Hi guys,
Last saturday morning I appeared at a prometric center to write my
SCJP 5 exam.
Unfortunately, I was unable to pass the exam scoring 100% as many of you have been expected.
But honestly, I don't care about that just because
I'm still very happy because I've eaten the SCJP5 exam scoring 91%. 
Just for your information, the exam had many questions about classpath, maybe 10 questions, and of course, I've eaten all of them.
A big surprise to me was my low score on Concurrency, 75%.
So, don't underestimate such topics. Even though I got good scores on Concurrency when writing mock exams, I've really felt disappointed with my Concurrency score on the real SCJP exam.
The below table shows a summary of my score over all exam objectives :
-----------------------------------------------------------
Declarations, Initialization and Scoping ............. 100%
Flow control ......................................... 90%
API Contents ......................................... 90%
Concurrency ......................................... 75%
OO Concepts ......................................... 100%
Collections/Generics ................................. 80%
Fundamentals ......................................... 100%
Average Score : 91% -----------------------------------------------------------
For those guys who are asking themselves whether or not is possible to get prepared for the exam by your own, let me expose a few comments about my study journey :
I'm really new to
Java and I have no previous Java experience. My only background was as C++, Delphi and Visual Basic programmer.
I've started to study since last January 18th, by myself, at home, with no teacher, 4 hours a day, 6 days a week, always after my business days and sometimes on sundays.
I spend the first two months by reading the whole
K&B's SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 5 Study Guide (Exam 310-055) book, which is really focused on the SCJP5 exam. No other books needed, this book was the only stuff I used as reference for my preparation.
After that, I spent my last month by practicing A LOT OF mock exam questions and snipped java codes.
As I found only one
GOOOD FREE mock exam which was created by the great Java guru
Marcus Green, I decided to purchase two commercial ones :
Whizlabs SCJP 5.0 Exam Simulator and
Sun ePractice exam. For sure I would not have passed the SCJP5 exam without these three valuable mock exams. For sure I treasure each time spend on
Marcus Green mock exam and I also treasure each cent I paid for the last two commercial ones.
Studying by myself was a great experience for me, specially because I also have improved my english skills.
After this hard journey, I realized that the key point in order to get certified is to use the correct and focused stuff for that. So, my simple suggestion is that
you should focus your studies in only one book and practice a lot of mock exams. As much as you can.
I also think that you have to have discipline, determination and always look ahead aiming your objectives.
I confess you that during my self study journey, I missed some incentive a few times and become overwhelmed but I've always looked ahead and kept moving on without discourage.
So please, don't get discouraged if you get low scores on K&B SCJP5 Master exams.
Just for your information, I personally got 65% on Master Exam #1 and 70% on Master Exam #2. Such Master Exam questions are tougher than real one. My other suggestion is that you should spend at least 15 minutes a day on JavaRanch. I personally have increased my Java skills for the exam after join to JavaRanch.
Once this forum is really focused on the exam, you will get tips about what to study and what do not. Also believe : I've never waited more than 5 hours to get my doubts solved. That's a good idea spend some minutes on JavaRanch.
Finally, I would like to thank all JavaRanch members for their valuable support and all JavaRanch moderators, specially to Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates for such wonderful book.
Bert, do you remember my email where I suggested you to release a Java course on DVD ? Think about it.
Thank you SOOOOOOO much guys for everything and I hope to see many cases of success here as always.
Best Regards,
Edisandro - (Greetings from Brazil).
[ April 23, 2006: Message edited by: Edisandro Bessa ]
