SCJP (now OCPJP) 1.6 Exam No. 1Z0-851, how to prepare?

[Sriram Athreyah]

Hello dudes and dudettes of JavaRanch...
I passed my OCPJP 1z0-851 exam today with a good percentage(86 %).

It had 60 questions and time given to complete was 150 minutes(much more than required).

For people who are worried about how their exam will be, Please DON'T !!

I didn't know anything about java a month ago (I promise!!), If you're really sincere in getting your certification, do the following....

1. Yes, the standard book- SCJP by KATHY SIERRA (The Best...) := Please go through the 2 minute drills, exam watch, and the self tests !!

2. If you can't figure out why a given answer is wrong in a practice question, PLEASE RUN THE PROGRAM YOURSELF and see how the error or Exception or Compilation fail or output occurs.

3. PLEASE NEVER EVER EVER EVER take a mock test on the day of your exam....

4. In the exam, always go through all the options atleast once !

5. (optional, my favorite) NEVER review answers which you figured out the first time... only review marked questions (ie the answers you couldn't figure out the first time)

And now i'm a happy man(I'm only 22!) entering 2012 as a Java Professional

CHEERS !

[Paul Anilprem]

Congratulations!!!

[Abhay Agarwal]

Congrats !!!

Welcome to Java Ranch !!!

We do have a separate forum on Java Ranch (Certification Results) where you can post your certification results.

[Sriram Athreyah]

Thanks. I've not yet recieved any intimation from oracle regarding my passing of the exam

[Bell Katapa]

Hey people i have just joined this community on recommendation from Kathy Sierra's book. Ive been a casual java programmer for along time. I want to give it a serious short now by going for the ocpjp 6 exam. I've studied Kathy's book and taken the end-of-chapter tests. I've also acquired Kathy and Bert's accompanying "practice exam questions" book. Of late i stumbled upon a simulator called "ExamLab for scjp 6.0" by Devaka Cooray, some singaporian dude. He appears to have a love for inner classes alot. Ive averaged 51% in his exams, which is a fail by his criteria.
For all you guys who've gone ahead and came across this tool in your preparations, is this simulator a good preparation kit. If so how close is this simulator to the real exam and how much hope do i have considering i averaged 51%. I am really nervy about it because i discovered i could be the 1st to take this exam in my country

[fadi aboona]

Sriram Athreyah wrote:Hello dudes and dudettes of JavaRanch...
I passed my OCPJP 1z0-851 exam today with a good percentage(86 %).

It had 60 questions and time given to complete was 150 minutes(much more than required).

For people who are worried about how their exam will be, Please DON'T !!

I didn't know anything about java a month ago (I promise!!), If you're really sincere in getting your certification, do the following....

1. Yes, the standard book- SCJP by KATHY SIERRA (The Best...) := Please go through the 2 minute drills, exam watch, and the self tests !!

2. If you can't figure out why a given answer is wrong in a practice question, PLEASE RUN THE PROGRAM YOURSELF and see how the error or Exception or Compilation fail or output occurs.

3. PLEASE NEVER EVER EVER EVER take a mock test on the day of your exam....

4. In the exam, always go through all the options atleast once !

5. (optional, my favorite) NEVER review answers which you figured out the first time... only review marked questions (ie the answers you couldn't figure out the first time)

And now i'm a happy man(I'm only 22!) entering 2012 as a Java Professional

CHEERS !

you are 22 and your brain has fresh blood :-) i'm 38 and i have understood everything in this book but my problem is my memory sucks!

[Tommy Delson]

Congratulations, the job well done, but it's just a beginning.

Knowledge and experience count so, don't stop there, but continue enhance your skills and knowledge in Java. It's worthless to have a certification without knowing how to utilize your knowledge and Java in the real world like having a degree without experience.

[Sriram Athreyah]

sure Tommy. I'm planning to take the web component exam next.
is the "head first" by k&b&b the best?

and bell ! don't worry about your exam lab score. apply for the exam and be sincere in the preparation. I'm sure you'll clear it!

[srini manassu]

Hey Congrats!

I too am interested in getting OCPJP but I am very much new to the language, but I have fair exposure to C and C++, will this come to play?
Can you share what was your plan on going with this? Did your bkgrnd helped you? i.e. I am from Electronics bkgrnd.

