OCA/OCP Java SE 7 Programmer I & II Study Guide (K&B7) - Queries

[Raghavan Muthu]

Hi Kathy & Bert,

Welcome to Ranch after a long time.

Wanted to understand few things from your old SCJP 2/5 Certification exam.

1. I understand that this version has been made into two parts - Part I & II, only upon completion a candidate will be declared as OCPJP Certified. Right?

2. How different/tedious OCPJP 7 is from SCJP 1.5?

3. Is there any change in the fundamental approach of the exam than the previous versions?

4. Do we have any JDK 7 features in the exam or it is just generic Java based concepts?

5. Will we have any backward compatibility related questions in the exam?

6. How should we attend the two papers - OCPJP Programmer I & II ? what is the maximum duration between each versions?

7. Do we have any simulation type questions in the new version of exam?

Thanks for your reply in advance.

[Carlos Borrero]

Hi Kathy and Bert,

I wanted to know when would be release date, I pre-ordered it in chapters about 1 year and 5 months ago, and I just checked again in the Chapters page and the release date now is showing as July 25, 2015,

Is this more or less the expected release date ?

I already got the OCA JSE7 certification and I wanted to wait for your book to prepare for the OCP JS7 certification, that's the nature of my inquiry...


Thank you,
Carlos

[Roel De Nijs]

I'm not Kathy, nor Bert but I can give it a try

Raghavan Muthu wrote:1. I understand that this version has been made into two parts - Part I & II, only upon completion a candidate will be declared as OCPJP Certified. Right?

If you pass the 1st part, you are OCAJP7 (Oracle Certified Associate) certified. If you pass also the 2nd part, you are OCPJP7 (Oracle Certified Professional) certified. If you already have a prior SCJP or OCPJP certification, you can take the upgrade exam (and thus you'll need to pass just 1 exam instead of 2).

Raghavan Muthu wrote:2. How different/tedious OCPJP 7 is from SCJP 1.5?

Whereas OCPJP5 and OCPJP6 are almost similar (just a few small differences, like the Console class you need to know for OCPJP6), the differences between OCPJP7 and SCJP5/OCPJP5 are huge. Besides the minor syntax changes in Java 7 (Project Coin, e.g. underscores in number literals, diamond syntax,...), Oracle has added a bunch of advanced topics you'll need to know: try-with-resources, multi-catch, NIO 2.0, concurrency API, i18n (resource bundles), jdbc, advanced OO and a few design patterns.

Raghavan Muthu wrote:3. Is there any change in the fundamental approach of the exam than the previous versions?

No, the exam is still multiple choice questions (no drag-and-drop questions anymore)

Raghavan Muthu wrote:4. Do we have any JDK 7 features in the exam or it is just generic Java based concepts?

Already answered a bit in question 2. You need to know all JDK7 features for the exam. For OCAJP7 it's limited to Project Coin. For the OCPJP7 you'll need to know the more advanced topics like try-with-resources, multi-catch, NIO 2.0, concurrency API,...

Raghavan Muthu wrote:5. Will we have any backward compatibility related questions in the exam?

I don't know exactly what you mean, but you still need to know what happens if you use a generic list in a non-generic method.

Raghavan Muthu wrote:6. How should we attend the two papers - OCPJP Programmer I & II ? what is the maximum duration between each versions?

There is no minimal required period between taking both exams, so you could Because OCAJP7 is a pre-requisite of OCPJP7 you can take OCPJP7 only if the systems now you passed OCAJP7

Raghavan Muthu wrote:7. Do we have any simulation type questions in the new version of exam?

As far as I know that's possible in every exam.


Hope it helps!
Kind regards,
Roel

[Roel De Nijs]

Carlos Borrero wrote:I wanted to know when would be release date, I pre-ordered it in chapters about 1 year and 5 months ago, and I just checked again in the Chapters page and the release date now is showing as July 25, 2015,

Is this more or less the expected release date ?

According to the official page of the book, it was released on October 13, 2014.

Hope it helps!
Kind regards,
Roel

[Raghavan Muthu]

Roel De Nijs wrote:I'm not Kathy, nor Bert but I can give it a try

Raghavan Muthu wrote:6. How should we attend the two papers - OCPJP Programmer I & II ? what is the maximum duration between each versions?

There is no minimal required period between taking both exams, so you could Because OCAJP7 is a pre-requisite of OCPJP7 you can take OCPJP7 only if the systems now you passed OCAJP7

Hope it helps!
Kind regards,
Roel

Thanks Roel. Much appreciated. To this question, I wanted to know how soon one should complete OCPJP after procuring OCAJP?

[Roel De Nijs]

Raghavan Muthu wrote:I wanted to know how soon one should complete OCPJP after procuring OCAJP?

Ah, that's an easy one. There is no limitation at all. So you could take OCAJP7 now, take a world tour (to celebrate this achievement ) and take OCPJP7 after 3 years (if this exam is still available of course).

[Bert Bates]

Thanks Roel,

Just one point to clarify - Oracle treats the exam's objectives more dynamically than Sun did. We did our best to predict what would be on the exam and include coverage. In some places we might have discussed topics that you won't get tested on, but we wanted to err on the safe side. For example, at the last minute (for us authors), it appeared that Oracle added "serialization" back into the exam. Will it stay there? We don't know, but we added a serialization chapter to the CD just in case.

But the important message is this: Check the Oracle website for the latest objectives. If it takes you six months to study, check the website every few months, Oracle might have changed something on you! :O

[Bindu Lakhanpal]

Thanks Bert. Having the awareness of dynamic nature of exam is very important to the people taking exam. There should be no last minute surprises.

[Carlos Borrero]

Roel De Nijs wrote:

Carlos Borrero wrote:I wanted to know when would be release date, I pre-ordered it in chapters about 1 year and 5 months ago, and I just checked again in the Chapters page and the release date now is showing as July 25, 2015,

Is this more or less the expected release date ?

According to the official page of the book, it was released on October 13, 2014.

Hope it helps!
Kind regards,
Roel

Thank you Roel, I wrote to Chapters Canada and they said that the book is estimated to be released by January 31st 2016, I think there is an information gap on their side, even Amazon.ca states it not yet released, I will cancel my pre-order with them and get it from the link you posted, thank you very much for your note

Regards,
Carlos

[Roel De Nijs]

Carlos Borrero wrote:I think there is an information gap on their side, even Amazon.ca states it not yet released

I noticed something similar 1 week ago with Amazon.de (book available) and Amazon.co.uk (book in pre-order). Now the page on Amazon.co.uk states Jan 2015 as release date, but the book is already in stock and you can order it

[Raghavan Muthu]

Bert Bates wrote:Thanks Roel,

But the important message is this: Check the Oracle website for the latest objectives. If it takes you six months to study, check the website every few months, Oracle might have changed something on you! :O

Thanks Bert. However, it is NOT a good sign. Right? Obviously the last minute will always be big deal! Bad Oracle

[Joe San]

Looking at all the discussions, I guess I would wait for may be Java 8 certification or perhaps a Scala certification.