37% on Devakas exam lab Final Exam. So disapointed!

[Sammy Bill]

I m taking the SCJP 5 exam in few days. and today i took the Devakas Final exam and i got 37%
is the Devaka's exam ( exam lab) so hard or i m not well prepared??
and how is the actual exam compared to Devaka's?

Thanks

[fred rosenberger]

I don't know anything about this exam, but I'd use it to help, if you can. Does it give you a breakdown of categories? Did you do well on access modifiers, but poorly on operator precedence (for example)? figure out what categories you were weak in, go back through the questions, and try and figure out WHY you got each question wrong. Did you mis-read it? Did you not understand it? Did you simply mark the wrong answer when you knew the right one?

Do everything you can to post-mortem you score and answers, and try and improve for the next time.

[sasank manohar]

Devaka's a bit tough. so don't worry , also you will have lot of time in the exam. the advantage with devaka's is that the exam environment is pretty close to actual exam, so just get a feel of that environment . Also make sure that if an answer is "error" , which type of error . whether it is "runtime error" or just " compilation error". this sole point will fetch you a ton.try other mocks and stop worrying, just relax and you are going to do well.All the best.

[Treimin Clark]

When I do this Devaka's ExamLab, I learn new important concepts (which I missed) with each exam of this simulator. I wrote all of those concepts and keep them in my mind, before going for the exam. So, I suggest you to read the explanation part of each question and try to extract the concept which you missed.

Even though Devaka's questions are tough, personally, I think that 37% is not good! But no need to worry about that, because you have the time to increase your knowledge, as I said above.

Best Wishes.

[Sammy Bill]

Thanks guys for the comments.

I thought i knew java untill i took exam lab exams. was shocked.

[Parambir Singh]

Believe me, SCJP is easier than any of the mock exams. Chill

[vaibhav mishra]

I gave SCJP exam on 14th and few days before that I came across a post of someone getting 40% on Devaka and getting cleared so still you have a fair chance, do post your score of Master Exam, and add 10 % to it (approx.) that is something you might be getting on exam, these exam are to gain confidence , try to get something better for the

P.S that 40% score scares me off so much that I didn't give any mocks (although it is highly recommended to give mocks) and scored 86%

[Jennifer Gamble]

I was getting low scores on the Exam Lab too. I did each practice exam and then the Final. I kept failing them. It was very discouraging. I did the final twice for practice. I think it is slightly harder than the real exam, but don't let that give you a false sense.
I DID pass the certification last week, but just barely! If I had more time, I would have kept doing the mock exams until my score improved. The more you practice them, the more you will learn and remember. Just keep doing those mock exam questions over and over. You have five days. That is about the length of time I had too. Good luck and don't stress too much. It will be over soon.

[Devaka Cooray]

As others said, you don't need to be disappointed too much, because the real exam is actually easy than the ExamLab. Any way, your score 37% tells you that you need to be improved before taking the Sun exam.

However, you should not ignore your wrong answer for any ExamLab question. Because there are no any out-of-objectives questions available in ExamLab. I made all of them by following the SCJP exam objectives. Even though Sun exam is easy than the ExamLab, there MAY be that type questions in the real exam too!

As Treimin said above, I recommend you to read the explanation part to capture the java concept, which you misunderstood, for each question. And then do some practices to clearly understand it. Remember, you must do practices yourself to understand Java.

In addition to that, you must improve your eyes to capture the tricky points on questions. If your eyes are too much poor to capture the trickier point of a question, you may be failed by the exam, even though you know the Java core concepts in 100%. To improve your eyes, you must do a lot of mock questions. If you've completed the ExamLab, but doesn't satisfied on that (especially with your score), you should try some other mock exams too.


Best Regards,

Devaka.

[Paul Kemp]

In my opinion, Devaka's exam lab is a useful learning aid, but it does not reflect the difficulty of question you face on the actual exam, and so as 'exam practice', it doesn't really work.

I think I scored 43% on his first exam. After that, I didn't take any of the rest 'as exams', because I sure wasn't going to pass any of them!! I went through each of the questions, looked at the explanations and coded up some of the more interesting ones. I used my findings from the examples to supplement my notes, which was very useful as a learning aid.

As an exam, though, I think that it is discouraging for the learner. There are so many trips and traps in those questions that you think you'll never pass SCJP. I think Devaka said that he created exam lab so people wouldn't have to buy commercial software like Whizlabs and Enthuware, but I think they still will, because people want to face a real-life kind of exam situation.

So I would encourage Devaka to try and produce something that emulates the real exam as much as possible. After all, if I want to pass a basic Maths course, I don't want to have study Advanced Maths in order to do it!!

[Devaka Cooray]

In my opinion, Devaka's exam lab is a useful learning aid, but it does not reflect the difficulty of question you face on the actual exam, and so as 'exam practice', it doesn't really work.

