Thanks to everyone at
Java Ranch for the Quick Answers during the past days!
I took the
test at the Prometric center here in Japan near Sannomiya (Kobe).
I've cleared it... not so happy about the result, but it was a relief I passed. highest scores are 100% on Fundamentals, 80% on Concurrency. Bad scores on Generics and Initializations.
I would like to share some informations, for who is going to take this test soon:
I've started preparing for this test in August this year, reading the K&B preparation book. My Experience with java was (Around January this year) about 1 month of tutorials on Javapassion.com.
For preparation, I bought Whizlabs Tests and scored 71% on the Final Test.
I downloaded
Examlab, but since i'm using MAC i've always to run it in Windows 7 on my Virtual machine...therefore i've only checked few questions, but let me say that the questions in the final test of Exam lab, had really interesting ones...but since yesterday night around midnight was already fried...I could only check few of them and couldn't complete it. That's why during the past two weeks I've tried to complete all Exams on Whizlabs (except one).
Don't do the same mistake as I did. Whizlabs questions are nice (although I had to notified them about 6 minor errors found in the questions), but is better to try mocks from different providers, as I have the feeling, after taking too many tests of the same provider, you start knowing the
pattern of the questions...
The Real Test:
The first 10 questions of the test, were the most Tough. The last 6 questions the easiest ones. About 3 questions were really loaded with code and took quite long to go thru.
More or less, I got the following set of questions:
2-3 questions on IF...Then statements, with multiple nested if
2-3 questions on Exceptions
2 questions on Switch case
10 questions on generics
2 questions with the ^ || and && operators all in the same code
4 questions on threads
8 questions on ENUMS
8 questions on various APIs
2 questions on File.. BufferedReader ....
4 questions on overrides and overloads
this is about what i remember. All ENUM questions were at the beginning of the test. I didn't think enums would be a problem, until
there were, beside constructors, methods inside that made me doubt about the behaviour. Moreover, the enum reference in the normal
class, referred to the enum with enumclass.variablename.method(parameter), which I don't recall seing anywhere. Overall, let's say the
Enums were the Major topic.
Most Drag and drops were for Collections and File operations.
Surprisingly, I didn't notice any question that made you doubt about the Java Classes methods, like I found in the mocks:
"which one is the correct method? file.rename() or file.renameTo() ?"
Mock exams at whizlabs contains a lot of questions about Modifiers. Questions in the exam testing modifiers, almost absent. (but still important!)
A lot of questions on Collections, specifically about the correct syntax of the Collection using non generics and T, E and ? parameters. No questions
about "Choose the best collection for..." or "Invalid initialization" (i.e. List<Object> l = new ArrayList<
String>();)
One thing I didn't find in the mocks, but that left me a little bit lost are the split of the code. In the real test, on a couple of questions, the code
was cut in half in the middle of the try{} block! So, you coulnd't see the initialization part, but only some Exception catching and the finally block.
At first I thought the code doesn't compile, because it looked like the closing brackets were matching an IF statement and an IF statement doesn't
have a FINALLY block... but then i've remembered that in the test "if you see the numbers not starting from 1, assume the above code is correct" ...
but still... it took a while to understand why...(precious time...)
Watch out the EXHIBIT button. Like in Examlabs, there is a SHOW EXHIBIT button when the code is too long. Be careful! the box might
need to bee resized! The container box was correct for the lenght, but not wide enough! and because on the right side, only ONE closing bracket was
missing, I was about to click on "Doesn't Compile" ... There are no scrollbars, so you don't know that the box doesn't actually fit...
One last comment on the test center:
60 questions, 180 mins. The time started while I was answering the Agreement questions (!!) when I hopened the first question, the time showed 178 mins. I took about a couple of minutes reading the rules and notes on the provided code.
As a writing aid, I got a plastic paper with two pens. No Drinks were allowed during the test...
I know that the amount and types of questions, might vary exam by exam. I was expecting more questions on Threads, flow Controls and Class/Methods access rules... so, don't understimate any topic ;)
Next target:
EJB 3.0...
Cheers!
Dave
