should i go for scjp??

[shubham garg]

hello guys!!
i am a student persuing my graduation in IT branch. i am preparing for scjp from last 2 months in my summer vacations. i read k&b book, then i solved their masterexam in open book mode. after that i did devaka examlab. but in the examlab papers i have been unable to do good. i have an average cummulative score of 49% as an aggregate of the 5 papers. nw my vaccations are soon going to be over leaving me again in the busy college schedule. so guys i am confused that right now should i take the real paper or not. i did good in some of the other mock papers. but my score in examlab forces me to give a second thought about my preparation for scjp. please help me out people here.
i will be highly obiliged by any of the suggestions...

thanks in advance

with regards
shubham

[Nitish Bangera]

Examlab questions are really tough and tricky. Take those wrong answers in a positive manner. well there were so many things i learn't from test that was not in K&B and yes in other books also. Give the cert when you feel condifdent.....but make it quick as sun is planning to retire scjp 6 but they haven't given a notice.

[shubham garg]

thanks!!
i know that questions there, are tough. but with out acknowleging my score in those, should i take the paper now. i have seen 5 TIMES written in my score report by that devaka's s/w program that i have FAILED!! does a score of 49% makes me capable of cracking real SCJP??

[Lucas Smith]

I think you should work a little harder.
I got 65-75% in ExamLab.
There is the note that on the real SCJP you can get about 20-25% more.

[Nitish Bangera]

Have you solved the diagnostics practise1 practise2 practise3. These exams really help in knowing what is really not in K&B and yeah the explanation is great too. Well try all these before finally attempting the final exam lab.

[Ankit Garg]

I myself gave Examlab final exam before my exam and got 61% in it. So you can see that it is definitely tough. Devaka himself told me that I should not get discouraged by this result. Examlab is surely tough but practice like that would make you strong for the real exam. I got around 75-80% on Masterexams for 6.0 book. But please make sure that you understand all the concepts clearly before you go for the real exam. If you are facing difficulty in questions, then maybe you need to read the book one more time...

[Jason Irwin]

I never got around to Examlab (sorry Devaka!) but from the mocks I did use my exam result was about 20% higher than those mocks.

My main problem wasn't a lack of knowledge, it was just silly mistakes. So I made sure to take extra during the exam.

If you are just failing the mocks - I'd say go for it.
If you are badly failing, but it just silly mistakes - go for it anyway AND TAKE MORE CARE!
If you are failing seriously and can't understand questions/answers - then you need more study/experience.

It's hard to say much more from a distance.

[khaled Jamal]

If you scored higher than 70% in masterexam, I think you can pass the real stuff

[Lucas Smith]

khaled Jamal wrote:If you scored higher than 70% in masterexam, I think you can pass the real stuff

VERY EASILY!

[Devaka Cooray]

Nitish Bangera wrote:Take those wrong answers in a positive manner.

+1

[shubham garg]

Jason Irwin wrote:I never got around to Examlab (sorry Devaka!) but from the mocks I did use my exam result was about 20% higher than those mocks.

My main problem wasn't a lack of knowledge, it was just silly mistakes. So I made sure to take extra during the exam.

If you are just failing the mocks - I'd say go for it.
If you are badly failing, but it just silly mistakes - go for it anyway AND TAKE MORE CARE!
If you are failing seriously and can't understand questions/answers - then you need more study/experience.

It's hard to say much more from a distance.

thanks Jason!!
I am not very sure about whether i fall in 1st or the 2nd catagory but yeah i m confident enough to say that atleast 3rd case does not match with my experiences at the mock papers. so i think hopefully i am in a position to pass the paper now but may be not with very high scores as most of the people here have passed...
once again thanks a lot for the nice post.

[shubham garg]

Devaka Cooray wrote:

Nitish Bangera wrote:Take those wrong answers in a positive manner.

+1

thanks devaka!!
i have done the same. making note of all the new concepts from the examlab papers. when i solved the first paper, i made a note of lot of new things (including API based ques) with a hope of passing out the next paper. but again i was not able to do good (i further wrote and remembered the concepts). and the story remained almost same as i marched forward through the examlab papers, awarding me an average score of 49% finally. surely i have learned a lot from your examlab. but still, such a low score forces me to re think about my survival at real SCJP so should i once again solve all the mock papers or just revise the notes made from them and and go for the real paper now

[Nitish Bangera]

Well i have read the book K&B i still make a lot of mistakes(2nd category specified by Jason) in questions like statements are False or not true types. Also many conceptual things like statics not allowed in inner classes and about exceptions came out more clearly solving the mocks. Devaka i must say your concurrency questions are really head spinning, makes me think. So i don't regret making mistakes now and learn rather than make the mistake in the exam. And some new OO concepts which weren't there in the books. Well all together the mock is really good but i haven't solved the final examlab. Looking forward to solve it with all i have got.

[Lucas Smith]

Can you write that "new" OO concepts?

BTW: Good luck during the final ExamLab!

[Nitish Bangera]

Man ExamLab final exam is in a league of its own...I attempted it for the first time and got 62% well in the end the assuring message is quite motivating. Now i think i am prepared for the SCJP. Will solve even more. Examlab really helps in getting you prepared for SCJP6. Great software Devaka.