Hi,
Today I passed OCA 7 with 98%. I would like to share a couple of notes with those who are going to take that sooner or later.
I used Mala Gupta's book and Enthuware tests. Both book and s/w are describing and explaning the things very clearly. Simply saying, I was reading the book mainly because of the interest how the basic things in
Java are handled internally. For the actual preparation I started to take the Enthuware tests ~6 days before the exam (1-2 mocked exams per day). Results:
Starter
test: 80%;
1: 74%;
2: 87%;
3: 86%;
4: 80%;
5: 89%;
6: 81%;
Last day test: 83%.
Of course, I reviewed all the answered questions even if they were correct. As couple of times the actual reason of why the answer is correct - was different. I took the last day test as supposed from the name - one day before the exam. That was extremely helpful as I met around 2-3 questions during the exam that were almost equal to those which were on that test.
Also, even Oracle might do mistakes. Sample from the exam question:
This is the question's sample and that was asking for the output. Do you see whats wrong there? In the options were suggested like:
1. 200 100
2. Compilation error on //1
3-4. Compilation error on //2 and //3 (I didnt mention the lines in the code as I dont remember them, the case why I have posted the question here is different).
I believe you have noticed that the code would fail to compile because of obj.method1() and obj.method2() as they are not defined in class Y.
It took about 5 minutes for me to choose the correct answer. I didnt understand why neither obj.method1() line nor obj.method2() line are not mentioned in the answers options because the rest of the lines that actually were - obviously not a compile-time errors (e.g as in example of //1).
Ultimately, asuming that even Oracle can do mistakes, I have chosen option 1 (200 100). Seems like that was correct as the only question I answered incorrectly during exam was about the topic of break/continue statement.
Overall, I want to wish you not to study too much. I mean if you understand the basics and pass the mocked tests with a confident results - additional information might make things confused in your head. I wish that, because I am that kind of person.
Trying to get better results might make them worse sometimes. I experienced that couple of times in university.
So, thanks to the coderanch forum for getting me prepared on what to expect from the exam. Good luck to future takers!
6
Now it's time to relax a bit and have a (well-deserved) 
(or 2 or 3). And if you want to spoil yourself have a Belgian beer, our beers are the best of the world 
