OCA 7 - cleared

[Sergei Zhylinski]

Hi, I took and passed today a OCA 7 exam with 91% score. I used the following materials to prepare for the exam:

- SCJP 6 Study Guide by K&B.
- OCA7 Java SE 7 Certification Guide by Mala Gupta.
- JLS 7
- Enthuware tests
- http://coderanch.com/

Lots of people shared their experience on how to prepare for these exams. I would only add, that Java Language Specification helped me greatly in my preparations. Study guides are like entry points to it as the specification is a bit harder to read and understand. But on the other hand it provides more detailed information for the corresponding topics. After having read the chapters from the specification related to the exam questions (execution, conversions and promotions and others) my results on Enthuware mock tests increased from 74% for the first exam and 80% for the second mock test up to 86% for the third one and 89% for the forth one. Hence, I decided not to do remaining tests and signed up for the cerficate. I'll complete the remaining test before OCP, just to refresh my memory.

[Sergej Smoljanov]

Congratulations good result!about jls good recommendation.

[Sergej Smoljanov]

and one question about registration. what document you use?
i have only one document with First name and Second name in translit (driver license). But in my passport there is First Name, Middle Name and Last Name (pasport in national language).
Are you use middle name in registration on Pearson VUE?
And if in driver license in english there is no middle name in English should I use it in registration?

[Sergei Zhylinski]

Sergej Smoljanov wrote:and one question about registration. what document you use?
i have only one document with First name and Second name in translit (driver license). But in my passport there is First Name, Middle Name and Last Name (pasport in national language).
Are you use middle name in registration on Pearson VUE?
And if in driver license in english there is no middle name in English should I use it in registration?

Hi. Thanks. As for registration, as I understand Middle name is not required. An employee at our local Pearson VUE center asked to bring passport, an created an account for me with my first and last name only.

[aditya chaudhari]

Hi Sergei Zhylinski ,
Great score Congratulations
Thank you for sharing your experience.

I have read many experience and how all study.
But in your post you have mentioned that you have used "JLS 7 ".
you also mentioned that you read JLS as per exam objective.

As its hard to read JLS can you please elaborate your detailed approach on " How you used JLS for OCAJP preparation" ?

[Roel De Nijs]

Congratulations champion with a truely great score!

Don't forget to add your name to the OcajpWallOfFame.

[Roel De Nijs]

aditya chaudhari wrote:But in your post you have mentioned that you have used "JLS 7 ".
you also mentioned that you read JLS as per exam objective.

Reading the JLS7 is not required to pass the OCAJP7 certification. If you are a novice/beginner I would even advice against using the JLS in your preparation. Simply because it's sometimes very hard to read and understand these sentences, so instead of clearing your doubts, the JLS might even get you more confused.

I'll also share my personal experiences: I passed 3 different java programmer certifications and have never consulted nor read the JLS.

[Abhay Agarwal]

As Roel said, reading JLS especially when any one is Java beginner or preparing for OCA 7 cert can confuse the candidate. So , normally , we can skip it as JLS contains too much of matter than it is required for cert preparation.
I have also given two Java cert exams [ Java 5 and Java 7 Upgrade exam] without reading JLS.

[Sergej Smoljanov]

i still preparing i think JLS is good reading, not for start book - but in it you can meet cool examples which you may not encounter in guide book.
I think good path will be: read one or two guide book and then read JLS.
also one of purpose fill up language with new words (English not native language for me)
When i start JLS i read it with purpose find where code not compile. But find in it many examples with code, some of it i cleared in this forum.
and after JLS i read one more time guide book because some concepts was forgotten.

[Roel De Nijs]

Sergej Smoljanov wrote:I think good path will be: read one or two guide book and then read JLS.

I don't agree. I think reading JLS for OCAJP7 is a pure waste of time. A good study guide, some good mock exams (like Enthuware) and writing lots of code (snippets) will make you pass OCAJP7 with flying colours. But if you like it and find it useful, just continue reading the JLS

[Sergei Zhylinski]

Thanks a lot to everyone.

Roel De Nijs wrote:<...> and writing lots of code (snippets) will make you pass OCAJP7 with flying colours. But if you like it and find it useful, just continue reading the JLS

That is what I forgot to mention. I was experimenting with the code very much. I have nearly 50 little projects just for OCA, where I put interesting issues, either found out by myself or found from monitoring coderanch forum.