1Z0-808 passed with 70%

[Pete Letkeman]

I'm a 70s child by that I mean I've usually gotten in the mid 70s on most of my tests in life and this is about the same.
Material/Resources Used:

Java OCA 8 Programmer I Study Guide by: Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff

OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Exam Guide (Exams 1Z0-808) by: by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates

OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Certification Guide by: Mala Gupta

Many posts and a lot of reading on CodeRanch

Writing many small programs ranging in size from 10 lines to 100 lines, using Notepad

Enthuware

I also found that:

In answering questions one can learn a lot as you have to really think about what is happening and why.

Rubber duck debugging/programming is very helpful (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging) for learning.

Enthuware Results

Test	Score	Date
Foundation Test	65%	Aug 7,2017
Test 1	73%	Aug 28, 2017
Test 2	71%	Aug 31, 2017
Test 3	64%	Sep 3, 2017
Test 4	70%	Sep 6, 2017
Test 5	69%	Sep 9, 2017
Test 6	81%	Sep 11, 2017
Test 7	69%	Sep 13, 2017
Last Day Test	74%	Sep 15, 2017
=====================
Average:	70.56%

Note that there is a few weeks between the Foundation Test and Test 1. This is because 65% is a pass, but just barely and I thought that I should go back to learning before continuing.
Test 3 at 64% was due to the fact that I did not pay enough attention to the questions and I made silly errors.
I'm really not too sure what happened with Test 6 as I got a 81% somehow.

Total preparation time 3.5 months with some minor experience with programming in Java and Android before taking this challenge on.
I do come from a programming background with many years of ASP Classic programming and a few years of programming in C#.

Exam Details
Date:	Sep 21, 2017
Score:	70%

There is a gap of six days between the final Enthuware test and the exam date, due to testing facility availability and scheduling.
I also wanted some extra time for that last days to cram and learn what I could before the exam.

My Current Plan:
1) Google Android Developer Certification (https://developers.google.com/training/certification/associate-android-developer/) which I hope to complete before Jan 2018
2) Learn Kotlin after Google Android Developer Certification
3) OCP 1Z0-809 or OCA for Java 9 before 2020.

[Liutauras Vilda]

Congratulations, well done.

[Pete Letkeman]

Thanks Liutauras.

Without help from those on this site I'm fairly certain I would not have done this well on the exam.

[Paul Anilprem]

Congratulations, Pete! Your hard work paid off.
We are glad to know that our material was helpful in your preparation

[O Shea]

Congratulations Champion for your success. You have really done great hard work.
Now take a bit of relax and then go to your next target.
Once again many many congratulations for your success.

[Pete Letkeman]

Thanks @Paul Anilprem. I have noticed one trend (possibly) with Enthuware tests for OCA 1Z0-808 recently with the people on this site at least. It appears as though one of the standard tests near the end people seem to do rather well on when compared to the other tests. For me this was Test 6, but I could go over throught the OCA Wall of Fame and see what others have. By trend I mean that more then three people have reported this within the last month or so.

[Scott Selikoff]

Congratulations!  If you're studying for the OCP exam, we also have a practice test book which may help you score higher.  Good luck!

[Pete Letkeman]

Scott Selikoff wrote:Congratulations!  If you're studying for the OCP exam, we also have a practice test book which may help you score higher.  Good luck!

Thanks Scott try to keep that in mind.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Congrats Pete!

[Pete Letkeman]

Thanks Jeanne, O Shea and everyone else.

I sure that I'd have a much tougher time had it not been for this site.

[Mohammed Sardar.]

Congratulations Pete. All the best for your next Certification. Meet you at Exam Hall

[Mohammed Sardar.]

Suggestion please.

1. Java OCA 8 Programmer I Study Guide by: Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff
2. OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Exam Guide (Exams 1Z0-808) by: by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates
3. OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Certification Guide by: Mala Gupta

As you recently done with the exam, do you still think all the above books we need for preparation? From your experience, which one is best suited ?

[Pete Letkeman]

I actually used all three of those books, but that does not mean that you need to.

Java OCA 8 Programmer I Study Guide by: Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff is a stable that many people use and I think it was one of the first study guides out there.

OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Exam Guide (Exams 1Z0-808) by: by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates was first published in 2017, so it possibly the most up to date.

OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Certification Guide by: Mala Gupta is one of the only books that I think talk about a numeric value of NaN when dividing decimal numbers.

Each book is good, but in their own way and each set of authors explains things in slightly different ways.
I would say that you probably can't go wrong with any of the books by themselves.

So then the question becomes "What else can I get with these books?"
Java OCA 8 Programmer I Study Guide by: Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff provides online testing of about 180 exam like questions, online end of chapter tests and online flash cards for free.
OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Exam Guide (Exams 1Z0-808) by: by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates provides online testing of I want to say 120 exam like questions and a PDF version of the book on CD when you purchase it.
My version of OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Certification Guide by: Mala Gupta was only a PDF, so nothing extra was included.

Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff both frequent this site.

In the end I recommend that you pick one of the books, based off of price and or perceived value and you get the 1Z0-808 question bank from Enthuware (~$10 USD).
Enthuware will give you more than 500 exam like questions on nine different tests and it will help you focus your studying.
Do not start take any Enthuware tests until you are fairly confident that you know most of the material and you have worked your way though at least one study guide.

There is usually someone from Enthuware on this site.

