morning with 73%.
Apologies for this long post, I hope it helps someone. Most important information are towards the later part of this post.
Here is what I did:
I studied rigorously for three weeks.
I am basically a .Net person( yep!) and was curious about Java.
In order to motivate myself to study java I registered for the exam four weeks ago.
First week--> bought KnB from amazon, goofed around doing nothing...exam was still very far away.
Second week. --> Book arrived. Book was huge, lots of topics to cover...studied each and every word in every chapter and thought I understood the concepts. By the end of this week, I had already forgotten some of the stuff I studied in the beginning. Took the self tests. Spent about 2- 3 hours studying every evening. Completed about 6 chapters.
Third Week--> Completed chap 7, 8, 9 and repeated from the beginning. except this time I made notes of important details in a small book. Result--> better performance. Kept referring to my notes while travelling.
Finished two rounds of the book only three days before the actual test date. I still had not taken any mock exams!! Panic sets in.
I had scheduled my test for a monday so I had the entire weekend to spend on tests.(pat myself on my back)
During the weekend:
Mock Exams :
1. Two exams from KnB ---> Didn't do too well
2. Two Marcus Green's mock test --> got 70% and 72%
3. Read through fives pages of the SCJP certification thread on this site--Javaranch.
4. Took some cattle round up tests
Late night on Sunday I went thorugh Dan Chisolm's tests. ---> got 68%
Mental state : I really hope I pass, although there are not much chances of it. Terrible Head ache.
D-Day:
They say test takers usually underestimate themselves. I was positive about failing. At the end of it all, I thought I had answered only 5 questions correctly. Result --> 73%.
About the Test:
1.Lots of questions on Innerclasses, Garbage collection, Assertions, Threads.
2.Definitely go through Dan's tests and read his explanations. I wish I had done this earlier than the day before the test. The test was most similar to his tests.
3.KnB is the only book I needed.
4.Take Marcus's test --Strangely enough the percentage I got in his tests
was very close to what I got on the real test, although the questions were more like those on Dan's.

Oh by the way I got 100% on five areas :-). Did hopelessly in Threads.
If you have reached this far in the post, congrats you definitely have a chance at passing.
 
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Good job Mallige
thanks for the tips!
Mine is coming up in two days!!!
[ July 28, 2003: Message edited by: Andres Gonzalez ]
 
Mallige Flowers
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Kathy, Bert, Dan , Marcus Thanks a lot guys.
You Rock!
 
Ranch Hand
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Congratulations Mallige.
Best of luck to Andres as well.
Yes they sure do rock.
 
Greenhorn
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Mallige mentioned that the test was similar to Dan's exams. Based on past threads, I thought that Dan's exams were more difficult than the real test. I thought that Kathy's and Bert's book exams were more similar to the real test. Is this correct?
Mansi
 
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Nice shot Mallige
Moving this to the Results forum. Please continue the discussiont there. Thank you
 
author
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Mallige -
Congrats! Great job for such a short study schedule!
Thanks for using our book.
-Bert
 
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I had similar experience to yours. Marcus Green's tests are the best predictor of what your score will be. Many of the other tests are extremely difficult compared to the real thing.
Those of you who are still preparing for SCJP take Marcus' tests last!
Congrats on your certification!
Noel
SCJP, SCWCD
 
Anupam Sinha
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Hi Mansi
Dan's exam are much tougher than the real exam. Marcus's exam score is considered to be somewhat close to the score that you get in the exam.
[ July 30, 2003: Message edited by: Anupam Sinha ]
 
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Congratulation!
And thanks for the experience.
 
With a little knowledge, a cast iron skillet is non-stick and lasts a lifetime.
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