OCAJP 8 VS OCAJP 7 which the harder

[Ahmed Ibrahim]

Hi everybody,

- I have a question about what is the more hard exam OCAJP 8  or  OCAJP 7  ?

- I know it is better for anyone who plans to study for the OCAJP certification is to study for the latest version which is currently OCAJP 8 , But i have Curiosity of knowing the reasons of why the earlier versions of the exam such as OCAJP 7 and earlier is still available on Oracle.com while the latest version of the exam (OCAJP 8) is available ?
if someone plans to study for the OCAJP certification, is there any reasons for him to take earlier version while the latest one is available ?



Thanks,

[Paul Anilprem]

1. I don't think there is any definitive answer to which exam is tougher but let me share some stats that we have collected. The average real exam score for OCAJP 8 as reported by around 365 candidates to us is 88%, while the same for OCAJP 7 as reported by around 1100 candidates is 86%. As you can see the difference is not really significant and that indicates that there is no significant difference in their toughness.

2. There are several reasons for a candidate taking the old exam, the main one that we have observed is the free availability of books. Usually, certification books are of little use after a reader passes the exam. So such copies gets passed on from person to person. The second reason is the current job profile of the candidate. Sometimes, companies using a particular version of Java, require team members to be certified for that version.
Oracle probably just keeps the old versions of the exam alive to encash the demand.

If you don't have any such constraints, you should go for the most recent version.

HTH,
Paul.

[Mala Gupta]

To add to Paul's answer:

1) The OCAJP 7 and OCAJP8 exams do not differ a lot in terms of the topics that they cover, their difficulty level or the types of questions that they include.

OCAJP8 exam includes all the exam objectives of OCAJP7 and adds to it a few Java 8 topics. It includes introduction to functional style programming using lambdas, few classes from Java 8 Date/ Time API, wrapper classes (which were earlier included in OCP JP 7). It also includes language changes to interfaces (default and static methods)

2) Even though Oracle (and other organizations) release newer versions of software, older software versions continue to be used by a lot of people/ organizations - because they are happy with the older version of their 'working' code. Also, release of newer versions doesn't mean that the older version or skills become useless. So Oracle supports their older Java versions and the certifications.

Oracle discontinues supporting earlier software versions or certifications, when they think that it is no longer appropriate for organizations to use the earlier versions. For example, in year 2016, it would make little sense for professionals to use Java version 2 or opt for certification in this version. Oracle publishes information about the exams that it is planning to retire before it actually does so.

Here's its recent list : https://blogs.oracle.com/certification/entry/find_out_what_oracle_certification


With much respect,
Mala
   

[Ahmed Ibrahim]

Paul Anilprem wrote:
The second reason is the current job profile of the candidate. Sometimes, companies using a particular version of Java, require team members to be certified for that version.

Is this means that it maybe a company demands from one of its team members who already is OCPJP 8 certified to be certified in an earlier version of Java such as Java 7 or Java 6 ?

[Paul Anilprem]

Ahmed Ibrahim wrote:

Paul Anilprem wrote:
The second reason is the current job profile of the candidate. Sometimes, companies using a particular version of Java, require team members to be certified for that version.

Is this means that it maybe a company demands from one of its team members who already is OCPJP 8 certified to be certified in an earlier version of Java such as Java 7 or Java 6 ?

I don't think any company would go to such an extent that they would demand an older certification when the employee already has a newer one. At least, I haven't come across such a case. I have seen companies asking employee to get certification on a particular version if the employee has none.

[Ahmed Ibrahim]

Thank you Paul Anilprem and Mala Gupta for your valuable answers.