It depends on "how to practice". There are someone who like to practice through easy questions, and someone who really like to practice through difficult questions. While I agree that the ExamLab is difficult than the real exam, I don't think 'exam practice' isn't work, as you said. As many ExamLab users said, they understood a lot of java concepts when doing questions in ExamLab. In order to practice for the real exam, you must practice through the mocks, which has a higher difficulty level than the real Sun exam. That is why 'every' mock exam is difficult than the real exam.

I think I scored 43% on his first exam. After that, I didn't take any of the rest 'as exams', because I sure wasn't going to pass any of them!! I went through each of the questions, looked at the explanations and coded up some of the more interesting ones. I used my findings from the examples to supplement my notes, which was very useful as a learning aid

Remember, a mock exam score doesn't represents the score, what you will really going to get in the real exam. Even though you've failed my first exam with 43%, I can't say you are going to fail the real exam. But the score of 43% reflects that 57% (=100-43) of those questions has something, which you really need to understand. In this case, you have to review your wrong answers and see why did you get it wrong. If it is because of a java concept, you have to do practices to understand them. That is the way of how I designed this simulator.

As an exam, though, I think that it is discouraging for the learner. There are so many trips and traps in those questions that you think you'll never pass SCJP

If the user feel "I'll not pass the exam", just because of the score of a mock exam, it is really a problem with that user. The learner must ask "why I failed by this question?" himself, not only for mock exam questions, but also for questions in the real life too. This is the way of how a learner can understand their weak areas.

I think Devaka said that he created exam lab so people wouldn't have to buy commercial software like Whizlabs and Enthuware, but I think they still will, because people want to face a real-life kind of exam situation.

As you said someone can just leave-out from ExamLab and go for any other 'easy' mock exam, if they really need it. A professional practice materials for an exam, must be harder than the real exam, because it the only way how you can extract the usage of a mock exam. And that is the reason of why 'every' mock exam is difficult than the real one. If available, you can practice through some mocks which has the same difficulty level as the real exam, but it is not a practice, it is same as to taking the real exam twice.

So I would encourage Devaka to try and produce something that emulates the real exam as much as possible.

As I said above, I'm not interest about emulating the difficulty level of the real exam, even though I've simulated the real exam interfaces.

After all, if I want to pass a basic Maths course, I don't want to have study Advanced Maths in order to do it!!

A basic Maths course contains the 'basic' structure of mathematics. For sure, it doesn't contain Calculus or advanced-trignonometry. When practicing for a basic maths course, you don't need to practice through Calculus questions. It is really correct. But I don't know how you are going to compare this scenario with my ExamLab. Did you see any single question in ExamLab, which has something out of the SCJP objectives? As I said in my previous post, I made all of the questions by following the official Sun objectives. That is why I used a logo named "100% Exam Oriented Questions" in ExamLab. If I really need to discourage the learner, I had to use something out of SCJP objectives, just like java reflection api, RMI, socket programming or, even JNI! But again, I didn't include anything out of the SCJP objectives.
When talking about your maths course scenario, a learner can't say "I don't need to practice how to multiply 3x2x6, while there are only two expressions in the real exam". Yes, there may be only two expressions for the multiplication questions on the real exam, but the learner must practice to multiply 3x2x6, which feels him comfortable when going to multiply 3x12.

[Treimin Clark]

I used Devaka's simulator months ago, and it was very much helpful to me. Therefore I think that it is my responsibility to post a reply here.

First of all, Paul Kemp, you should be nice when posting in JavaRanch; please don't hurt someone.

Personally, I don't agree with what Paul Kemp wrote in his post.

Everyone know that ExamLab is harder than the actual exam. But it is not a disadvantage of ExamLab. Personally I believe that tough questions and mocks are very much helpful than the easy mocks. I've completed SCJP in last year, and I can say it is easy than the ExamLab mocks. It is also easy than the other mocks too. But I can highly recommend ExamLab to every one who need to pass the exam successfully. And I saw there are some other recommendations of this simulator in the Sun Certification Results forum.

As Devaka explained above, there were no any questions in ExamLab, in addition to the SCJP syllabus. Each practice exam in this simulator gave me a good knowledge, as I didn't get from any other exam simulator. I'm really thankful to Devaka, for making this great product, and letting us to download it for free.

[Paul Kemp]

Well, I'm surprised by the last post!! I hope I didn't hurt Devaka's feelings. I'm sure he's made of stronger stuff than that, and probably welcomes suggestions and criticsm. Devaka's exam lab helped me pass SCJP and so I am very grateful to him for that.


When I was at school, we sat mock exams in preparation for the real exam. These mock exams were actually copies of previous years papers, i.e., to the same level as the real exam. For me, a mock exam is given to the *same standards* and often under the same conditions as the real exam. Devaka's exam questions may have the same objectives as the Sun exam questions, but they do not have the same standards, so for that reason , they are very useful training/learning aids, but are not really mock exams.
(I hope I've expressed myself clearly and this post is not misconstrued as being "not nice".)


