OCA: Study Guide: Exam 1Z0-808 by Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff chapter tests

[Pete Letkeman]

Altogether there are about 145 end of chapter questions in OCA: Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer I Study Guide: Exam 1Z0-808 1st Edition by Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff. You can take a test which asks all 145 of them online if you register the book online.

I know that is it not recommended that you answer the same questions many times as you are likely to have memorize the answers to the questions. I (my own opinion) is that if you wait two or more weeks between taking the tests then you are less likely to answer the questions by memorization.
I took the test, answered all the 145 questions and ended up with a 78% and that was about ten days ago and I haven't looked at those questions since. Yet, I have done sample exam questions and end of chapter questions from other sources and I've done some learning trying to learn what I haven't.
I've also taken the Enthuware.com foundation test and got 65%, about a week ago.

Should I retake the end of chapter tests to see if I end up with a better score...if so what score should I stop at 80%, 90%, etc?

I think that my biggest problem is that I don't take enough time to answer/read the questions, that 65% in the Enthuware foundation test took me about an hour to obtain.
Time management is hurdle that many people on this forum struggle with and that there are people on this forum whom have shared their experiences as noted here https://coderanch.com/t/682971/certification/books-months-don-pass#3205194 by Roel De Nijs.

All this after having read through the following books (a few times) and doing the exercises from the following books:

https://coderanch.com/wiki/671285/books/OCA-Java-SE-Programmer-Certification

OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Exam Guide (Exams 1Z0-808) Paperback – May 5 2017 by Kathy Sierra (Author), Bert Bates (Author)

One resource which I have not opened, but I do have, is Java OCA/OCP 8 Programmer Practice Tests by Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff
Would it be advisable to go through all of the books once again before:

I take either the next Standard test by Enthuware.com

I try my had at the OCA questions in Java OCA/OCP 8 Programmer Practice Tests by Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff

What would be better to do first? The tests by Enthuware or the OCA practice tests by Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff.

As some people have mentioned, having a study guide is a great resource, but reading it many times can be a challenge as the material becomes repetitive and boring.  
Aside from reading the chapters in a different order, how else can I make the books more enticing?

[Roel De Nijs]

Pete Letkeman wrote:I know that is it not recommended that you answer the same questions many times as you are likely to have memorize the answers to the questions. I (my own opinion) is that if you wait two or more weeks between taking the tests then you are less likely to answer the questions by memorization.

That really depends on how good/bad your memory actually is...

Pete Letkeman wrote:Should I retake the end of chapter tests to see if I end up with a better score...if so what score should I stop at 80%, 90%, etc?

The more practice you'll get (certainly if you struggle with time management), the better. For those tests there's not really a score to stop at. For example, you could mark all questions you answered incorrectly the second time and only take those the next time.

Pete Letkeman wrote:Time management is hurdle that many people on this forum struggle with and that there are people on this forum whom have shared their experiences as noted here https://coderanch.com/t/682971/certification/books-months-don-pass#3205194 by Roel De Nijs.

That guy is really awesome

Pete Letkeman wrote:What would be better to do first? The tests by Enthuware or the OCA practice tests by Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff.

You have 6 or 7 Enthuware mock exams. You have prepared yourself thoroughly, so I would say it's time to take the 1st Enthuware mock exam (in exam mode of course). This will give you some excellent feedback about your current Java knowledge and readiness for the actual exam. And it will also show which are your weaker areas/concepts/objectives. So then you know on which topics you have to focus using the resources you have (including the OCA practice tests by Jeanne & Scott).

Please note that the Enthuware mock exams software is the best resource/tool to know if you are ready for the actual exam. So you should use these mock exams wisely and not rush through them.

Pete Letkeman wrote:As some people have mentioned, having a study guide is a great resource, but reading it many times can be a challenge as the material becomes repetitive and boring.  
Aside from reading the chapters in a different order, how else can I make the books more enticing?

You should not only read the study guide(s), but write boatloads of code snippets. And writing code is so much more fun than reading a study guide

[Pete Letkeman]

Thanks for your insight Roel De Nijs.

I do more then just read the the study guide(s) and I do write code, usually files that are smaller then 50 lines so that I can test concepts out. Aside from that I'm on this site throughout the day reading posts, trying to help out by posting responses, and finally asking questions.

