SCJP 1.5 review - not a so good test?

[Paulo Silveira]

Hello you all.

Yesterday I ve scjp 1.5 with a 95% score... 3 mistaker: 2 with threads and 1 with api. Last time I did a scjp test was back in 2001, where I did the 1.2 exam and passed with 93%.

I have some comments

PROS:
- questions with long code listing. that is nice! specially cool thread questions
- pretty good questions about generics, varargs and autoboxing.
- java.io is back, and this time there are not questions asking the name of a not so used method.
- better questions about OO concepts

CONS:
- less questions about casting and method overriding, which I like very much.
- enum and enhanced-for questions just too easy.
- bizarre questions about Serializable
- some tricky questions about the API.
- some questions didnt even compile and there was no "does not compile" answer. like methods that received (byte[]) argument without the parameter name. in another one there is a call to a pretty well known method that throws a Checked Exception, but the code didint handle-or-declare it. btw, where can I send this kind of problems? I didnt take the beta exam in order to not have this kind of problems in my exam!
- bizarre class names. It hurts my eyes when I read class C extends B. I remember that they used noums. Also, class names with numbers in the end and enum constants lowercased... arggghhh

what is your opinion?

thanks a lot

Paulo Silveira

[Tony Morris]

better questions about OO concepts

Most of what you say is aligned with my experience, except for your comment on "better questions". Let's look at some facts:
a) Sun engineers generally do not understand OO concepts - one need only look at the J2SE API Specification to determine this. I could produce other examples, but I believe this one is sufficient.
b) Testing candidates on "your" (Sun) erroneous perception of OO, particularly when that perception is severely flawed, is annoying to say the least.

On some of the points that I agree with:
a) The numerous errors at such a fundamental level are annoying.
b) The changing specification, which means that a correct answer cannot be provided, since you don't know which version of the specification is being used as the basis...
c) The overall examined content of the exam has improved, ever so slightly, from 1.4.

[bis ani]

[bis ani]

Hi Paulo,

Can you please explain how you have prepared for the exam? Could you try out any mock exams before you took the test?
Regards,
Bis

[Nalika Amarasinghe]

Hi Paulo/Tony,

Congratulations to both of you
Could you please lead me to the resources you followed to pass the 1.5 exams. Mock exams, books, tutorials ..etc

Thanks
Nalika

[Tony Morris]

I used the 1.5 documentation and wrote a unit test framework (http://www.jtiger.org/) to fully understand 1.5 language features. I also applied the knowledge that I had gained from the SCJP 1.4.
As far as I know, there is currently no information targetted specifically to SCJP 5.0 available.

[Jeff Bosch]

Congratulations on passing, but why, if you were already SCJP certified, did you test for a new version? Was it a job requirement?

[Nicholas Cheung]

but why, if you were already SCJP certified, did you test for a new version? Was it a job requirement?

It is because J2SE Tiger is quite different from J2SE 1.4, and taking exams are the best way to learn the new things in a relatively shorten time frame.

Nick

[Tony Morris]

Work pays for it

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Originally posted by Tony Morris:
I As far as I know, there is currently no information targetted specifically to SCJP 5.0 available.

Hello ,

Some useful SCJP 5.0 study material is available at http://java.boot.by/scjp-tiger

regards,
MZ

[amit taneja]

is 1.5 version of exam are out ..or you ppl are talking about beta one..
and any idea when full version of exam will be out...

and does industry started using 1.5 version of java

and most importantly is to what extent its use in industry.. i mean

approx ..how much share java 1.5 is with respect to 1.4 used in market..


cheers,
amit

[Nalika Amarasinghe]

Thanks Tony & MZ,

MZ,
Seems your tutorial is very useful. BTW I noticed that some topics are missing. For e.g.
"4. Concurrency (http://java.boot.by/scjp-tiger/ch04.html)" ,
"5. OO Concepts (http://java.boot.by/scjp-tiger/ch05.html)",
"7. Fundamentals (http://java.boot.by/scjp-tiger/ch07.html)"

Please advice

Thanks
Nalika

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Nalika,

The purpose of my guide was to overview new Java 5.0 Tiger features,
because at that moment there was not much study material on the topics.

Regarding mentioned you objectives - I think there are a lot of notes
for old SCJP 1.4 which cover the rest of objectives.

regards,
MZ