Whether to upgrade from Java 2 to Java 7

[Paritosh H Chandorkar]

Hello All,

I have been an old time developer on Java.
I have worked on versions till Java 4.
I am Java 2 SCJP certified way back in 2000.

I want an advice:
In last 3 years my hands on experience has been limited.
Now I am back in Technical stream.
Should I give upgrade exam or do SCJP 7 afresh?

Thanks and regards,
Paritosh Chandorkar

[John Stark]

There were quite a lot of changes in Java 5. I am just preparing for the Java 7 upgrade having done Java 6 before and find it demanding. It's a pitty we are still waiting for the K & B Java 7 certification book. The only book for the Java 7 exam currently out there is the Ganesh & Sharma and I gave up reading it pretty quickly as it is full of errors so I am preparing with sites from the internet (like the Oracle tutorials). As a first exam I would probably do Java 6 just because it is such a nice experience with the K & B book. You don't really need anything else than that book (which is a pleasure to read), and some practice exams. Also I think the coderanch forum is much more active regarding the Java 6 certificate and you find a massive archive of posts as well.

Just my feelings of course.

John

[Paritosh H Chandorkar]

Hello John,

Thanks for your reply.

Can you please give me what K & B book means so that I can buy that?

Also can you list the other books which need to be studied?

What is the best exam simulator which I need for the Java 6 certification?

Thanks and regards,
Paritosh Chandorkar

[John Stark]

The book is

SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 6 Study Guide : Exam 310-065 (Sierra, Kathy and Bates, Bert (24 Jun 2008))

For the practice exams I used:

Enthuware exam simulator (http://enthuware.com/) (strongly recommended)
ExamLab (http://www.examlab.org/) (much more difficult than the real exam, very helpful)

The study guide comes with a CD which contains practice questions as well.
I also had the book 'OCP Java SE 6 Programmer Practice Exams: Exam 310-065 (Bert Bates and Katherine Sierra (1 Nov 2010)) which contains more practice questions.

HTH

John

[K. Tsang]

I agree with John that going from Java 2 to Java 7 is tough. Lots of new features between v2 and v5 and now v7.

If you plan to go for upgrade, go for v6 if I were you. Good luck.

[Paritosh H Chandorkar]

Thanks a lot John