Practice Questions and Quizs....

[Anonymous]

Over the past days days I have been taking several practice questions and quizs
I am finding the tests pretty difficult(except Marcus I got around 78)..e.g, a lot of the questions, probably 50 % of them in Abhilash's Quiz are just too difficult for me......
I feel these questions test not only your deep knowledge of a variety of concepts, but also the fact that you have tried each and every permutation and combination of some paricular topics under the sun......
it is highly recommended to do the R/H/E... That I have done...and can now do probably all of them, maybe because I have done them a couple of times....same with Exam Cram...
if the actual exam is anywhere close to the Abhilash's Quiz questions....then I am in deep deep trouble....please help !!!
Is there a chance that I will see a lot of similar questions(also as on JavaRanch Mock List) on the Exam....Only then I would say it is worth doing all these practice....
if not then I might as well take the fattest JAVA book in the market and do the concepts.....rather than mocks.....
Please reply soon

[Fred Abbot]

you are definatly right you have to read the books first
the purpose of the mock exams are just to show you the type of questions posed and to look out for trick questions,multiple answers and in general to see if your ready to take the real thing

[William Brogden]

My advice is - in addition to reading the books and doing the quizes, WRITE LOTS OF CODE!
If there is a point you seem shaky on - write some examples!
Nothing like figuring out what those compiler or runtime error messages really mean to burn the concepts into your brain!
It always annoys me to see a post "will this work?" when in the same amount of time you could write a test case, compile and run it. Besides, you might even write something useful later.

[Anonymous]

Well, to tell you frankly I had expected replies... saying that some of them(quizs and mocks) are tough and cant generally be seen on the test....but I guess thats not the case right?
However I would once again like to ask the same question.....the answer to which will be really helpful in planning the way I study and the time I devote....that is...DO YOU GET TO SEE SIMILAR QUESTIONS IN THE REAL EXAM AS THE MOCK EXAMS(on the java ranch mocklist)?
let me explain using a simple example...I thought I knew well how the arrays could be declared....unitl I saw this...
q)Is this declaration correct....
JDummy []a[] = {(1,2,3) , (1,2,3)};
If I wouldnt have seen this I would really not know which concept to use to determine this....so the exams are helping me discover new things rather than test the knowledge I currently have..,,
which in other words would mean that I am not prepared....
So if someone can please suggest me what am I supposed to do in a case like this.......

[Fred Abbot]

well in that case i would suggest picking up a book and start reading dont bother with the mock exams untill you know the concepts well as the exams will just confuse you and you wont know why your getting the questions wrong in general the mock exams are harder then the real thing did you try rules roundup its a fairly simple test on fundamentals no long trick questions give it a shot
good luck

[Paul Smiley]

I second what Frank said. Forget the mocks and go through a book or Marcus' tutorial. At least read through it once (totally). Then take a mock or two and see what areas you need to work on. Just starting with a bunch of mocks without the books will be very frustrating and may discourage you from pursuing the certification any further.

[maha anna]

JDummy,
I also agree. I was also in your situation like when we have to start taking the exam like that. Sometimes we learn a lot from making mistakes from Mock and when trying to find the reason for it. I think in the process of preparation we are slowly moulding ourselves for the final exam. But reading books and strong in fundamentals like overloading/class concepts etc are important. What I did was I was afraid of seeing myself with a low % in mocks. So I DID NOT take them before itself. I participated here . By reading the messages here and helping others also we learn a lot. After you feel youself you can takle qstns from mock you start taking the exams. I am sure even then we will do some mistakes and for the first attempt of each mock we WILL learn something new. In my experience AFTER FINISHING the Exam also we learn each and every day. What I did was I just sneaked into ONLY ONE exam at first a STANDARD and EASY one . I think it was John Hunt's at after finishing 1 rounf of reading the books. Then I knew where I stood. Then I gave a long gap before taking mocks again. In the gap I improved my confidence reading tutorials/participating /reading discussons here and in Marcus site and I knew what people are talking about. Then when I felt its time to take the mocks, I started them I think in the last 1 month before I gave the SCJP exam. When I started taking mocks I didn't take the authors's answers for granted if Maha's answer was wrong. I verified here with others as well as by referring various materails. This is how Maha's story goes..
regds
maha anna

[paul wheaton]

As for the code example you gave, I have to go with William Brogden's suggestion: Shove it through the compiler and see what happens!

[Anonymous]

jdummy:
While it may be true that the cert exam may not be
so difficult, try to think of these difficult qstns
as if you are a java learner (I am one). I mean we
wouldn't want to restrict our knowledge to just that
in the cert exam right?
So see the brighter side also, sure it may cause us to
be deviated from our goal in the short run, but in the
long run it helps.
I, however, do agree with you that some of the mock
exams are indeed tough.
Regds.
- satya