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OCP struggling with Time Management

 
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Hi everyone. I am having a huge problem of time management while preparing for the ocp (1z0-809) exam.

I am an Engineering student and I have very less time to study for the exams. I passes the oca (1z0-808) exam on Feb,2018 with 88% marks. After that I started preparing for the OCP exams.
I am writing a big post because I want to explain what I studied till now so that I get better advice.
I have studied for about 4 months.
Topics in OCP seemed to be much more tougher than OCA and it took a lot of time since I knew nothing about most of the topics. I used the same preparation strategy as I did for the OCA exam...

I used the OCP book by Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Slikoff  OCP Book
I also used the OCP chapter wise Practice tests books from the same author. OCP Practice Tests

I studied each chapter from the text book then I solved the end chapter questions (about 20 to 25 questions)

After that I solved the questions corresponding to that chapter from the Practice tests book ( about 40 to 50 questions)

This is the marks I got in the chapter wise practice tests ( 40 to 50 questions) :

Java Class Design - 78%

Advanced Java Class Design - 80%

Generics and Collections - 77.5%

Lambda Build-in Functional interfaces - 65%

Java Streams API - 60%

Exceptions and Assertions - 60%

Use Java SE 8 Date/Time API - 77.5%

Java I/O Fundamentals - 62.5%

Java File I/O (NIO.2) - 62.5%

Java Concurrency - 60%

Building Database Applications using JDBC - 77.5%

Localization - 75%

I got the above marks after studying each chapter first time and since the number of questions where 40 to 50 I thought the percentage I got was not so bad.

Then after solving all questions I made a notes copy where I wrote all the mistakes , important points , concepts that I understood by running small codes and searching on the java forums .

Then I concluded the chapter and went with the next chapter. By using this strategy and I completed 10 chapters and I now have 2 big notes copy.

After that I realized that since I was going chapter wise, while I was studying the last chapters I forgot things I studied about the first chapters so I spend the last 15 days revising all the chapters NOT from text book but from the notes copy I prepared.

After this I felt confident enough to go to the Enthuware exams ...

Yesterday I took the foundation test ( 40 questions ) in enthuware passed with 80% ( 32 correct out of 40 ). I read my mistakes and today I tried the first enthuware exam ....

I FAILED with 59% and took 35 mins longer than the time allotted... I only finished 66 questions in 150mins

After all the preparation I took this completely destroyed my confidence. I was thinking about appearing for the exam by the mid of next month but now I am not sure.
I also used enthuware for preparing for the exam in OCA and never got bellow 70% and had an average of 79% in the enthuware exams.

I feel that Oracle should change the time allotted for the OCP exam. OCA had 70 questions with 150 min time but I managed to complete the real exam with 3 mins left. OCP has 85 questions ! with 150 min time this is scary ...
I assume the OCP questions are much harder than OCA and require more time thinking than OCA topics then why so less time ?
Even some of the well known authors felt the same : CodeRanch

I feel enthuware exams some times over stresses on topics like inner classes by making things too much complicated which takes a lot of time to read and think about the questions apart from that I found some questions that where not familiar to me
like a lot of questions where they used Thread class and Runnable interface but wile studying from the text I found most of the time they used Executor Service and their methods and only mentioned the Thread class briefly.

Now before going to the next enthuware exams please help me out what should I do to manage time and get better marks as it seems impossible to me . I am completely lost and this forum is my only hope.

 
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Arpan Ghoshal wrote:. . . Topics in OCP seemed to be much more tougher than OCA  . . .

Yes, I think they probably are harder. They are intended to be sat at a more advanced level, so that is only to be expected. Both exams, 808 and 809, are more difficult than they look at first sight. And I see your point about 85 questions being too many for 2½ hours.
Please work out what the real problem is: is it time management, is it the difficulty of the exam, or do you have a conflict of interests between your degree and these cert exams? What sort of engineering are you reading? Will preparing for the cert exams jeopardise your final degree marks? Where do you think your career path will lie, and what do you think your priority is?
 
Arpan Ghoshal
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Campbell Ritchie wrote:do you have a conflict of interests between your degree and these cert exams? What sort of engineering are you reading? Will preparing for the cert exams jeopardize your final degree marks? Where do you think your career path will lie, and what do you think your priority is?



I am studying Engineering in Computer Science. I am in my 4th and last year of Engineering. I am studying for certifications to strengthen my knowledge as well as make a stronger CV for interviews as a fresher.
I am passionate towards programming and I love java I want to become a professional java developer and get a job where I get opportunity to code and make programs and software that help people, thus my priority is
getting a good job and career as a fresher.
 
