Advice on when to take the Exam

[Michael Morris]

I need the valued advice of all you ranchers. On the mock exam here at JavaRanch, I rarely miss more than one question, but on JWebPlus I'm all over the place, scoring in the high 80s at times and in the mid 60s at others. JWebPlus seems to be particularly wicked at trying to deceive you with the way in which some of the questions are framed. For those of you who have taken the real test and might have used JWebPlus, what is the real exam like? Is it close to the same level of detail on SCJP? The questions on that exam were clear and with no apparent attempt to deceive, like the JWebPlus exams. So what does everyone think, am I ready or should I keep pounding away at my weak areas until I can even score in the 90s on JWebPlus?

[Tina Desai]

Well, are you clear what you expect out of this certification?
- Marks which will fetch you a better job.
- Knowledge that you can use in the work that you do most of the time.
For marks keep sharpening your knief more and more.
But if you think you have achieved more than good knowledge, go for the exam. And finish the test. You cannot keep practising till you are 80!
Tina

[Nicholas Cheung]

Hi Michael,

For those of you who have taken the real test and might have used JWebPlus, what is the real exam like? Is it close to the same level of detail on SCJP? The questions on that exam were clear and with no apparent attempt to deceive, like the JWebPlus exams. So what does everyone think, am I ready or should I keep pounding away at my weak areas until I can even score in the 90s on JWebPlus?

I have used the book SCWCD Exam Study Kit and JWebPlus for my study. It really depends on how many scores you wanna.
For myself, I did each test twice (totally 7). My average score was only 66 marks, however, I scored 89% in the real exam.
Thus, if you feel 80+ % is not a good score, you may need to work with JWebPlus until you scored 90+, I think.
I feel JWebPlus is already very very similar to the real exam of SCWCD 1.3, and thus, that's why you need to crack the exam.
Nick.

[Ken Smart]

in fact i have the same question. when?
once you decided, you have to put in a lot of effort, time, and money. and the result is unpredictable. even you win, there may be different exams coming out tomorrow, are you going to take them all?
but thanks for the input! i have made up my mind. i will stand firm on this. hopefull i will see you in the test center soon!
Good luck!

[Rafael Montano]

Hi,
I took the SCWCD today, and I found several questions (lets say 7) very tricky, however I'm sure that anyone who passes JWebPlus with at least 70% should pass the real test. I have to say the mock exam from www.j2eecertificate.com was very helpful and I got the same score as the real exam (94%).

[Michael Morris]

Thanks for the input everybody. I think I'll spend another couple of weeks polishing the edges: making sure I know the base APIs, the order of the descriptor and taglib tags, the listener interfaces, the filter API, etc. And reread the specs!

[X. Li]

I just took the real EXAM today, and got 83%. My feeling is the real test is very close to Mock Exam in http://www.j2eecertificate.com/ (this is really great). I did all Mock exams from following sites (they are all free):
1. http://www.j2eecertificate.com/
2. http://java.about.com/
3. http://www.javaprepare.com/scwd/quests/questions.html
4. http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=java&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.podar.net%2Fscwcd%2Fstartexam.htm
5. http://www.jdiscuss.com/index.html
6. http://www.jiris.com/resources?show=20020703000052
7. http://www.geocities.com/rahmanjava/jpilotstore.html (you need download, but a lot of mistakes).
As somebody said: when you get several 80s in different Mock Exams, it's time for you to take it.

[rashmi date]

Hi All,
i am planning to appear for the exam on 1st of march,just now i am giving mock exams on j2eecertificate.com.i am done with chapertwise exams.with the mock tests i am scoring around 90%.But here is one test called difficult test in that i scored only 50%.i dont know whether i should go for the real test provided by j2eecertificate.com or i should revise everything & then go for it...plz plz give me some advice.
Rashmi

[X. Li]

Don't worry, I got even worse score for "difficult exam" in that site. The real test is almost the same as the "Final" test (60), and is not difficult.