An Ordeal, An Anti-climax & 93%

[Shiny]

I bought RHE on 20/May/2000 & cleared SCJP2 on 22/June/2000 with 93%. I have FORTRAN, C, OOP, & C++ background. So I was confident I would clear, BUT, the additional 10 - 12% came in due to this ranch. This ranch helped me in clearing a lot of my fundas about Java as a language.
It was an ordeal because I had to travel for SIX hours in a train with ambient temperature soaring at 44-45 deg C. And had to wait for two hours to get a slot since there were fewer PCs! And to top it all, half an hour into the exam, we lost power (& we were shocked to know there was no UPS for these PCs!!). And had to wait for 45 minutes to get back the power.....& the travel back again....
An anti-climax because the questions were simple & at one point in time I started thinking if it was really worth it to put in four weeks (four hours a day), for clearing this exam......but on an after-thought I think its easy to PASS but to get those additional marks, & importantly clearing ones fundas, one needs good exposure.
At the same time I want to share some of my thoughts:
1. One doesn't have to write code in Java (commercial or otherwise) to clear SCJP.
2. You don't have to know ALL the fundamentals of SCJP Objectives to clear SCJP exam. Give as many mocks as possible.
3. Questions are not as clear as we think they will be. I read in RHE that they have consulted English Language experts to mitigate any ambiguity in the sentences used in the questions. But I really doubt if these experts were real. I had to fend off atleast EIGHT to TEN sentences which were very ambiguous in the given context.
4. I had to handle atleast ONE question that was a cheeky tricky one which I shall discuss with the moderators. So do READ the questions CAREFULLY.
Will any moderator please give me his/her mail address.
THANKS TO ALL YOU RANCHERS SPECIALLY THE BIG ONES (Ajith, Maha, Jim, Tony, Paul, Madhav, Herbert,........) for seeing me through.
I would also like to know what should be my forward path from here. I am past becoming a Developer now. So I plan for SCJA skipping SCJD. Does it sound too weird....any thoughts from BIG ONES?
thanks & regards
-Shiny

[paul wheaton]

I think the next step is getting a Java Job.
The Architect exam is good after you have more experience.

[Sandra Marti]

Shiny,
Congratulations! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[Herbert Maosa]

Congratulations Shiny !
Herbert

[Surya B]

Hi shiny,
Congratulations, and all the best for your future endeavors.
Surya

[Suma Narayan]

Congratulations!!! shiny. That's great score.
Best Wishes.
Suma

[javamiller]

Could someone tell me what RHE is?
I am new at this forum.

[Shiny]

Thank you all for your responses.
Paul:
Java job.....sounds interesting...I don't know if I would like to do coding/developing in Java (after FORTRAN, C & C++) again. I hear SCEA is shelved for the time being....so starting on EJB, JSP, Servlets, RMI, JDBC....simultaneously on Sun Solaris System Admin.....so let's see how things work out....
Javamiller:
RHE stands for a book named "The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide" by Simon Roberts, Philip Heller, Michael Ernest.
regards
--Shiny

[Mohan Ramanna]

congrats for the score i am new to this forum help me
by sending some suggestions.
what is RHE evry one speaks about that book can i have a clear
idea about it?

[Paul Smiley]

You can send email to any moderator by clicking on the mail icon above his/her post.
I didn't think the exam was ambiguous at all, at least the one I took. Is English your native language? Most people believe that the exam is MUCH less ambiguous than available mocks. How do you feel about that?

[Adrian Ferreira]

Congratulation Shiny!
RHE means:
The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide
by Simon Roberts, Philip Heller, Michael Ernest
Many people, included me, asked this same question before. I would suggest a glossary or FAQ to JavaRanch Sallon, if it doesn�t exist yet. Also, I could help witn the work. What others think about this?

[Shiny]

Paul:
Thanks for the info, about the mail.
You are correct OR I should say, everyone is correct in saying that the real exam is LESS ambiguous THAN available MOCKS. That's it, but, it's still AMBIGUOUS in an absolute sense. English is NOT my native language, but all said & done I lost atleast THREE questions due to this semantic ambiguity. May be I think & see too much - 'reading between the lines'..uh!
regards
--Shiny

[Madhav Lakkapragada]

Congrats, shiny.
All the best for your future endavours.
Regds.
- satya