Java SE 6 vs. Java SE 7 at both Associate and Professional level.

[Peeyush Vijayvargia]

Planning and studying to write Associate level Java certification exam. Should i go for Java SE 6 or SE 7 certification ? OCA SE 7 or OCA SE 5/6 ? Please suggest and help..

A friend of mine who is SCJP holder has suggested me to currently focus only on SE 6, at both Associate and Professional level. But i have gone through and compared the course content for both Java SE 6 or SE 7 on the Oracle website. Content for SE 7 looks more promising, balanced, industry oriented and clear. So i am thinking to go for SE 7. Please provide expert guidance as to whether i should go for SE 6 or 7 and which is more fruitful considering the current scenario in development scene ? Thanks a lot...

[Alex Benedict]

If you are confused between SCJP 6 and OCPJP 7 take a look at this blog.

[Peeyush Vijayvargia]

Thanks for the reply.
But i am not confused between SCJP 6 and OCPJP 7. My dilemma is that whether i should opt for Java SE 6 or should go for SE 7 while writing both OCA and subsequently OCP...

[K. Tsang]

Hello there,

The OCPJP6 has "no" prereq" while OCPJP7 does. For Java 7, you will need to take 2 exams to get OCPJP (OCA+OCP exams). For Java 6, the OCA is not necessary if you plan to go for "Programmer".

FYI, OCA7 is a subset of OCPJP6 plus some Java 7 new features. Yet OCA5/6 is nothing like OCPJP because the intended audience is for "junior" programmers and managers.

If your ultimate goal is Java 7 and don't have much experience then I suggest you do the Java 7 track. However, if you have quite a bit Java experience then you may want to consider OCPJP6 then do the upgrade to OCPJP7 later.

[Peeyush Vijayvargia]

Hello,,

First of all thanks for the reply. Thanks a lot. You gave very valuable inputs to me. This was exactly what i was looking for.

I will go for SE 7 now, because i am not a very experienced programmer. I am just a novice with all the theoretical concepts.

Thanks.