90% is good, but does it matter?

[Pete Letkeman]

I sure that most people would think that getting a 90% on the OCA 808 exam is a good thing (and I agree). However how much better is get a 90% (or some higher number) then getting 66%. In the end both 66% and 90% are passing grades and the 90% does mean that you have a really through knowledge of Java.
However that 90% could also mean that you got lucky with the exam, every has the one or more area where they are weak. They could be week with regards to lamdas or predicates or some other are and if there are many questions in these week spots then the person who got 66% may have gotten unlucky. Currently the OCA exam is 70 questions, so each question is worth about 1.4% and the person that achieved 90% answered 63 questions correctly. Where as the person who achieved 66% answered 46 questions correctly.

On your resume, Linked In, Monster, or other, would you say that you got XX% when you passed the exam or would you state that you achieved certification? On one hand it may look like you are bragging and many people do not like it when other people brag. Yet on the other hand the person who got 90% may have earned the right to brag a bit about their mark.

Still when it comes down to it and you are applying for a job at Company XZY does showing that you got 90% mean that you are that much better at Java programming the someone who got 85%.  Does it really matter that much? I mean when you start working for Company XZY they usually don't really care too much about your mark on the exam as long as you can produce the results that they want/need in the time-frame specified.

BTY: I'm currently preparing to take the 808 OCA exam and I'd like to get 90% or better, however that does not mean that I will.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Pete,
A pass is a pass. I don't put my score on my resume and I scored well. The reason is that not all employers know how hard the exam is. Suppose you get an 80% on the exam. That's a nice respectable score. However, what if the employer thinks of it like you got an 80% average in school. Less impressive.

Some employers don't care about certification at all. The ones that do generally don't care about score. A pass shows a "floor" to your Java knowledge. It's like a filter. Also, the employer can't validate your score because Oracle's verification site doesn't give the score.

Aside from being proud, I think the biggest impact of the score is what you should expect for the OCP 809 exam. If you squeaked through the OCA with a 66%, you are going to do a lot more studying for the OCP. Partially because it is cumulative. And partially because your study style wasn't effective for the style of the exam and the OCP is much harder.

[Roel De Nijs]

Pete Letkeman wrote:On your resume, Linked In, Monster, or other, would you say that you got XX% when you passed the exam or would you state that you achieved certification? On one hand it may look like you are bragging and many people do not like it when other people brag. Yet on the other hand the person who got 90% may have earned the right to brag a bit about their mark.

Check my LinkedIn profile and find out for yourself I don't mention any scores on my resume or LinkedIn profile. The only place you can find my scores is in the Certification Results forum because I think I've created a topic for each certification I took to share my experiences and each of them mentions my score.

Pete Letkeman wrote:Still when it comes down to it and you are applying for a job at Company XZY does showing that you got 90% mean that you are that much better at Java programming the someone who got 85%.  Does it really matter that much? I mean when you start working for Company XZY they usually don't really care too much about your mark on the exam as long as you can produce the results that they want/need in the time-frame specified.

All my certifications are on my resume, but I rarely get questions about them. And not even a technical question to verify if I really passed that certification. That might be because there are a bunch on that list. Or maybe because the employer finds experience much more important. But the main reason why I take/took the certifications is to improve my Java knowledge and to keep up-to-date with the latest improvements of the Java language and syntax, not to have some eyecandy on my resume.

Hope it helps!
Kind regards,
Roel

[O Shea]

You said correctly Roel. Great bundle of Certifications.

[Paul Clapham]

If you go to a doctor, you may see a certificate on their wall which says they got their MD from some institution. You will not see anything about their grades on that certificate, nor whether they were top of their class or just scraped through. Like Jeanne said, a pass is a pass. That applies to your certification just as much as to your doctor's certification.