Last semester I took an OOP course and realized a lot of the topics covered in class were objectives on the OCA exam so I bought the Certification Kit with the idea that I would take the OCP after the OCA. I have never worked as a programmer so almost everything covered for the OCP was new to me. My hope is that the certification will help distinguish me from other new graduates.
To prepare I used Jeanne and Scott's OCP book and the OCA/OCP Practice
Test book. For each objective I read the chapter, did the questions in the Practice Test book, and then did the questions in the OCP book. I felt like doing the Practice Test book questions ensured I did not miss key points from the chapter before doing the harder questions in the OCP book. Very excited to get started building some applications that I set aside while I was learning.
I spent most of this past week studying and sent the picture below to friends and family that were inquiring why I disappeared.