I find it somewhat interesting that in Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff book that they have much more to say about some subjects like LocalDate, LocalDateTime, LocalTime then the book by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates. As well it's interesting (to me at least) that Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates go into some detail regarding enums while Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff do not seem to mention them at all. I know that those two books were published years apart and that no one cannot predict what exactly will be covered on the exam. As a result the authors look at the official test site they take well educated guesses based on prior experiences and what other people whom have taken the test say. Many people have only used one study guide and the Internet to get passing grades and I have more then one study guide.

I think that I will answer go and answer all 145 questions once more and make note of what I'm answering incorrectly, read the books once more, keeping in mind what I've answered incorrectly and then do an Enthuware test to see where I stand. I know that the Enthuware foundation test showed me that Lambda's are a trouble area for me, but surprising to me so to was StringBuilder. That being said when there are only two or three questions regarding a subject it's fairly easy to answer one wrong and still have a fairly decent understanding of the subject material.

Oh, and I do agree with your statement

Roel De Nijs wrote:That guy is really awesome.

[Roel De Nijs]

Pete Letkeman wrote:I do more then just read the the study guide(s) and I do write code, usually files that are smaller then 50 lines so that I can test concepts out. Aside from that I'm on this site throughout the day reading posts, trying to help out by posting responses, and finally asking questions.

That's an excellent approach/way to prepare yourself for the certification exam

Pete Letkeman wrote:I find it somewhat interesting that in Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff book that they have much more to say about some subjects like LocalDate, LocalDateTime, LocalTime then the book by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates. As well it's interesting (to me at least) that Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates go into some detail regarding enums while Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff do not seem to mention them at all.

Yeah, there will probably be differences between different study guides. Based on the (quite) generic exam objectives every author tries to provide enough coverage of all exam objectives to pass the exam. And probably every author tries to cover maybe a little bit more than strict necessary (e.g. 110%). If Oracle makes some small changes to the exam objectives, the study guide might still cover these small changes as a result of covering a tad more than necessary.
Also the history of all these study guides is very different. Although the OCAJP8 study guide by Jeanne & Scott was probably the first one available, it is the newest kid on the block. The study guide by Kathy & Bert has been available for many years and various Java versions (I used their study guide for Java 1.4, 5.0, 6 and 7). And as you probably know before Java 7 there was only one certification exam: the OCPJP one. Since Java 7, there are two certification exams: OCAJP and OCPJP. So Kathy & Bert had to divide their study guides in two parts and there are probably still some left-overs. And it might also depend on the complexity of the topic: enums is not very difficult, so instead of splitting this topic into two parts (one with only basics for OCAJP and one with the other stuff for OCPJP) they might have decided to keep it into one chapter/section. For OCAJP there's no such thing as "knowing too much", because the material which was not questioned on the OCAJP certification exam is very likely to appear on the OCPJP one.

Pete Letkeman wrote:Many people have only used one study guide and the Internet to get passing grades and I have more then one study guide.

Most people have used Enthuware during their preparation and Enthuware really values the feedback of their customers. If for example a customer says "I got a question about topic X and it was not in the question bank", Enthuware will add a few questions about this topic to their question bank. So exam aspirants might encounter a few questions on a topic that was not covered in their study guide. And they can improve their knowledge on this topic using another (online) resource. Maybe it might even be enough to read the explanation of the question to gather the necessary knowledge. But again Enthuware is not a requirement to pass the OCAJP (or OCPJP) certification exam (I've never used Enthuware myself when preparing for the certification exams).

Pete Letkeman wrote:I know that the Enthuware foundation test showed me that Lambda's are a trouble area for me, but surprising to me so to was StringBuilder. That being said when there are only two or three questions regarding a subject it's fairly easy to answer one wrong and still have a fairly decent understanding of the subject material.

True! You'll get better feedback about your weaker areas after taking the first mock exam.

Pete Letkeman wrote:Oh, and I do agree with your statement

Have a cow for agreeing with my statement

Hope it helps!
Kind regards,
Roel

PS. The cow is of course not for agreeing with my statement but for a very good post!