If you are scoring near passing, then you are too ambitious about passing
this exam. You will lose your mind studying for these if you have aggressive
"deadlines" in your head to achieve certification by a certain date. You need to get rid of the ambition. Take several deep breaths. Crack open the
book and read them slowly and *ENJOYABLY*. You might need another whole month, so calm down. You will know when you are ready.
The goal is not to pass the exam.. There's tens of thousands of monkey programmers out there that still write slash and burn code. The goal is
to understand how the features of the language help you as a developer to
write really good code. If you aim for this goal, then not only will you
pass the exam, but you will be prepared to answer sophisticated questions
on a job interview or screening.
I'd save certification guides for last. They are only good to train you on
how to prepare for treacherous questions, as well as mental exercises to help you review and recite your deep knowledge of language features.
The first lessons you need to discover is patience. Read the Sun book:
The
Java Programming Language Ed.3 by Goslin et. al. It's a very enjoyable read if you take it slowly, because they explain WHY certain
features of the language shouldnt be used in certain ways, what idioms are
good and bad, and provide approaches to design that lead to Good Code (TM).
The Sun book should be taken to
coffee shops on rainy November evenings,
or perhaps savoured over your lunch break at work.
Once you've thoroughly enjoyed the Sun book, then its time to torture yourself with exam prep guides and practice tests. The cert guides dont
offer nearly the depth and coverage of the JPL book by Gosling, Arnold and Holmes.
I'm presently studying for the SCWCD. I got burned out studying, so I took
time off. I was trying to hard to "pass the damn thing" even though I myself
was a
JSP developer for two years. I did the SCJP2 and an IBM DB/2 exam in
September to prepare my re-entry into the job market. Once I get the SCWCD, I'm going to be very happy about not having to study again for sublime and difficult tests once I'm done with this.
Yes. The exams are hard, and that is a good thing...
-- Jim (SCJP2 1.4, IBM Certified Associate DB/2 UDB, BS Chemistry/Physics)