Question and Recommendations for 1Z0-813 (Upgrade from Java 6 to Java 8)

[Penelope Quintero]

Hi. My Name is Penelope. Or Penny. I'm new in this forums and I came here for some help.

I got the OCJP 6 last year, and I'm planning to take the 1Z0-813 (Upgrade to Java SE 8 OCP ( Java SE 6 and all prior versions)) on April 2016. The exams topics are already listed in the Oracle's page, but there is no JDBC topic in it, and I was wondering if this could be a mistake because in the 1Z0-809, JDBC is listed. Should I make some time for studying JDBC? I have searched in the forum and I don't see anyone taking this test yet.

I will like some recommendations too, about which books can I use for studying, specially for the test I'm taking. I have searched online and there is no specific book yet.
And if is possible, which other exams topics should I study that aren't listed in the Oracle page, just in case.

Thank you very much for your help, and I apologize if my english is a little bit weird.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Penny,
Welcome to CodeRanch!

There are a number of inconsistencies between the Java 8 exams. I actually wrote a blog post on the differences. The point is there are a lot and there doesn't appear to be a rationale to it. I suspect they dropped JDBC because there were so many other topics to cover. I took the OCP 8 and the Java 7 to 8 upgrade beta exams. i did not take the Java 6 to 8 upgrade beta, but I think it is unlikely Oracle "missed" a whole objective that is on the exam.

Quite honestly, I think they should remove JDBC from the exam altogether. JDBC is a good topic. And on the OCP 7, Oracle tested practical concepts. On the OCP 8, they removed a lot of those practical concepts. If that is all they are leaving on, I feel like they would be better off removing it. Or adding back PreparedStatements and Savepoints!

As far as books, Scott and my OCP 8 book is the first one on the market. It is supposed to come out late next month. It is currently at the printer. Scott and I actually added an appendix before it went to print for things people taking the "upgrade 6 to 8" exam have to know but those taking OCP 8 directly or upgrading from 7 do not need to know.

If you plan to buy two books, I recommend buying K&B 7 now and then our book when it comes out. That way you can study the Java 7 topics first. If you only plan to buy one book, I recommend starting with the Java 7/8 tutorials and then buying our book when it comes out.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Penny (and others),
Now that our book is getting close, Amazon has the preview pages up. Obviously this isn't the same as actually having the book. It does mean that you can start reading it while waiting for the full book to be published. Scott and I are done with all our edits. What you see in the Amazon free preview is exactly the same as what will be in the "real" book. Just less pages of it.

[Roel De Nijs]

Hi Penelope Quintero,

First of all, a warm welcome to CodeRanch!

Penelope Quintero wrote:I will like some recommendations too, about which books can I use for studying, specially for the test I'm taking. I have searched online and there is no specific book yet.
And if is possible, which other exams topics should I study that aren't listed in the Oracle page, just in case.

You probably won't find a study guide which focuses especially at the 1Z0-813 certification exam. So you want a study guide for the 1Z0-809 certification exam, but as these exams are pretty recent and authors of course need plenty of time to write a study guide of high quality covering all exam objectives, such a study guide is currently not available. But as Jeanne already mentioned, the study guide of her and Scott will almost certain be the first one available on the market.

If I were you, I would now buy the K&B7 study guide and already start studying the OCP part (after maybe reading the OCA part). When Jeanne and Scott their study guide is available, buy that one as well. Probably the biggest advantage of having both these books: the K&B7 study guide will prepare you for the OCP7 exam and covers all the exam objectives for this certification exam (including JDBC). And the other study guide will prepare you for the OCP8 exam. So after studying both study guides you probably have studied all exam topics for both OCP certification exams (and you don't have to do any additional studying of exam topics not listed in the exam objectives).

Hope it helps!
Kind regards,
Roel