SCJP 6 passed at close to 80%. Not too good, not too bad...
First of all thanks to
Java Ranchers for sharing knowledge not only in Java problems, but in general programming context. So I would like to share my experience for those who will follow...
Little background. I have been doing Java programming years, years ago. Then had a quite different and exciting career, which after long years of fun I decided to wrap around and put on a hook. So here is a reason for my comeback to Java and SCJP. In short, I had to relearn Java basics almost from scratch. Hope this will put coming next points in some perspective.
I spend about 3 month, with few longer breaks due to heavy load of work, studding SCJP effectively 1-2 hours per day. Sometimes longer, sometimes not at all.
I started with K&B book as advised, which I read 2-3 times, tried to understand and remember concepts, details, tricks etc. I must say I have mixed feeling about this book. Its loose narrative style does not fit me that well. Particularity when some easy problem explanation is spread over few pages mixed with jokes and anecdotes. Whereas later some other important concepts are so condensed that literally every sentence matters. I would prefer less jokes, less pages and more focus problem explanation. So probably I spend too much time on this book alone. Some people might like it, I should move forward sooner.
After that I started to do random quizzes and mock up tests published on the internet, which soon I managed to clear 70-80% most of the time. Then I tried short quizzes from K&B book, not so good results here at that stage, only 20-30%. At the same time I tried
Examlab and of course results were disastrous, around 15-20%.
So being only 4-5 weeks from the exam I decided to move toward more intense learning. I bought Ethnuware soft, which during practice I found to be quite a good product. Initially the very first few tests I was doing at 40-50%. Later, closer to the deadline I was on average 70%, sometimes closer to 60%, sometimes closer to 80%. In general I find Ethuware more or less on similar difficulty level as the real exam. Maybe slightly more difficult in some aspects, but not 15% more as reports from Ethnuware users show.
BTW I tried Whizlab, but I hate online software. So I canceled the license, had some heavy fight to get money back. Not good experience at all, I don't think I will tried this soft anymore at all.
After few hard weeks I manage to pass K&B mock up exams at around 60% and Examlab at 40-50%. In the meanwhile I tried to write a lot of small programs to remember API, which probably was my weakest side. I tried to remember as much as I could, but there is so much API and so little time ;-) Guys with more practical experience should have easier task here.
So finally the exam came.
Testing center was rather disappointing. Early 1990s, 15'' monitors with 65Hz refresh. My eyes started to hurt me after 1 hour!!! Air conditioning way too cold, freezing. No bottle of
water allowed. Question to Prometrics: are you nuts for your policy? Am I going to cheat with small bottle of water? Crazy policy!!! I will think again if I need any other certification from you... absolutely ridiculous approach.
Questions wise. I found the exam slightly out of my comfort zone. Mostly because of obscure font used and lack of keywords being bold, which helps to read through code in Ethnuware. Secondly come question look easy, but as it turned out with lot of tricks and misleading involved!!! Anyway, I manage to pass at very reasonable level all objectives, except Collections/Generics and Concurrency. I knew with Collections I was so so, but Threads were definitely harder then I expected and practiced. Basically that was the part that stopped me reaching +85% score I think. Maybe other test would be easier ;-)
One more advice. Write many, many small programs and practice a lot API. Once you get general concept, thats good, but without practice, few forgotten API function can sink your result!!!
You should know K&B book API provided up side down. If I would have 2 more weeks I would get better result. Oh well, anyway, SCJP is passed. Time to move forward...
Thanks again and hope this experience will help somebody,
k
and thanks for sharing your experience. Yeah, I do agree that the Prometric policy sounds too rigid. I hope they will consider relaxing it a bit.
