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Am I ready for SCJP?

 
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I have been studying java from scratch for almost 1 year now. And have been concentrating on SCJP material for 1 month. I am taking whizlabs for practice.

By now I have taken 3 exams out of 5 that comes with whizlab. I have been getting score range from 45% to 55%. Of course the second time I take it, since I have already seen the answers it goes to more than 85%. But whenever I see new exam questions, I feel as if my rate of getting it right is about 50%. Also I feel roughly 10% of whizlab questions are not going to be on the exam or some what not well written/bizzarre.

Whenever I take whizlab new exam, even though I only took test 3, it feels like only 5 to 10% questions are similar to ones I took before. They just look really new each time. And I am a sucker on questions that I never seen before. That's the main reason why I am only getting around 50%.

I keep seeing people posting high score and saying the real exam are easier than whizlab questions. I should be getting 10% higher than practice exams.

With that all being said, that still put me at a guesstimate of scoring 60% (barely passing) on the real SCJP when recommended is 70%. Which doesn't really give me that warm and fuzzy feeling. I am also getting a little tired studying for it and would like to go back and study for j2ee stuff.

I think I am making good improvements everyday, but I feel that I only have 50-50% passing chance at the moment. Should I take it now?
 
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Don't know about the numbers, but what's the use of getting a certification with low scores ( thats what you think you gonna get, in case you passed). Low scores will only leave a bad impression.
 
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If you're still in doubt, you better don't take it until you're very confident that you're ready.

Frankly speaking, I believe you're doing pretty good. It's just the matter of getting high score or low score.

That's my 2 cents
 
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Hi Tony,
I was in the same situation as you were in, but still went on to take the exam. I did check out this forum and prepared using the whizlabs, the exam had atleast 50% questions which were not a part of the Whizlabs for Java 1.5. I am not discouraging you , but try to read from as many resources as possible and then take the exam. I am plan to retake the exam.

Thanks,
Vinay
 
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Hi Tony Smith,

I am really not having any idea about the levels of questions given in Whizlabs Vs real exam. But i remember people used to say that they felt the questions seemed to be very easy in real exams as compared to the mock exams they took it from various sources (whizlabs, K & B Mock exam).

Originally posted by Tony Smith:
...And I am a sucker on questions that I never seen before. That's the main reason why I am only getting around 50%.



I have a suggestion to you. Can you just do a small practice of what you had been learning for 1 year?

Just recollect the stuff whatever you had gone through, studied, memorized, remembered and prepare your own short notes? May be in a flash-card type? .

Though you may think it would be a mere waste of time, but i am sure it will really help you in recognizing what you have learnt and what you still remember!! Then you can go and brush up where you feel you are struck so you can concentrate more on those aspects!

Also, try to think out-of-the-box, so that you may not really feel being alone on an isolated island even when you get such type of questions in the real exam. For example, what will happen if you try to modify the sequence when you pass the argument to a method, when you don't provide the constructor but you instantiate an object of a class etc?

Hope these suggestions and practice would help you become better!

Good luck for your exam
 
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Don't worry You will clear SCJP very easily...
 
Consider Paul's rocket mass heater.
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