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How to prepare in 2 months for SCJP 2?

 
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Hello JavaRanch People,
I get introduced by my very good friend Sangamaeswaran to this helpful place, where I can find answers quite for all my doubts and question regarding Java Programming. For all your efforts I would like to thank all people, who is keeping this community going on :->
First, I want to talk you about my background, so you can give me a better advise, how I can prepare for SCJP 2.
I did for 4 years apprenticeship as electronicien(where I had Pascal for maybe 100 hours). after my apprenticeship I started as a Network Analyst in SWISSAIR to support LAN, WAN Problems by checking CISCO Devices(Routers, Switches, etc) also nothing programmed during this time, parallel to my job I did Technicien School as "Communication Technician" where I had for 60 hours Java Programming. And that was all.
Now I started in a new Job as Application Developer for a B2B Portal which will go live end of this month after that I m going to take over some tasks to maintain some parts of Application of this portal.
MY QUESTION : I bought the "Java Tutorial" from Mary Campione(The Java Series) and read the book only once in 20 days. But I still feel not enough confident. So I have the goal to get succeed in CERTIFICATION and build up enough knowlodge in two months.
COULD YOU PLEASE GIVE ME SOME ADVISE HOW I CAN DO THIS AND WHAT BOOKS SHOULD I READ ?
THANK IN ADVANCE
Or�un
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tumbleweed
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or�un you need much much more preperation than reading one book and a 60 hour course.
I suggest you have a look JavaRanch Certification Info
Good luck
[This message has been edited by Johannes de Jong (edited October 12, 2001).]
 
Greenhorn
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Orcon,
You cannot pass the exam in 2 months well maybe if you cram or practice something illegal, especially without a java background. I suggest you get a nice book like Khaled Mughal's or if you really want to learn then I suggest yo get Ivor Horton's "Beginning Java 2". After building strong concepts, practice on mocks as much as you can. There are plenty of resources online. Explore the indepthcity of threads and a handfull of api hierarchy is required.
You can check out a study guide here.
Good luck.
------------------
MCP 2000, CCNA , SCJP 2
Webmaster - http://java.ditmas.net
 
Anonymous
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First thanks for quick replies,
I checked the url you gave me Johannes and found out that I didnt
go through the 1. Step "STUDY" well enough because I read only one book and gave myself to read it only 20 days...
so first thing I will do is reading a book again and this book will be Ivor Horton's "Beginning Java 2" for me(sorry for not taking Mughal's book( see comment from Tony Alicea - Sherriff Oct 2000 for that book :
"It is not for beginners that don't know programming already, but instead it is for those (especially C) programmers that prefer that the new programming language be presented in a more formal manner.".
I will go through "Beginning Java 2" and will start doing mock exams to find my weak points and concentrate to eliminate those weakness and finally in 3 months I ll do the SCJP 2.
THANKS AND HAVE FUN!!!
Or�un
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Hi Or�un
Ivor H's Beginning Java 2 is a thorough and comprhensive intro to Java. This comes at a cost... 1200 pp! It can get quite intimidating!
There are other intro texts such as Laura Lemay's Java2 in 21 days which gives a quicker scope of the capabilities of the language - however it does a take broad approach. If you have to learn from the ground up and have the time Ivor's book is pretty good.
Also take a look at the bunk house on this site for other introductory texts as well
all the best Jim
 
Anonymous
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I did today morning the test but....
I got only 45%
I bought Khalid Azim Mughal, Rolf Rasmussen book
and read all chapters, which are belonging to test objectives. And then I did 4 mock exams. mock1 from marcus green and 1 sample test in Mughal's exam and 2 tests of Simon Roberts's book.
Of course, I had several mistakes in that Sample tests but I read the explanation of solutions and I understood them.
but It didnt help me to pass the test!!!
I dont know now what should I make to pass my next attempt?
Please friends, does anybody have some advise?
I m not old in Programming area, I m in this business since 6 months, is it may be because I had less programming experience which make me fail the exam!
thanks all in advance
Or�un
 
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Mughal is an excellent exam prep book, but it will not explain the concepts in enough depth to learn the basics required for code analysis. "Beginning Java 2" contains much more than is required for the exam and I found it, at times, to be a spiral of confusion.
If you already have these two books, try using Mughal as a guide for exam topics (without Applets, Swing, and Javadoc). Then use BJ2 as the resource for the basics on that topic. This should give you a better foundation with which you can "see" the concept behind the mock exam question and be able to recognize it in different forms.
Only then, will you be able to face the SCJP with the confidence necessary to pass. Good Luck.
 
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Whatever mock exams you attempt , mark the questions you answered wrong and then try them out yourself.
If the question inovolves code samples, then you simply have to copy/type up that code and compile and run it. System.out.println() will be your best friend!
If the question did not include code samples but was worded such as 'a static method in a class can not be overridden in a derived class', or "an interface can extend multiple interfaces" you can still create code samples to test it out. You will understand and remember the explanations much better.
You can even try the code examples that are in the book and add println statements in between to help you understand how it works.
You don't need to buy anything for this. Just download and install the JDK and you are on your way. I would recommend staying away from any fancy IDE for this. You will be distracted by learning the IDE. Stick with a basic text editor that you are comfortable with.

Hope this helps
 
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I remember reading somewhere that Sun recommends a person have at least six months of hands-on java programming experience under their belt before they attempt to take the SCJP.

Rob
 
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hi,
i hope that 6 month exp helps me in the exam. 'm taking it on 26th Jan.
i get frustrated with little messy details of bytes and primitive value conversions etc. i like concepts like inheritance and exceptions. i have not done coding for those Collection classes and 've not used streams like PushBack... etc..
sometimes inner classes confuses me so much.
i hope i don mess up.
regards
maulin.
 
Anonymous
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First of all I want to thank all of you for your precious advices and support.
This weekend I had a look on my logfile about my preparation. I started mid november which makes around 2 months. And now I know it was not enough. Beside this I took myself only one week for mock exams and I didnt repeat them. I did all once!
I will definetly make those mocks again and the wrong answers I will study and write down on a document("SCJP2FAILEDRECOVERY.doc"). And I will write more codes.
AND I WILL DO THE EXAM O N L Y AFTER I WONT HAVE NO FAILURES ON ANY MOCKS AND RULES ROUND'UP GAME!!!
Maulin, I wish you and all canditates good luck for the exam. I m sure you will pass SCJP2 with 6 months preparation.
wish you all sunny days
Or�un
 
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Buy JQ+; Read a chapter or two from Mughal, and then solve all of the related section's questions from JQ+ by customizing it (do all of the very easy, easy, tough very tough & real brainer; in that order. Read explanations). You have to keep these studies parallel: don't wait for the last week. You can pass this test within a month.
Gotta put around at least 3 hrs a day.
 
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Hi,
KM is a good book to refer to (I refered the same) as it clarifies all fundamental concepts, plus you need to refer to some more books and websites like Java Tut.(which I think you have mentioned), Thinking in Java is good as well and of course lots of websites(javarance.com,jchq.net, javaprepare.com)
If you are from OOPs background then maybe 1-2 months is good time (I scored 96% with no industrial exp. except for the one I tried for exam in little more than a month or so). If OOPs is something you never done before then you need much more time I guess(oops + 1-2 months).
Bhushan
 
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Im studying for exam too. The result of a little research that i did is that the 2 best book to get ready is the "Java 2 Certification Study Guide, from Simon Roberts" and "Java 2 Exam Cram". I Would like you comment �bout these books. Are they realy enough as a study guide?
Thanks.
 
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