I need some help from you, can you share few of the details such as:
1. The syllabus.
2. Books to go with. (as I am new to the language)
3. Exam patterns.
4. Fees to be paid, to whom and the procedure involved (in India).
5. And all the inputs you can.

[Ghazi Hudeihed]

Congrats!!

I have question
Were you able to take notes during the exam, do they provide you with papers for notes or what?

thanks in advance

[Kirkland Simon]

It's great to hear that, because I am also 22 and starting my journey to become a Java Programmer. I have a history in Java, I took a few classes in college as a freshman, but to say the least I" feel as though I remember nothing.

Since i'm starting my studying today, what would be ample time to schedule my exam. Knowing me, I need a deadline or else I will take forever and let this book collect dust. :-)

Thanks in advance guys.

[Cameron Wallace McKenzie]

Congratulations!

And Ghazi, they are not supposed to allow you to take any notes out of the exam room. So, you can share your experience so long as you don't reveal anything specific about the exam, but as far as taking notes out of the testing center, the people running the show shouldn't allow that.

[Ghazi Hudeihed]

Thanks McKenzie, ya I think that make sense, so I will assuming that they will provide us with everything that we need to take notes. that is helpful Yaaay

[Helen Ma]

Hi, Sriram. Congrats on passing the exam. I have been studying for the exam for over a year during weekends and evening . I started worrying about it. It seems very tricky.
By the way, when I took the practice exam using the exam simulator, the window is so small and I need to scroll up and down to see what is below and above. In the exam, is the window resizable so that we don't need to scroll up and down?

[Hung Dx]

Congratulations Siriram!!!

[kavya palarapu]

Hello
This is kavya. jst decided to write java certification exam. i know java basics . please help me in finding out 4 materials n mock tests links.

[Henry Wong]

kavya palarapu wrote:Hello
This is kavya. jst decided to write java certification exam. i know java basics . please help me in finding out 4 materials n mock tests links.

https://coderanch.com/how-to/java/ScjpMockTests

[kavya palarapu]

Thanku so much 4 link. n i need suggestions for preparation. could any one sugest me plzzz

[Ghazi Hudeihed]

kavya palarapu wrote:Thanku so much 4 link. n i need suggestions for preparation. could any one sugest me plzzz

you may want to start with choosing a book to study for the exam.
the "SCJP 6 Study Guide" by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates is strongly recommended

[Helen Ma]

I highly recommend, KB's book and their practice exam. Then, you can read Mughal and Rasmussen 's study guide. They are all good books to help you pass. I don't know if I will pass....but they are good books.

[Helen Ma]

Based on the exam tips from other Java Ranchers, they said all topics will be covered in the 60 questions. They will be from easier to more difficult. (Maybe, #1 is easy, #60 is more challenging.)

It is official that object serialization/deserialization is removed from the exam objective. It is also official that wait() / notify () /notifiyAll() will be removed too. But in some test center, they may still provide you some legacy tests. We never know what will be in the exam.

I think the exam may not cover some very hard concept, but I have a feeling that it will be tricky, tricky, tricky......
For example, in one question in the practice exam, there is a method that throws an IOException. But ......the tricky part is, the code does not compile because the code does not import java.io.IOException.

I put down on my notebook about some exam watch:
1. Pay attention to import statement for any exception.
2. Pay attention to class visibility. If an interface is declared in a different package than the class that implements it, be aware that the interface must be declare public , so that that class can use it.
3. Pay attention to those instance variables. They may not be initialized to any object and they are null. Will null pointer exception thrown in the code?
4. Pay attention to protected constructor. If the constructor is protected, its child class can use super() in their constructor declaration, but the child class cannot instantiate object using the protected constructor.
5. Pay attention to local variables. They are not initialized and when the code use them, there will be a null pointer exception. There may be a warning from Eclipse telling you those local variables are not initialized.
6. Pay attention to == with autoboxed objects. If two Integer objects are created via autoboxing, eg Integer a = 10 ; Integer b =10 ; a==b? True. If Integer a = 129, Integer b = 129, will a==b? False.
For more detail, refer to autoboxing section.
7. Pay attention to variable scope. If the variables are declared in a method/class, if there is a for loop that declare another variable with the same name, it won't compile.

