Hi guys
On Thursday afternoon I passed the 1Z0-803 with a 95% score.
It was a tricky road at times
so I thought I'd share a few things here about how I got there in the end.
In the middle of my preparation, when I first started attempting timed exam questions,
I wondered if I could ever pass the
test at all. Time per question was of such great concern to me.
Then I posted here and took this advice: Use just a text-editor with javac
I reckon it's the only way to go for this particular exam
It WAS a little tricky at first but accuracy and speed shot up after a week.
For sure it reduces code figuring-out time and makes compilation error spotting quicker.
I had almost no previous Object Oriented Programming experience
(I had read
Java for Dummies a couple of years ago and wrote some little programs

)
Here's what I used to prepare over the last 6 months:
Mala GuptaEsteban Herrera Java Practice Questions OCAJavaRanchWhizlabsEnthuwareNotepad & javac
Mala Gupta's book - through in detail once
and then thru all the chapter summaries again
and all the sample questions too
I felt I had been thorough in my approach with Gupta book
And as a result I felt somewhat confident.
But when I tried a timed mini exam (I think the Enthuware trial)
I nearly had a seizure!
JavaRanch
A saviour when stuck!
This was when I posted on here, started using notepad/javac etc... and things got much better
I would say that if you're a newbie like I was, finishing whatever prep book/course you use for the exam is just about half way.
It's absolutely okay to struggle with mock exam questions at first.
In order not to 'burn' many Enthuware questions/exams unneccessarily while improving
I looked around for other sources of questions.
Esteban Herrera's Java OCA Practice questions I found good for this.
They are really tricky, good-for-learning questions.
Perhaps not quite as tuned in to exactly what's on the current Oracle test as say Enthuware but great for training
I went through the 100 or so questions and then after reading the explanations
I used notepad/javac to code out variations on most of them
Enthuware
My first full mock came in at 71%
I was quite relieved - not just with the pass score but the fact that I could now manage 70 Q's in 120 mins at all!
After that I went through all Enthuware's mock exams (with some Whizlabs ones inserted between)
Enthuware explanations complete pretty much all your required knowledge for the test
and also a very active question forum is accessible from each solution
(Whizlabs helped too but they are not as close to the exam content as Enthuware
and there isn't a forum or anywhere near as good a set of explanations)
Any queries I still had I posted here and got great help every time. Thanks guys
The Enthuware Last Day Test is a must
It's so good to have fresh in your mind when you go in
Here's the mocks:
Enthuware
Trial Test - Unfinished/Fail
Test 1 - 71%
Test 2 - 79%
Test 3 - 90%
Test 4 - 80%
Test 5 - 86%
Test 6 - 90%
Last Day Test - 87%
WhizLabs
Diagnostic - 97%
Mock Test 1 - 92%
Mock Test 2 - 90%
Mock Test 3 - 82%
Final Test - 98%
Oracle exam - 95%
A huge thank you to JavaRanch
And Enthuware: thank you for your really well implemented software
And thanks to all the previous students who posted their experiences here.
You all really helped me get through it
Good Luck future Exam-takers!
Ciao!