Problems with MasterExam software

[Andrew Ebling]

I'm having real problems with the MasterExam software which came on the CDROM which came with the K&B study guide.

Sometimes when I'm doing "open book" questions, I choose an answer which I think is correct, press "next" and it comes up as INCORRECT. So I click on the Reference button and discover that the answer that I gave WAS correct. I've seen this happen more than once. Pretty shoddy.

I also have some big issues with this software - it is virtually unusable. All code gets printed in non-fixed width font making it difficult to understand. You can't see the code/question and answers at the same time without scrolling up and down. The interface takes a tiny portion of the available space on any modern computer monitor and you can't resize it.

Is the real exam as bad as this (in terms of user interface/ergonomics)? If so, I think I'll put this year of preparation behind me and go and write some J2ME games instead of taking the actual exam!

Any help/tips/reassurance would be much appreciated.

thanks,

Andy

[Deepak Bala]

The real exam interface occupies the full screen. It does have a few glitches mind you. Especially with drag and drops. Search this forum to find rants about prometric and the software. As far as the master exam goes, yes it is a bit glitchy with the answers. Sometimes the answer is the exact opposite and sometimes you select the right answer but the software says its wrong. Perhaps the people who wrote the software shoulf write SCJP Apart from that I think the master exam is pretty cool and a good effort at mimicking the real exam. Take the exam and dont let your preparation go to waste. Read up about the trouble others faced when facing the exam and go write it. Why should you rethink crossing a river because you tripped over a pebble ?

[Andrew Ebling]

Thanks for your reply. I take your point about the "crossing the river" thing - it's just frustrating to work really hard to prepare for the exam, only to possibly have things made more difficult than they should be by flakey test software. It really is quite ironic that an exam on a programming language is done using such poor quality software.

btw. Tried your Java WS-based test earlier and found it much better - if the real exam is more like that, I'll survive .

Thanks again,

Andy

[Deepak Bala]

Tried your Java WS-based test earlier and found it much better - if the real exam is more like that, I'll survive

Thank you for your kind words. The exam software itself was written by Matt, not me. The software just uses my questions. The interface is pretty cool. I am glad that it was a good experience for you. Good luck

[Bert Bates]

Hi Andrew -

We've been working with the publisher for a long time on the issue of the exam software. I will forward this thread to them.

Thanks,

Bert

[Paul Anilprem]

Hi Andrew,
You might want to try JQPlus V5. We have received some really good feedback on the interface, which is based on ETS Viewer

BTW, ETS Editor is the free tool that is used to develop mock exams.

[Andrew Ebling]

Thanks Paul. Actually, I found JQ+ a couple of hours after the original post and it looks like another useful tool. As I'm currently mentoring two members of staff through SCJP, I'll be passing the info on.

Can anyone confirm whether the real exam uses fixed-width fonts for code snippets or not?

In the UK, there seems to be a choice of two different companies who run the exams. Is there any difference between the two in terms of what the test software is like to use?

thanks,

Andy

[Andrew Ebling]

Originally posted by Bert Bates:
Hi Andrew -

We've been working with the publisher for a long time on the issue of the exam software. I will forward this thread to them.

Thanks,

Bert

Thanks Bert. The book itself is excellent; the MasterExam software has been the only part I think needs improvement.

[Andrew Ebling]

Does anyone know if the mock exam questions get marked correctly all the time? In other words, is the problem with incorrect marking limited to the open book exam?

thanks,

Andy

[Andrew Ebling]

OK its worse than I thought - the Explanations sometimes aren't even correct either; the "X is correct" (where X is the letter(s) of the correct answer(s)) sometimes does not match the explanation given i.e. it says A is correct, but the explanation makes it quite clear that it is talking about option C!

I figured this out on a question about method signatures, in which only one option (C) contained the final keyword, but the correct answer was given as (A). The explanation for A explicitly mentioned why it was OK for the final keyword to be used in a method override.

I'm amazed this book got such good reviews on Amazon given that the practice exams advertised on the front cover are basically useless. I'm very disappointed.

Andy