On 22nd March 2016 I’ve passed OCA
Java SE 8 with 80%. I took me around 3 months to archive this. I’m not an IT professional, but yes I wanted to become one of them.
Special thanks to
Jeanne Boyarsky &
Scott Selikoff for their wonderful book. Also thanks to
Mala Gupta for easy to read and real life explanation in her new book (Specially for non-English speaker like me). Thanks for all of the members of this forum specially
Roel De Nijs who has help me a lot to clear my doubts, most importantly the
String Objects and String Pool.
Recourses I’ve used:
OCA: Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer I Study Guide: Exam 1Z0-808 by Jeanne Boyarsky & Scott Selikoff.
OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Certification Guide by Mala Gupta.
Enthuware mock exam.
In first attempt my score in each chapter’s review question (Sybex guide) was between 60-70%. Then I’ve decided to go through the each chapters of book again. My score has improved from 60-70% to 85-90%. Then after I did the 1st mock exam from sybex guide and I got only 55%. Which wasn’t good. Then I’ve read OCA Java SE 8 by Mala Gupta. Did mock exam from it and score 74%.
After finishing it I am back to Sybex guid by Jeanne Boyarsky, and make some important notes of each topics of around 50 pages. These notes have helped me a lot. Now I went for the mock exams from Sybex guide again and I got…
Test 1: 71%
Test 2: 65%
Test 3: 71%
Even though It wasn’t that good I go for Enthuware…
First time attempts score of Enthuware (Within a week from the day of exam (Today)):
Foundation Test: 55%
Test 1: 66%
Test 2: 60% (Failed)
Test 3: 68%
Test 4: 71%
Test 5: 74%
Test 6: 72%
Final Day Test: 73%
Offcourse I’ve revised all of the questions that I did wrong to find my mistakes what am I doing wrong? I was disappointed with the score of early tests. But after correcting my mistake and coding some examples my performance has improved continuously. My suggestion about Enthuware is, it is really helpful mock exams for this certification. You don’t need to go anywhere else than Enthuware. Please don’t disappoint with the score you got from the Enthuware test, just correct your mistake and learn any topic you are not happy with and you are good to go… Wait let me tell you one more thing for your moral support, real exam is much easier than the Enthuware. I should say that Sybex guide mock exam is like similar to the real exam.
Thanks for reading my review about OCA Java SE 8 experience. Wish you all the best for your exam. I’m going for
Java SE 8 Programmer II 1Z0-809
Thanks.
Suketu Patel