Who is eligible for 'Upgrade to Java SE 8 OCP' exam - official reply from Oracle

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Quote from Oracle Certification blog

To confirm the upgrade path - this test is only for Java SE 8 OCPs. There are tentative plans to release an upgrade exam for candidates who have certifications earlier than Java SE 7, but I don't have much info on that upgrade exam yet.

Although it's a bit confusing ("this test is only for Java SE 8 OCPs"), I think they wanted to say that only Java SE 7 Programmers are eligible.

[Roel De Nijs]

That's different from what OCP Team told me and some other ranchers. And here is another reply from the OCP Team you can upgrade to OCP 8 if you are already OCP certified.

[Mikalai Zaikin]

WOW! That Oracle blog entry was deleted, now shows 404 error.

But there is another blog entry on the same blog which confirms what I posted above:

We evaluate each upgarde path on its own merits, so I cannot say that for every upgrade path, there will be a path for all the previous versions to upgrade with one exam. At some point, there is simply too much of a gap.

That said, there are tentative plans to release an upgrade exam that allows Java SE 6 and below certified programmers to upgrade to 8 with a single exam.

Regards,
Brandye Barrington

[Girish Bal]

This is really confusing . I am SCJP 1.4 certified and preparing for the Java 7 upgrade. The option to upgrade to 8 directly, that too in a beta (saves $$$ ) looks very tempting, but the confusion related to the eligibility is making me stick with the plan for 7 upgrade. I might think about 8 or 9 upgrade later.

[K. Tsang]

Looking at the changes from pre-java 5, java 5/6, java 7 and now java 8....

Lots of new features in java 7 compared to java 6. Even more in java 8 compared to java 6. Yet from 7 to 8 there seems to be only a few add-ons.

So theoretically for java 8 upgrade exam for anyone would need to test java 7 & 8 new features in the the upgrade. This would make the exam objectives covering JDBC, NIO and such (from java 7) which I doubt Oracle intended to do.

Down the road, will Oracle have a single or multi-exam upgrade path for pre-Java 7 certified people is uncertain.

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Girish Bal wrote:This is really confusing . I am SCJP 1.4 certified and preparing for the Java 7 upgrade. The option to upgrade to 8 directly, that too in a beta (saves $$$ ) looks very tempting, but the confusion related to the eligibility is making me stick with the plan for 7 upgrade. I might think about 8 or 9 upgrade later.

Since there are different feedbacks from Oracle, I would suggest you to try to contact that person (Brandye) to double-check.

The very bottom line on the Oracle certification blog says:

The views expressed on this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

[Girish Bal]

Looking at the Java 8 upgrade syllabus, it seems only new Java8 features are covered. The new Java7 features which are covered in Java 7 upgrade are not tested at all. So an upgrade to 7 and then to 8, given the current coverage, makes more sense to me. They should have a 7-to-8 upgrade exam and another pre7-to-8 exam, in my opinion.

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Google remembers everything , here is the deleted Oracle blog's post cached by Google + screenshot if cache expires

[Roel De Nijs]

K. Tsang wrote:Looking at the changes from pre-java 5, java 5/6, java 7 and now java 8....

Lots of new features in java 7 compared to java 6. Even more in java 8 compared to java 6. Yet from 7 to 8 there seems to be only a few add-ons.

Girish Bal wrote:Looking at the Java 8 upgrade syllabus, it seems only new Java8 features are covered. The new Java7 features which are covered in Java 7 upgrade are not tested at all. So an upgrade to 7 and then to 8, given the current coverage, makes more sense to me. They should have a 7-to-8 upgrade exam and another pre7-to-8 exam, in my opinion.

Totally agree with you both. It even makes sense if you look at the exam objectives of the Java 8 upgrade exam, only specific Java 8 features are covered. So someone with an SCJP5 or OCPJP6 would not be tested on all new Java 7 features or advanced topics. So you can easily argument why this upgrade exam would only be open to OCPJP7 certified developers.

But why does Oracle add to the confusion by sending out mixed messages? You would expect from Oracle (and especially the OCP Team) to know which candidates are eligible for a given exam and be consistent on the information they provide in blogs and/or service request replies.

[visu nallamaru]

I am scjp 5 wanting to upgrade to 8 .

i followed the converstaion till Here . its been a couple of months since last reply.

So can some one help to me understand whether there was any change in the upgrade path ? Are we eligible for an direct upgrade to Java 8 from Java 5?

Or i have to upgrade to Java 7 and then upgrade to Java 8 ?

[Mikalai Zaikin]

visu nallamaru wrote:I am scjp 5 wanting to upgrade to 8 .

i followed the converstaion till Here . its been a couple of months since last reply.

So can some one help to me understand whether there was any change in the upgrade path ? Are we eligible for an direct upgrade to Java 8 from Java 5?

Or i have to upgrade to Java 7 and then upgrade to Java 8 ?

The shortest way will be to upgrade to Java 7 (1Z0-805) and then upgrade to Java 8 (1Z0-810)

[Girish Bal]

Mikalai Zaikin wrote: The shortest way will be to upgrade to Java 7 (1Z0-805) and then upgrade to Java 8 (1Z0-810)

Yes! This is the path I am also going to follow to upgrade myself from 1.4 to 8.

SCJP 1.4 ---1Z0805---> OCPJP7 ----1Z0810----> OCPJP8

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Girish Bal wrote:

Mikalai Zaikin wrote: The shortest way will be to upgrade to Java 7 (1Z0-805) and then upgrade to Java 8 (1Z0-810)

Yes! This is the path I am also going to follow to upgrade myself from 1.4 to 8.

SCJP 1.4 ---1Z0805---> OCPJP7 ----1Z0810----> OCPJP8

JFYI, I have 2 free online study guides for Java 7 upgrade exam and Java 8 Upgrade exam

Good luck,
MZ

[Girish Bal]

Yes, I know of course! Have been using it since I started prep! Thanks for keeping them updated !

[Girish Bal]

Looks like there is a direct upgrade exam coming up!! in Beta!!!

https://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=5001&get_params=p_exam_id:1Z0-813

@Mikalai, time for another guide!!

[Oscar Calderon]

I'm not sure if this question is offtopic, but here it goes:

Currently i have SCJP 6 and i want to take 1Z0-813 exam (Upgrade to OCJP 8) but, how the Oracle people verifies that you meet all the requirements (a previous JAVA Programmer Certification) to perform the upgrade? I tried to schedule an exam using person VUE and i didn't get requested my previous certification ID or something. Do they ask for it when you go to the place where you take the exam or do they verify that automatically?

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Oscar Calderon wrote:I'm not sure if this question is offtopic, but here it goes:

Currently i have SCJP 6 and i want to take 1Z0-813 exam (Upgrade to OCJP 8) but, how the Oracle people verifies that you meet all the requirements (a previous JAVA Programmer Certification) to perform the upgrade? I tried to schedule an exam using person VUE and i didn't get requested my previous certification ID or something. Do they ask for it when you go to the place where you take the exam or do they verify that automatically?

It's verified automatically when you granted OCP 8 after test pass.

Test center does not care if you have SCJP 6.