So First the good news, I passed this afternoon with an 83%. Thanks to all ranchers for helping me. Thank you Mr. Bert Bates and a special Thank you to Kathy Sierra, I believe her to be the founder of this forum, without which none of this would�ve happened. Mr Bert Bates and Kathy Sierra You two are rock stars. Thanks to all the bartenders, of this forum you really come up with some stunning examples. You guys also rock. All those wanting to take the exam I would advise just focus on the basics, most commercial exam simulators are overkill. This exam basically is..well basic. Focus your energies on the K&B and thats probably all you need. Also I�m a little puzzled by the exam report. The following is a breakdown of the percentage
Declaration initializing and scoping.................91%
Flow Control........................................................81%
API Contents.......................................................100%
Concurrency......................................................62%
OO Concepts..................................................... 80%
Collections/Generics......................................... 90%
Fundamentals.....................................................72%
I practiced the whole last week focusing my energies on concurrency and I get a 62 in it, API on the other hand was something I was scoring not more than 70% on it and I end up with a 100. I�m starting to think too many mock exams by way of taking apart each question and experimenting with it is probably not such a good idea, you end up getting to in depth on stuff and learning stuff which is out of scope for the exam. I would compare mock exams to whisky, when taken in too large amounts it starts to lose its beneficial effects. Focusing on the K&B is probably the best thing to do even though compared to that you�d still only be tested on just the basics. Class paths was one area which is really hard for me. I�m a little depressed about this score because I feel I was robbed.
Now the Really tragic part, for all those raising doubt over Prometrics Adherence to a minimum standard of quality, and something in particular for ranchers in the Delhi region.
Get this; I take the exam here in New Delhi at the biggest prometric center NIIT-CP. Right before the exam after Ive signed all the documents and been fingerprinted, I ask for some sheets of paper and the proctor lady goes "oh we don�t allow you to use scratch papers�. She said that prometric had a policy and I wouldn�t be allowed anything on which I could write and carry the questions in a concealed manner. So they were going to provide me with a laminated paper. I said this is ridiculous, I argued with her for about 5 minutes explaining her all the issues with associated with this particular exam, you can count how many sheets I�m using and if you want, you can grab a seat next to me and invigilate to make sure I don�t take anything out, I said. "NO" she said rather rudely, all candidates that take their exams aren�t allowed any paper, all the kids that take the .Net exams etc. I said this is
SCJP there are known issues with questions like DND etc. And unlike other exams it really he it would really help if you could write stuff out. she had ,me talk to centre manager who was even ruder and told me I should take the
test elsewhere if I wasn�t willing to comply, she added that I had signed a contract when I signed on the form and was now under legal obligation to comply. (This was something I want even told to read just instructed to sign here, sign that). I requested if she could have me speak with someone from prometric (being that she was the center manager),
"No candidate is ever allowed to interact with prometric as they dont speak to you guys" was the reply. They said if I even talked to prometric about this then I should take the test elsewhere, Imagine that being threatened by your exam centre (apparently NIIT believes its obliging people by allowing them to sit for the test). My gut feeling was telling me to not do it, but they said they had already downloaded the exam and if I didn�t take it there I would have to purchase a new voucher and the money on this was lost. So I unwittingly decided to go thru with it. I requested that If you are going to give me this laminated paper at least give me a pen to write with it. I told her markers dont write well on plastic. I walk into the "test room" which was like 5 steps away from the proctor's desk with this dark gray piece plastic paper, and a permanent marker. As I try writing with it turns out it was out of ink. So I then have to leave my test and wait till she finds a new one. The new one I get has the opposite problem, it flows too freely on plastic turning everything I try to write into scrumpdiddly. As expected about 4 DNDs written which were just scarcely readable and both side of this laminated paper (which was smaller then a regular A4) filled! And completely unreadable my Y's looked like Xs. She said there wasn�t anymore as the other test takers were using it so she'll go clean the one I was using, anyway so there I am taking the exam having to do everything in my head and she comes back like 15 minutes later with exactly the same sheet in a worse state and says "the guy that has the cleaning
spray thing cant to be found. But I have smudged it with a napkin so you could probably be okay?"
I decided not to use it and ended up doing all the calculations in my head, Because of this I didn�t even review any of my DND questions. Couldn�t write down a single line of code. But this is not even what I�m really mad about, this woman who obviously had a active social life sitting like 5 feet away from me kept yapping on the phone, there was a glass door separating her desk from mine but I could HEAR EVERYTHING LOUD AND CLEAR. FORGET NOT BEING ABLE TO HEAR MYSELF THINK I COULDNT HEAR MYSELF TALK. As you can imagine it�s really difficult to do the fizzylifting in your head whilst listening to all the gobbledygook and with absolutely nothing to write on!!. All in all this was the worst possible experience I had with this test site-I wasn�t even allowed to take in
water. It can�t get worse right??? WRONG!! After I get home I check the report, and see that my address was filled up as incomplete, I mean they can�t even transfer data from a written form to an electronic one. I didn�t spot it there when the report was printed and tomorrow�s a Sunday. I�ve written to Prometric to get this rectified. What the heck did I do to deserve this? This is the kinda crapp that makes me wanna leave India, sick of accepting mediocracy as a way of life. Of course some of the blame also lies with prometric. I have reconciled myself to that fact that the exam DOES give you more than enough time, and even if you are being constantly being distracted I DID have a chance to go thru the exam twice to see what I had done incorrectly and thereby should take responsibility for the low score. But a part of me is seething.
Has anyone else had an experience like this? I suggest we make a list of centers that should be avoided like the plague for the benefit of everyone here. I think this is a problem particularly with this side of the world being that consumer rights are something that companies apparently get to dictate. Tragic!!
[ September 09, 2006: Message edited by: marc weber ]
