Passed the OCA 8 Exam

[Ben Pittens]

Hello,

This morning I passed the OCA test with a score of 72%!!!

I am happy with that result after a very busy month with studying a lot and also working 40 hours a week!

I would like to thank all the people who helped me at the coderanch, speciall thanks to Roel, Jeanne, Scott and Ramya.
Your answers and tips helped me a lot! I really appriciate that.

Here is how I did my preperation: its a little contribution to this site. Maybe its interesting for people who also want to go for the OCA certificate:

Before I started this study, my basics are c# medior level programmer and Java Junior level programmer. I only learned Java OOP at high school with a little practical experience in Eclipse.
My normal job is System integrator(I work with linux Redhat, IBM Datapower and IBM MQ systems). If I have to create a service for integration tests I use Java(last time I used Java is about 3 months ago).

20 december I received the Java book ordered at Amazon: "OCA Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer 1 Study guide" written by Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff: B&S book.
21 december I bought the Ethuware practice kit for 12,00 euro.

23 december 2015 until 3 jan 2016
I studied 10 days(Average of 9 hours a day) real hard in the B&S book. I went through all the theory and after each chapter I made all the questions of that chapter when possible work things out in a simple notepad texteditor. Not yet Eclipse, just only the text editor at that moment.
Then I did some Ethuware tests. That was bad news: between 40% and 50% score. I did also the flashcards at the Sybex-Wiley testbank. That result was good. But that is an easy job.

4 - 10 january 2016
I looked for what I did wrong in the Ethuware tests and tryed to update that part of my Java knowledge by again studying the B&S book. Every evening I read a chapter and did the exercises again in the B&S book. And a deepdive in the questions at each chapter and some practical input in trying different variants in a notedpad code editor.
At saterday and sunday I practised the whole day in Eclypse Mars and also the notepad editor.

At 10 januari I did practal exam 1 of the Sybex-Wiley testbank: Result 56%. A little better but not good enough.

11 - 17 januari 2016
I did some Ethuware exercises and looked for what went good and what not and why.
In this week I read the B&S book for the thirth time and I was in a stage that sometimes I knew what was stated on the next page. And again did the exercises by creating variants of it.
At 16 and 17 januari I did at the Sybex-Wiley testbank website, Pacticum Exam 2 and 3 and reached an average score of 68%.
Good enough according the advices of Jeanne to go for the gold.

18 january 2016 I did the test!
My worst Enemy was the time. You really have not much of time for each question. Because I live in the netherlands(No English speaken country) i get an exam time of 150 minute(2,5 hour) for 77 questions.
So at last I had to gamble for 7 questions because I was running out of time. Else my score would be higher. But nevertheless its a part of the job that you have a limited time.

In mine opinion the Ethuware tests are much havier as the real exam, they go much more into detail, but they are good for training. The Sybex Wiley testbank come close to the real experience.
And the B&S book fits for this job, its excellent written. Its worth 5 stars at Amazon! Java is not such an easy language for me but the B&S book made it clear for me.

Thanks and lets go for the OCP job!! First a couple of beers this evening.

Kind Regards
Ben.

[Mushfiq Mammadov]

Congrats!

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Congrats Ben!

Want to edit the OCAJP Wall of Fame to add row for yourself and a link to your story?

[Ramya R Subramanian]

Awesome Ben !!! Congrats ...

[Roel De Nijs]

Hi Ben,

Congratulations champion! Great achievement 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

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Other ranchers will definitely benefit! Have a cow!

Don't forget to add your name to the OcajpWallOfFame!

Kind regards,
Roel

[Ben Pittens]

Hi,

Thanks again and thanks for the cow.
Yes I like a "Rochefort 10"(dark belgian beer) for a cold dark winter evening like this.

I submitted my name and story to the Wall of fame.

I also just bought the Java OCP Programmer II book of Jeanne and Scott at Amazon.
Next step....

Kind regards
Ben

[Roel De Nijs]

Ben Pittens wrote:I would like to thank all the people who helped me at the coderanch, speciall thanks to Roel, Jeanne, Scott and Ramya.

Glad to hear I could help!

Ben Pittens wrote:Yes I like a "Rochefort 10"(dark belgian beer) for a cold dark winter evening like this.

That's much better than Heineken

Ben Pittens wrote:I also just bought the Java OCP Programmer II book of Jeanne and Scott at Amazon.
Next step....

Please note that the OCPJP exam is much harder than the OCAJP one. So don't rush while preparing or you might be in for a bad surprise. You have to study more content, the exam objectives contain more advanced topics (e.g. generics, threading, concurrency) and to pass the exam you need a more in-depth knowledge. And of course you still need to know everything from the OCAJP exam as well

[Scott Selikoff]

Congratulations!!! Glad our book could help!

[Steffe Wilson]

Congrats Ben and thanks for the helpful feedback about how you achieved your result.

[Nil. Hatamova]

congratulations

[Paul Anilprem]

Congratulations!!