another 88%, passed one hour ago

[fan mo]

Hi, guys, with the help of people in this forum, I passed
comfortablly this morning!

I am a student whose major is not computer science but have
taken 2 courses in OOP.
2 months ago, I began the preparation. 3 weeks ago, began
serious preparation because I felt bad when I took the first
mock.
The test is easier compared to ANY mock. Most ( over 90% )
of questions are very familiar to me, in format or completely.
So DO The MOCK is MUST! If you feel comfortable with mocks
which in javaranch's mock link, you surely WILL pass the exam!
I believe only several quesitons which I am not familiar with.
But several mock in javaranch is not the type of SCJP. Focus
on the mock people often mentioned here can save your time.
The left question are what I am not familar: I want to mention
socket, mediatracker although I have read the JDK last night.
But they are only related, not the main forcus in test.
Don't panic if you feel bad in mock exams. I have neven got over
80% in all those mocks. In marcus #1, which was my first mock,
I got only 50%. Even in marcus#3 which I took 2 days ago, I still
can't get 80%. So feel confident with yourself!
Here are some of my experiences:
1. use the sofeware from http://www.freejava.co.uk/
RealJ ( also called FreeJava ) is a about 700 K good IDE
for simple project ( quite enough for SCJP2 ). It combined with
JDK. very good for practice.
2. A programmer'guide to Java certification by Khalid.
Disadvatage of the above book is it cover too much detail,
which is good for your java career, but not necesary for SCJP2.
Another disadvantage is there're many typo. But anyway, I strongly recommend above book. Tony's comment on Amazon's
comment made me decide to buy it. This's really the best book
IMO.
Exam cram ( I will not recommend this book, just so so )
I think this is not a must book at all.

OK, wish other future good luck!

[Anonymous]

Congrats.
All the best for your future endavours.
Thanks for the link on freejava...
Regds
- satya

[Anand Iyer]

Hi,
Is freejava download a safe download?
Reg,
Anand

[Paul Smiley]

I DO have to disagree with you on something. Exam Cram is an awesome book! It may not have met your needs as one coming from a non Java background, but for me it was indispensible! If you read the intro to the book, it is not intended for those new to Java (he has another book for that), but rather for those with Java experience who are near ready to taking the exam (thus the title "Exam Cram").

[fan mo]

Hi, Anand, I am not sure what do you mean by saying"
safe download".
So far so good, I like it. I knew its name from FocusJava
and http://www.download.com/ It's not the "Pick" but the
"most popular": near 20,000 download since 04/17/2000 (search
the "freejava" in above link by yourself. CNET is one of the best
free software cool link).
I was looking for absolutely free java IDE
before I studied the SCJP2. It's not convenient to use the
wordpad+jdk1.2.2+MSDOS. The few completely free java IDE
includes: Forte, Java workshop from Sun, RealJ(Free Java),
and several others.
I studied java with my PC, which has 64M memory, WIN98. Forte and java workshop run too slow on my machine. FreeJava is free if used for non-commercial uses. So as far as I know free java is the best free java IDE. Maybe JBuider, Kawa, and others are cool. But there're only demo version and have 30 days limit.
And they need over 10M, some are 70M space.
good luck

[fan mo]

thanks satya. best wish for you,too.
And Paul, I think maybe you are right. We come from different
backgroud. The Exam Cram is a good book. But for me, which
need some basic understanding and detail explanation of general
java, I prefer the Khalid's book. If I only have on SCJP book,
exam cram can't, to be frank, make me clear all the confusing
thing in Java. It's just my personal opinion. You know I am
a new to java.
I forgot to mention one thing. In the real exam,
one of the difficult question has been discussed in this forum,
I remember Maha made detail explanation. But the pity is
I didn't pay much attention on that discussion. Other questions
, I mean the similar field, have been discussed in this forum too. So if you have enough time, read the threads in this forum will be sure a plus, especilly those moderators'. eg.
maha and ajith's, and tony and jim's several months ago.
But my suggestion is to put the mocks in the first place. Some
of them are very very helpful for preparation of SCJP2.
Make fully use of search is very useful. Before post any uestion, search in the previous posts first. Many of them have
been discussed here, especially those difficult questions in
mocks.

good luck to every body, and thanks again for javaranch,
this forum, and moderators. This is really a good place to
communicate. To support this forum, I try to click the advertise bar many times these days.

[Mehul Desai]

Congrats and Thanks for your detailed explanation.I am also new to this JAVA WORLD and trying to make my way ahead. Your explantion about link and exam study guide was very useful.
One more question: which is the best place to practice some examples, I am going to download RealJ from the site you mentioned.
All the best for all your future endeavors.

Originally posted by fan mo:
Hi, guys, with the help of people in this forum, I passed
comfortablly this morning!

I am a student whose major is not computer science but have
taken 2 courses in OOP.
2 months ago, I began the preparation. 3 weeks ago, began
serious preparation because I felt bad when I took the first
mock.
The test is easier compared to ANY mock. Most ( over 90% )
of questions are very familiar to me, in format or completely.
So DO The MOCK is MUST! If you feel comfortable with mocks
which in javaranch's mock link, you surely WILL pass the exam!
I believe only several quesitons which I am not familiar with.
But several mock in javaranch is not the type of SCJP. Focus
on the mock people often mentioned here can save your time.
The left question are what I am not familar: I want to mention
socket, mediatracker although I have read the JDK last night.
But they are only related, not the main forcus in test.
Don't panic if you feel bad in mock exams. I have neven got over
80% in all those mocks. In marcus #1, which was my first mock,
I got only 50%. Even in marcus#3 which I took 2 days ago, I still
can't get 80%. So feel confident with yourself!
Here are some of my experiences:
1. use the sofeware from http://www.freejava.co.uk/
RealJ ( also called FreeJava ) is a about 700 K good IDE
for simple project ( quite enough for SCJP2 ). It combined with
JDK. very good for practice.
2. A programmer'guide to Java certification by Khalid.
Disadvatage of the above book is it cover too much detail,
which is good for your java career, but not necesary for SCJP2.
Another disadvantage is there're many typo. But anyway, I strongly recommend above book. Tony's comment on Amazon's
comment made me decide to buy it. This's really the best book
IMO.
Exam cram ( I will not recommend this book, just so so )
I think this is not a must book at all.

OK, wish other future good luck!

[Anand Iyer]

Thanks for the info fan mo. I am usually a bit cautious when
downloading any .exe.. I will download it now and try it..
Regards
Anand

[cowboy55]

Congrats! and thanks for the info.
Question to everyone(about the books):
I've looked over at the Jave 2 certification guide by roberts heller. Are there any other books that you feel is a MUST-read for the SCJP2 exam??
please reply
regards

[fan mo]

thanks mehul, anand, cowboy.
mehul, I am not sure what the exact question of yours.
I can only tell my experience. I tried running the examples
from books and mocks. And whenever I want to confirm sth,
I will write several lines of code. eg.,if it's possible for
a class has protected modifier, if it's possible to override
a static method, sth like that.
And this cowboy, I also recommend the excellent
Java Language specification
I didn't read other SCJP books so it's hard to which say one is "must". Exam Cram maybe is a very good supplementary book.
But to me, only having exam cram is not enough. Most answers of my questions were found in Khalid's book. If I can't find answers from it then I check the Java Language Specification. You don't have to read too many books. One or two is enough, I think. Check the amazon. You may get the idea.
Different people have different opinions. I am not a professional. You can also listen to others's opinions
. If you search the "%", you will get lots of tips in this forum.
Good luck, I believe you will become SCJPs soon after good
preparation.