Everyone does study differently and reading the books is not enough for passing the exam.
First think you should do is stop using any IDE like Eclipse or IntelliJ and replace that with something like NotePad ++.
Next you should be writing many small programs using NotePad++ to verify things and have them cement in your mind.
Even a small 10 line program can tell why you to get a NaN result and what to do with it, or how to handle constructor chaining or cascading exceptions.

So, I got 70%, that's fine I guess. I was hoping for a better result, but in the end a pass is a pass.
I'm not too sure how you plan on digesting the information in your study guide of choice but this is how I did it
https://coderanch.com/t/684504/certification/continue-review-chapter-finally#3212329
But then again I only got 70%.

You should defiantly be aiming for high 90%, because if you aim for only a pass then before you know it you will run out of the allotted questions that you can get wrong on and fail the test.
If you try for 90% and you get three questions wrong you will still have 80% or better . However if you aim for 65% and you get three questions wrong then you will not pass .

Remember it is less expensive to get another study guide, wait and postpone the exam  then to write the exam and not pass only to retake it a month or two later.

If your end goal is to be write the OCP 1Z0-809 exam then you may be able to find a deal and get a package of both
Java OCA 8 Programmer I Study Guide by: Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff and Java OCA 8 Programmer II Study Guide by: Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff
together as a package on your book store of choice.

So to summarize:

Any of the three books should work for you.

You should definitely try out Enthuware.

Do not use an IDE when studing

Write many programs as you are learning

If you are not going to use Enthuware then you should definitely try out practices test from more then one source

Hope this helps you out and if you have any Java questions feel free to ask them as there are some people who are really well versed in Java on this site and they will have not problems helping you out.

[Mohammed Sardar.]

Thanks a lot for help and this really helps me and all. Sure, many are here to help me out on Java. I have a doubt why we need to Enthuware if we are OK to prepare from many source of  books, java ranch and other references. May I know those are sample questions or to make the person to get ready for exam ?

To keep short, do we get similar questions concept wise from enthu ??

[Pete Letkeman]

Mohammed Sardar. wrote:I have a doubt why we need to Enthuware if we are OK to prepare from many sources books,

The benefits to using Enthuware are:

it will help show you the areas where your knowledge is lacking

it is a fairly realistic testing simulator

The idea is that the closer you can get to simulating the exam the more comfortable you will be when you write the exam.
The Enthuware mock tests are timed so they can also help you with your time management.
I recall that there were at least one Enthuware mock test question that was in the exam almost word for word.
However you do not need Enthuware, by any means.
Any one of the books listed in this thread should help you pass, as long as you learn the material.
You may not even need the books listed in this thread is you have a strong understanding of Java.
I'm not too sure what your skill level is at, but do not forget that Oracle does have an extensive set of tutorials which you can find from here https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/.
Not only that you can reference the Java 8 API if you do not know how how to do things https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/.
And finally, if you want to, you can read the source code for Java using this site http://grepcode.com/.

Here are some free exam like questions from Oracle https://blogs.oracle.com/certification/test-your-java-knowledge-with-free-sample-questions
If you search this site for 'exam questions' you will probably get some hits
You can probably even search http://enthuware.com/forum/ (free membership?) to get some exam questions.

Please note:
On this site we do not use, endorse or even talk about the gray market or black market questions and sources.
I strongly recommend that you do not use them as you could be memorizing answers to questions which are not on the test and you would not be learning the material.

[Mohammed Sardar.]

Admired about your helping tendency Pete. Thanks for that and will read more and think.

Have a great time.

[Pete Letkeman]

Mohammed Sardar. wrote:Admired about your helping tendency Pete. Thanks for that and will read more and think.

You are welcome. I don't see why it would hurt to help or why I can't help when I know I can.
I really do not know why people choose not to help when they know that they can.
If you are able to help then you should...at least that is the way that I was brought up.

If you search this site you will find that aside from knowing the material, one of the biggest hurdles for people is time management during the test.
One thing that did help me with that was knowing that each question is worth exactly the same.
So an 'easy' question that you can answer in 30 seconds is worth the same as a 'hard' question that takes you a few minutes to answer.

I hope that I was able to point you at least in the correct general direction.

[Pete Letkeman]

Oh, and if you would like some more information on how others prepared and what not then check out
https://coderanch.com/wiki/659980/Ocajp-Wall-Fame

[Mohammed Sardar.]

Pete Letkeman wrote:
You are welcome. I don't see why it would hurt to help or why I can't help when I know I can.
I really do not know why people choose not to help when they know that they can.
If you are able to help then you should...at least that is the way that I was brought up.

If you search this site you will find that aside from knowing the material, one of the biggest hurdles for people is time management during the test.
One thing that did help me with that was knowing that each question is worth exactly the same.
So an 'easy' question that you can answer in 30 seconds is worth the same as a 'hard' question that takes you a few minutes to answer.

I hope that I was able to point you at least in the correct general direction.

Yes, I feel all are unique Objects and Entities on this earth. Each one has their own attributes including helping . And as you stated time constraint is significant for all. I remember the movie "In Time" which has been directed having Time as the main theme.  What ever people buy pay in time not in money, what ever people work for their living time is recharged as remuneration and it was interesting. Just thought to share how time Vs Money is.

Thanks for your time. I will come back with Many Doubts/Questions for certification. Have a great time Pete as it's nice to meet you here.