I need some inspiration

[David Kennedy]

Hi All,

I have bought the Whizlabs simulator and have been working through the exams and Im currently after doing 4 of the 5 and I still havent managed to get more than 28 out of 72 questions right!Each time I finish an exam I write down in a notebook all the questions I got wrong and learn where I made my mistakes,do the two minute drills, a few study guides I have found online and then move onto the next exam.

I also usually allow a few days studying before I approach the next exam.
Should I take a break from the exams and study more before the last one so it would give me a better idea as I dont know what would be the value in doing the past exams again as a lot of the answers to past exams could be in my memory.

Its really beginning to frustrate me that I cant see any progress to keep me motivated.Im almost afraid to do the final exam now as Im running out of exams to gauge my progress.Even when I read the objectives report at the end of each exam It seems to be totally random which sections I am weak in.Sometimes I could do well in the generics section and in the
next exam I could do terrible in the generics section!

Are the wizlabs exams getting progressively harder or is my progress non existant? Cant believe its non-existant because im definitely learning a lot more especially the questions where there is no code and your asked about for example the type of exceptions thrown by the programmer or similar questions.

I need some motivation/ideas

Regards
David
[ September 15, 2006: Message edited by: David Kennedy ]

[Gizp Potts]

Hi David,

I am using whizlabs and it seems to be a good tool. What I suggest is use the learning mode of the tool and randomly select just 5 questions. Answer the questions properly and note down the weak areas in these 5 questions. Do this recursively and I am sure you will benefit more from the tool. It will also help you to concentrate on some topics instead of reading all the topics again and again.

Hope it helps..
Gizp

[Shang Lee]

Hi David,

You are definitely on the right track (e.g. practising with simulator and assuming you are using the preparation guides often mentioned here).

Don't give up now. Perhaps for now, you do not gauge yourself based on the score you have received on the mocks but rather how much new knowledge you gain each day. I think it�d be great if you can pick up 1 or 2 new concepts each day.

Don�t overly pressure yourself. Allocate a more comfortable timeframe for your revision. You can always reschedule your exam to a later date.

[David A. Scott]

Hi David,

I'm using whizlabs as well. I think it's important to remember that it's only a testing tool, if you consistantly aren't scoring highly enough then you're probably not quite there yet.

I did the diagnostic test and failed (almost dead on 50%) but it helped identify my weakest areas (Collections/Generics and File I/O). I'm now focussing on those areas.

Are you actually writing Java code? It sounds a stupid question, but I've only relatively recently realised that I haven't been doing nearly enough of this. I spent an hour or so last night messing around with ArrayLists and stuff and probably learned more than I had in weeks of just reading the K&B chapter and making notes.

My advice would be to look at the reports Whizlabs provides and try and identify your weakest areas and devote some good sessions to writing some programmes using those areas. Which, lets face it, is a lot more fun than just reading.

David

[David Kennedy]

Thanks lads for the suggestions and tips.

I think I will take your advice David and start doing some more coding
as the only coding I seem to do is to cut and paste code from the K&B e-book
into Eclipse so i think it is a good suggestion.Im also gonna re-schedule to take some pressure off myself as im definitely not going to sit the exam till im at least scoring 60% in the mocks.

Thanks again for ye're replys.

Regards
David