8. Pay attention to printing variables that are declared inside a block like for loop or while loop. Those variable are out of scope. Using them outside the scope will not compile.
9. Pay attention to ++a and a++. For example , array[++i][i++], what will be the output?
10. Pay attention to protected variable that are called by the child class thru reference, eg In child class, Parent p = new Parent(); p.x .... Child class cannot access its parent's variable by using their reference, but they can only inherit it.
11. Pay attention to override/overloaded methods. The tricky thing is about declaring exception in overriden method, using public/protected/private for overriding method, overriding final methods ...
12. Polymorphism does not apply to static method or static variable. eg. Parent p = new Parent(); Parent c = new Child(); There are static methods s() declared in both classes. p.s() and c.s() will call the same methods. the Child c does not call child's static method, it call the parent's static method.

13. For concurrency, if two different instances of X class are locked inside the synchronized method, this syn. method can still be executed concurrently by multiple threads.
14. When a join() is called, t.join() is called inside a main method. t thread will finish before the main. And the tricky part is....join() throws Interrupted exception. It must be declared or handled.
15. non-static syn. methods and static syn methods can be executed concurrently.
16. You may be asked if there is a deadlock in the syn. method. You may see a syn block inside another syn block. Pay attention if the two objects being locked are the same or different. If the two objects being locked are refering to the same object, deadlock won't happen. For more example, read KB's practice exam.
17. Pay attention to garbage collecting static variables. These variables are never GCed.
18. Pay attention to passing an integer to a method as a short argument. You can do this short s = 7; static void method(short s); method (s). However, if you do this method(7) won't compile because 7 is an integer.

19. Pay attention to println statment. println(1+2+3+"a") outputs 6a while println("a"+1+2+3) outputs a123. How about println("a"+a==a) where a is a string? Will you get a false? Or will you get a true? Or will you get "a" true in the output?
20. Pay attention to this statement assert(x>1) : j=12 ? Will it compile, yes. How about (assert>1) : new Integer()? Yes, compiles. How about (assert >1) : Integer a? No.
The reason is if the assert is false, it will print 12 or an integer object, but it cannot print a on the screen.
21. Pay attention to return type of methods that involves generic parameters. For example, E e ; public E get() { //insert return type here } ; Is return e compiled? Yes. Is return new Object() compiled? No. The compiler does not know what E will be at compile time. It may not be object, so it won't compile.
22. How about this : public ArrayList<Hotel> get() {...} ...What is the return type? It must be new ArrayList<Hotel>() . If Inn extends Hotel, we cannot put new ArrayList<Inn>().
Because ArrayList<Inn> does not extend ArrayList<Hotel>. For detail, read KB's book.
23. If we have a List<? extends Animal> alist = .... ; can we do this alist.add(new Animal())? No. You are not allowed to add any object except null to a list that is declared using ?.
How about List<? super Animal> alist = ....? Can you do this alist.add(new Object()) ? No. The compiler does not let you add object because the object can be a Dog/Cat. How about alist.add(new Animal()). Yes. The compiler only allows you to add Animal type when you declare List<? super Animal>. If you add Animal cat = new Cat(); it works.
24. Is it compiles ? for ( int i=0, j=0; i<10 & j<10 ; ) ? For loop does not necessary need an increment statement.
25. When you want to compile using javac . The classpath must be set to the parent directory of the package that needs to be compiled. For example, if you have xcom/A.class under foo/test directory. Suppose your current directory is foo. javac -classpath test test/xcom/B.java. works when B is defined to be in xcom package and B needs A. For most of the time, I always mistakenly think that the -classpath should be test/xcom in order to find A.
26. How about java command ? java -classpath test xcom.B works? I think so. The "java" needs to find both A and B classes. It can be done by setting classpath to test, not test/xcom. B's full name is xcom.B, not B. Pay attention to the difference between javac and java when it comes to -classpath. javac -classpath ....(the class files that B needs).... ...(the file path of B)..... For java -cp ...(the class file path B needs and B itself!) ....full name of B......
This is the most confusing part.


All the above tips comes from my mistake when I did KB's practice exams.
If you have any tricky questions , please share them with me. Thanks.

