I think those whizlab Exam Simulators...

[Ernest Lee]

are rip off...

they are expensive and yet they made the exam easier to pass...

just spend a 100 bucks and u can get a cert with very little study...

they are hurting the value of the Java certs seriously..

and the price is just non-sense...

but i think they are making lots of money by hurting the value of the cert.. how ironic..

[Anthony Watson]

When I bought the Whizlabs simulator for SCJP in 2002, it was 40 bucks. Now, their prices have skyrocketed while their quality remains the same. I've found much cheaper simulators to be just as good as Whizlabs, such as Enthuware's EJB Plus. If the practice exam in a certification study book are good enough, like they are in Head First EJB, you don't need any exam simulator.

[Valentin Crettaz]

they are hurting the value of the Java certs seriously
How is that?

Nobody forces you to buy their products. As Anthony said, there are other mock exams and books and stuff out there that you can use to study for the exam.

I don't want to get too political here, but I think the market dictates how vendors should behave and in turn vendors also influence the way the market evolves. It's kind of like a symbiosys. If Whizlabs is still around it means they provide value to their customers and that the customers recognize this fact and buy their products, and this is what matters. The fact that their prices are too high is completely relative to your personal situation. If you don't like Whizlabs, don't buy their products. You wouldn't rant about Whizlabs if you hadn't recognized the added-value they provide because you would implicitely not be interested in their products at all. The fact that you raise this issue proves the contrary.

Believe me, building high-quality material for exam simulators is no pic-nic and not straightforward at all. It's a long and tiring process. In my opinion, quality has its price.
[ August 13, 2004: Message edited by: Valentin Crettaz ]