Gone through Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates and still 45%

[harbir hundal]

Hi,

I am preparing for OCJP for a while now and I have gone through the book "Sun Certified Programmer for Java", by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates.
I have gone through this book twice and still when I am trying to do the practice exams I am scoring only 45%(which is frustrating).
I reckon I have to do the book again, are there any tips or other resources that I can refer?
I would appreciate any suggestions that will help my progress.

Regards
Adofo

[Anayonkar Shivalkar]

Apart from going through the book one more time, you can try to do a lot of hands on.

Dump your favorite IDE and get on with your favorite text editor (not a Java editor) - gedit, vi, emacs, notepad etc. Try to write a program from the scratch - put it in package etc., try to compile it and run it.

That way, you'll understand which class requires which imports, which letter is uppercase, which method takes what kind of arguments etc. and most of all, it will raise your confidence as you'll understand that you no more needs to rely on auto-completion of an IDE. Of course, the last step will take a little time - depending on the amount of hands on you do. If you are reading any dumps or question-answers, stop doing that - or at least try to answer the questions before you go through answers.

If the question contains code snippet, write it on your own (don't copy-paste it), compile it and run it (if you have any doubts about the answer).

Once you are comfortable with compile time issues and package structures(i.e. you are comfortably scoring 80%+ in those area), then only consider about using your favorite IDE. IDEs are great for debugging

Also note that mock exams in Sierra-Bates are quite tough than real exams. So, if this is your first mock exam, then it is not abnormal to fail You can also take a look at what areas you are weak in.

I hope this helps.

All the best.

[matt love]

Hi Adofo.

There's another thread going on from which you might find something useful.

Try: https://coderanch.com/t/574186/java-programmer-SCJP/certification/Studying-but-not-scoring-good

Good luck.

Matt

[harbir hundal]

@Anayonkar Shivalkar
Thank you very much for the reply, and I think your reply is making a lot of sense. The transition between the IDE and the plain text in the exam is definitely one of the main challenges here.

@matt
Thank you for the sending in a good thread.

[Pratik Sinha]

Anayonkar Shivalkar wrote:

Apart from going through the book one more time, you can try to do a lot of hands on.

Dump your favorite IDE and get on with your favorite text editor (not a Java editor) - gedit, vi, emacs, notepad etc. Try to write a program from the scratch - put it in package etc., try to compile it and run it.

That way, you'll understand which class requires which imports, which letter is uppercase, which method takes what kind of arguments etc. and most of all, it will raise your confidence as you'll understand that you no more needs to rely on auto-completion of an IDE. Of course, the last step will take a little time - depending on the amount of hands on you do. If you are reading any dumps or question-answers, stop doing that - or at least try to answer the questions before you go through answers.

If the question contains code snippet, write it on your own (don't copy-paste it), compile it and run it (if you have any doubts about the answer).

Once you are comfortable with compile time issues and package structures(i.e. you are comfortably scoring 80%+ in those area), then only consider about using your favorite IDE. IDEs are great for debugging

Also note that mock exams in Sierra-Bates are quite tough than real exams. So, if this is your first mock exam, then it is not abnormal to fail You can also take a look at what areas you are weak in.

I hope this helps.

All the best.

He is right on the money here and I couldn't agree more. Frankly, I have not given any complete mock exam because my initial scores are very poor.

What I can recommend is and I am not an expert to complete the book and try to give mock test based on a particular topic. This can help to sort out the which part needs more work. Doing this on objective basis can help you.

Again I am not an expert maybe this way can help you.

Regards,

Pratik Sinha