[Sriram Athreyah]

Helen Ma wrote:Hi, Sriram. Congrats on passing the exam. I have been studying for the exam for over a year during weekends and evening . I started worrying about it. It seems very tricky.
By the way, when I took the practice exam using the exam simulator, the window is so small and I need to scroll up and down to see what is below and above. In the exam, is the window resizable so that we don't need to scroll up and down?

The Window is full screen, you won't have problems with scrolling up or down

[Vijaya Kumari.I]

hi.....

[Anayonkar Shivalkar]

Hi Sriram Athreyah,
Congratulations!

All the best!

(btw, I was also 22 when I cleared SCJP )

[Vijaya Kumari.I]

Hi...I am preparing for ocpjp1.6 exam. But I have only kathie
sierra and barbets study guide.
If you any materials like links for mock exams ,please send me. I will be very thankful to you.

[Anayonkar Shivalkar]

Vijaya Kumari.I wrote:Hi...I am preparing for ocpjp1.6 exam. But I have only kathie
sierra and barbets study guide.
If you any materials like links for mock exams ,please send me. I will be very thankful to you.

Please SearchFirst. This question has been discussed for many times.

Perhaps this can help.

And welcome to CodeRanch!

[bhushan shirsath]

this can help you alot

http://www.javaprepare.com/

[hitesh jaymz hetfield]

hello,

please help me out....as i have purchased the voucher from NIIT and i got the admit card in my email in the protected pdf file....now my doubt which i request you to clear is...the client name written on the admit card is : SUN MICROSYSTEMS - OU JAVA, ORACLE SOLARIS NETBEANS EXAM KEYS.... there is nowhere written about the SCJP of OCPJP...

i would be obliged if anyone replies..

thanks in advance.

hitesh.

[satyakumardubi das]

Cover all syllabus ( concentrate more on java basics because they have 2nd part 1Z1-804, which cover all the java). Java basic / operator/arraylist and class inheritance

[hitesh jaymz hetfield]

satyakumardubi das wrote:Cover all syllabus ( concentrate more on java basics because they have 2nd part 1Z1-804, which cover all the java). Java basic / operator/arraylist and class inheritance

my doubt is how can i confirm that i have purchased correct ocpjp1.6 voucher...i am scared i might have purchased the wrong one.

[Anayonkar Shivalkar]

hitesh jaymz hetfield wrote:my doubt is how can i confirm that i have purchased correct ocpjp1.6 voucher...i am scared i might have purchased the wrong one.

Voucher does not mention any exam code or name on it. You can cross check your request with NIIT if you have any doubts. Apart from that, it's auto confirmed at the time of exam appointment.

I hope this helps.

[hitesh jaymz hetfield]

Anayonkar Shivalkar wrote:

hitesh jaymz hetfield wrote:my doubt is how can i confirm that i have purchased correct ocpjp1.6 voucher...i am scared i might have purchased the wrong one.

Voucher does not mention any exam code or name on it. You can cross check your request with NIIT if you have any doubts. Apart from that, it's auto confirmed at the time of exam appointment.

I hope this helps.

hello sir,

thanks a ton for the help sir, i thought the exam code and the name would be written on it, i will futher enquire with NIIT...

[Anayonkar Shivalkar]

Sure.

Indeed, you can also acquire a list of eligible exams (from NIIT). Generally, a voucher is valid for more than one certification, and you can choose any of those while taking the appointment.

I'm not sure about exact details with Oracle certification, but during SUN days, same voucher could be used for SCJP/SCJD etc.

[hitesh jaymz hetfield]

Anayonkar Shivalkar wrote:Sure.

Indeed, you can also acquire a list of eligible exams (from NIIT). Generally, a voucher is valid for more than one certification, and you can choose any of those while taking the appointment.

I'm not sure about exact details with Oracle certification, but during SUN days, same voucher could be used for SCJP/SCJD etc.

sure sir...i would get all the details for oracle is providing this advantage or not thanks

[sangeetha raj]

Hi All,

What is the different between exam number 310-065 and 1Z0-851 ? Both are same or different one ?

[raju salla]

Hi All,

What is the different between exam number 310-065 and 1Z0-851 ? Both are same or different one ?

hi sangeetha raj,

Those are the same exams 310-065 and 1Z0-851. But there is a change in the name of the exam. First it was SCJP later it was changed to OCPJP. That's it.

[Habeeb Shaikh]

Congtrates