Part 1 failed

[Christian Nicoll]

Hello,

I've took today the part one and reached only 61% of the required 71% - not a great start to the week-end... The test was compared to the other Oracle/Sun certification tests (multiple choice tests) that I did before much harder, because I'll say that only something like 20% were really theoretical questions (and therefor undoubted clear) and the rest was scenario-based questions that had (from my perspective) a lot of potentially correct answers. I'm totally agreeing to the post of Christiaan Thamm about his expierences with the exam, mine are really similar.

My preparation was mainly the Allen/Bambara book. Inside of the book tests I scored something between 70-80%. Further I did the TotalTester with the 120 questions and scored there 84%. For the next try I'll study things like java cryptography, timers, JMS delivery modes and JCA transcations deeper. I'm not that worried about this. I believe the hardest part will be really to figure out the best answer for the scenario based questions... Any ideas?

Currently I'm not sure what I've to change to success next time. I think it would be good to read other stuff than only the Allen/Bambara book and do further mocks in preparation. If some one of you has some recommendations, please share them with me.

Regards,
Christian

[Les Morgan]

Christian Nicoll wrote:Hello,
I believe the hardest part will be really to figure out the best answer for the scenario based questions... Any ideas?

Yes, don't try to rationalize anything or overthink, don't read anything into the information given nor into the question. The question my seem stupid and the answer also, but don't second guess and look deep, pick that one that is exactly and simply what they ask for.

I have taken a lot of these type of tests from FBI/CIA/Government/Consulting Firms/Testing Agencies/Licensing Entities, I believe the old curse uttered by my ancestors would be "a pox upon them all", but it is as simple as don't read anything into it--many of these type of questions are made to suite supervisors and boards where the members have a high level view and subtleties are their way of not straying too far from believable, but not being correct.

Ever speak to a politician that didn't want to be exactly on the record for saying what they said? There ya go, the wrong answers, but sounds OK.

[K. Tsang]

Sorry to hear that.

Scenario based questions can be hard sometimes, especially after reading you don't know what they are really asking.

Don't know how much "design" (java) experience you have, often common sense or gut feeling (when there are 2 equally good choice) should, I won't say will here, get you the right answer.

Given you have the other Java EE developer certs, reviewing the basics of those certs should help. I found the EJB dev cert material is worth reviewing.

Other than that, do know the 5Ws and pros/cons of the tech.

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Christian Nicoll wrote:Hello,

I've took today the part one and reached only 61% of the required 71% - not a great start to the week-end...

Regards,
Christian

Don't give up
I failed Part 1 too (70 v.s. 71)
I agree that exam is extremely hard (but it highest level of certification, so it is no unexpected)

[Christian Nicoll]

Thanks for your inputs.

@Mikalai: How much time was between your first and second attempt. What did you change in your preparation? Where some of the questions from the first attempt also asked the second time?

Btw. is there a limit in how many times can part 1 be taken?

Regards,
Christian

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Christian Nicoll wrote:

@Mikalai: How much time was between your first and second attempt. What did you change in your preparation? Where some of the questions from the first attempt also asked the second time?

Btw. is there a limit in how many times can part 1 be taken?

Regards,
Christian

Christian, I failed first time Beta exam, and preparation was about 3 days.
Next time I took about 10 months and passed with about 80% (not perfect, but higher than 71%)
Regarding preparation: I read everything I can, unfortunately I passed it too much time ago, so cannot recall exact book names. I can recall one - Adam Bien's book (again, don't recall whether it was first or second edition) - http://realworldpatterns.com/
There is no limit to take any Java exam from Oracle, the rules are: you must wait at least two weeks before second attempt, and IIRC there is max number of attempts per year too for a single exam.
Regarding question repeating: Oracle may create 2 question banks for exam, let's say exam is 70 questions, so if they created 2 banks (140 questions) you may not see any same question on second attempt. Or there may the case - they have 1.5 banks (105 questions), so some questions are repeated, and some are new (this is more realistic scenario)

[Christian Nicoll]

Dear Mikalai

thanks a lot for this great answe.

Regards,
Christian

[K. Tsang]

The failed report should have indicated what areas/objectives you are weak on. Study those more and don't forget to review the others (already ok'ed) objectives.

[Christian Nicoll]

Currently I'm preparing my second shot, and therefore I've created my own notes.

Any feedback is welcome.