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Arpan Ghoshal wrote:I am an Engineering student and I have very less time to study for the exams.


My advice is, don't trade the exams (along with their marks) to an OCP certificate. Studies supposed to be priority 1 if you'd ask me. Then, whatever time permits.

I wouldn't rush for the OCP in general. I believe one supposed to go gradually towards that. You said you passed OCA - congratulations. Give some time to yourself, might even a year or two, let information sink in, only then consider the OCP.

Gaining certificates on their own means what to you? Campbell is right, you need to set priorities of interests first. You know my opinion about the priorities already. Certificates are great as complementary knowledge titles, while university teaches you much broader skills, and not necessarily only the skills directly related to your studies field. If you go bad with your exams this year, next year (assuming it isn't your last year currently) will be harder to find motivation to catch up to a good level. If you go overall bad, you might find difficult to get into masters degree (assuming you are an undergraduate).

After all, you can shift OCP, while to shift exams in academia is more expensive.
 
Liutauras Vilda
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Now that I saw your latest post, I suggest even stronger - concentrate on finishing uni as best as you can first, and then concentrate on OCP. 4th year exams are most important, they carry more weight.

In general, sounds like you are well motivated and doing well. Good luck on whatever path you are about to take.
 
Arpan Ghoshal
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Thank you for replying. I understand the suggestions and agree with them. My summer holiday is going on and college reopens in a few days I wanted to finish off with the exam within the next month to concentrate on college studies.
I could leave OCP for now and study other stuff that's important but the problem is that I have already invested the last 4-5 months managing college and OCP studies in parallel but now if I quit then I will likely forget all the stuff and details
within a few months and later if I want to study for ocp again I will have to revise from the beginning this is something I don't want to do.
I am from India and I don't study at a premium college so I need to apply off campus where the competition is very high so I wanted to strengthen my skills and my resume with these certifications.
 
 
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I see your points, they might be well valid. There are tons of programmers (really good ones) without even any degree, so good grades degree also isn’t something what makes you stand out of the crowd by default.

But let’s get back to OCP.

If you say you would forget in a month or two if you’d stop studying OCP, then consider, whether studying that way gives you wanted results in the first place. Maybe the intense is too high.

If these are the skills you’d need in your career, then much better is to try to understand topics well at a slower pace, so you wouldn’t need to memorize so much, hence wouldn’t forget so quick. Doing so in a rush you might be less than optimum in both, your studies and OCP, that might be a worse case scenario.

There is a saying: “one at a time”.

On the other hand, you know your market better, obviously you’ll have to decide what you think is better for you. Maybe certificate on cv is indeed more important at getting first job than having higher grade diploma.

I’d personally move my OCP cert exam to after the college exams finish day, then with less pressure in a head would revise OCP again from start (that isn’t a bad thing), and then would sit that one.


 
Arpan Ghoshal
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Just an update...

After failing first enthuware exam with 59% and taking 35 min extra time...

Revised the whole syllabus from the beginning and made strategy for time management. Today I tried second enthuware exam completed 10 min before time and passed with 77%  

Confidence Restored... Super happy
 
Campbell Ritchie
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Arpan Ghoshal wrote:. . . . second enthuware exam completed 10 min before time and passed with 77%  

Confidence Restored... Super happy

Well done, but you would still have to pass the Oracle exam. I still think you would do better to concentrate on your degree.
 
Arpan Ghoshal
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Campbell Ritchie wrote: but you would still have to pass the Oracle exam.


Yes I am going to give the exam sometime next month after I am done with the enthuware tests. After that I will completely focus on college.
 
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Arpan Ghoshal wrote:

Campbell Ritchie wrote: but you would still have to pass the Oracle exam.


Yes I am going to give the exam sometime next month after I am done with the enthuware tests. After that I will completely focus on college.


Sorry to say you that, but, did you went throug the all possible scenarios? What if you fail OCP? After knowing instant results, would you have equal motivation to prepare for the college exams?

That is the main reason I said concentrate on college exams first, and then with a fresh head go for OCP. I think that is a safer option.

But it seems you made a strong decision - so good luck with either exams, whichever go first.
 
Arpan Ghoshal
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Update Today I successfully passed OCP (1Z0-809).

Can someone tell me how to add my story to the OCJP wall of fame in coderanch I cant find a button to add anything here.
 
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