Just got home from the
testing center...
I answered 50 out of 61 questions correctly for 81%. Here's the section analysis:
Declarations and Access Control 62%
Flow Control, Assertions, and Exception Handling 66%
Garbage Collection 66%
Language Fundamentals 70%
Operators and Assignments 100%
Overloading, Overriding, Runtime Type and Object Orientation 100%
Threads 100%
Fundamental Classes in the java.lang package 83%
The Collections Framework 100%
Now, I was shooting for 52%, and was hoping for about 70%, so I can't complain. I actually felt that I might have gotten more correct, as the questions didn't seem as difficult as the prep questions I've done. I also had enough time to go through the questions twice, so I did. I didn't sleep well at all last night, so that might have played a part in missing some things I might have otherwise caught.
I spent a good deal of time on exception handling, threads, inner classes (with much time spent with anonymous inner classes, which I don't remember seeing on my exam...which doesn't mean they weren't there...I've skipped right over them a few times in practice), and especially the collections framework, as I felt those were my weakest areas. I was thankful for the collections questions I got,as I
knew that I knew them. I'm miffed at my Garbage Collection score, but happy with the Threads score. All in all, I'm exceptionally pleased...though looking back, I have no idea what I got incorrect.
I doubt I would have done so well without this place, you folks are great.
How I studied: I used the Sierra/Bates book almost exclusively. I read through the entire book once, then went through each chapter and took notes in a notebook.
Then I made out 3x5 "flashcards" out of just about everything in the chapter. I retained a lot of information just by writing everthing out by hand twice. I have other
java books, so if ever something wasn't clear I'd turn to them as backup. I did the Rules Roundup about eleventy billion times, at first I was doing horribly, but by the end I would rarely miss a question. Once I "finished" the book, I went to work with the flashcards. I'd take a handful of them at a time, and go through, placing a pile off to the side of the ones I knew without question. I kept cycling through them in this way until I knew them all. I also made sub-piles of flashcards from topics I knew I had trouble with. By shuffling the
cards together randomly in stead of keeping them in sections (by chapter, etc), it really forced me to remember java as a whole, instead of just one part of it at a time. I also went back to the book to read some chapters every so often.
Anyway, I've passed it...and I truly want to thank everyone here.
Now I'm going to go take a nap.