So, my only simple suggestion is to add an exam to the Exam Lab suite which as much as possible reflects the standard of the Sun exam.

I know when I was studying for SCJP - I'm sure it's the same for everybody - I kept asking myself "Am I ready?" but wasn't sure where to look for an exam that really reflected the difficulty of the SCJP exam itself at 1.6. The writer of this thread is saying the same thing.

[Sachin Adat]

Ohhh!!! Its hot out here...........
Chill all...................cool down.

No problem with your post Paul, personally I don't think you are not being nice,
Everyone has his views, and free to express it here(if its in the limits though)......
its just that Devaka has his justifications damn right........

Devaka,
Got to say I agree to you ......... all your statements..........

[Treimin Clark]

Paul Kemp wrote:Well, I'm surprised by the last post!! I hope I didn't hurt Devaka's feelings. I'm sure he's made of stronger stuff than that, and probably welcomes suggestions and criticsm. Devaka's exam lab helped me pass SCJP and so I am very grateful to him for that.


When I was at school, we sat mock exams in preparation for the real exam. These mock exams were actually copies of previous years papers, i.e., to the same level as the real exam. For me, a mock exam is given to the *same standards* and often under the same conditions as the real exam. Devaka's exam questions may have the same objectives as the Sun exam questions, but they do not have the same standards, so for that reason , they are very useful training/learning aids, but are not really mock exams.
(I hope I've expressed myself clearly and this post is not misconstrued as being "not nice".)


So, my only simple suggestion is to add an exam to the Exam Lab suite which as much as possible reflects the standard of the Sun exam.

I know when I was studying for SCJP - I'm sure it's the same for everybody - I kept asking myself "Am I ready?" but wasn't sure where to look for an exam that really reflected the difficulty of the SCJP exam itself at 1.6. The writer of this thread is saying the same thing.

It seems that you are using mock exams for the purpose of checking your current status on the preparation. In this case, I mean if you are using mock exams to check whether "Am I Ready?", I believe that Devaka's simulator is not good for that purpose.

But, I believe that Devaka's simulator is the 'best' one for the practicing purpose. After that, you can ask "Am I Ready?" question through any other 'easy' mock exam. I think both you and Devaka may agree with me on that.


It seems you are nice on your last post, but not with the prior one.

[supriya riya]

Hi,
I recently took the Exam lab test for SCJP 6 and my scores were very disappointing.
I started thinking i don't know anything about java and can never clear the real exam.
But i took an mock test on scjptest.com
and it was easier than Devaka's exam.First failed there too later after practice and studying my weak chapters passed exam with a good score.

But Devaka's exam , i am disappointed as i took exam lab test 3 times and failed(badly) every time.

So do i need to pass Devaka's exam ?..then can i be sure of passing real SCJP 6 exam,isn't it enough to pass exam on other website i mentioned ?its really bothering me as i m rescheduling my exam again and again. ( i really want to clear my exam.....)

[Tommy Delson]

After all, if I want to pass a basic Maths course, I don't want to have study Advanced Maths in order to do it!!

I took Advanced Maths and passed without taking pre-basic maths prior to that...


You don't have to study Advanced Maths in order to pass the OCJP. All you need is focus on the concept, understood and practice coding every topic in K & B book not only in one way, but in many different ways. That's way ExamLab tried to simulate. If you can do that then you're READY for the REAL EXAM.

Devaka's Examlab is just a TOOL like other tool out there to test Java knowledge in different way, you can skip it, but not make a judgement alone based on a poor score. Like others already mentioned, you can take others mocks available out there to test your knowledge, but not based solely on one alone. The more mock tests you take, the more knowledge you'll gain, and finally you'll MASTER Java.

I passed the exam without taking ExamLab completely simply not much time available, but I highly recommend to complete the ExamLab as much as possible. It'll give you an advantage and give you confident on the REAL EXAM.

Check out my other post for tips passing the OCJP: https://coderanch.com/t/538438/sr/certification/passed-SCJP-tips#2443099

Your guys should THANKS and SUPPORT Devaka for the effort of creating and compiling such Tool to test Java knowledge. An input or a feedback for improvement is highly recommended, not COMPLAINING.

If someone give us something whether we like it or not we always THANKS he/she for the kindness....complaining make us look BAD.

Good luck...

@Devaka: Keep up your good work!

[Ninad Kulkarni]

@Sammy

Devaka's Exam Lab is good go through weak areas and improve on them. Main thing is understand concepts and apply those concepts practically in Java code. Write lot of java code.

If you achieve good score on Exam Lab that means you understood concepts of Java. Understanding of that concepts help you in real life Java Applications apart from SCJP/OCPJP.
Best of Luck