• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • paul wheaton
  • Rob Spoor
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Tim Holloway
  • Carey Brown
  • Frits Walraven
  • Tim Moores
Bartenders:
  • Mikalai Zaikin

First time OCA taker and looking for suggestions!

 
Greenhorn
Posts: 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hello all!

I would like to first of all thank everyone here for the amazing threads that are being posted. I have been "stalking" these threads for a couple weeks now but only today did I create an account.

I am currently 26 and just now  finished my first semester at college in CS. I have been meaning to take the OCA for the past year already , but was always intimated by it and thought that I would for sure fail.

School has given me more confidence and I am willing to take the OCA just to see if i can do it, especially since the exam is now 50% off till the end of the year

I know that no 2 tests are the same but  my questions for you are:

1.  What is the most prevalent topic on the exam? (From my point of view after doing the practice tests, polymorphism and class design seems to be the bulk of the questions)
2. Java apis: How many questions relating to date did you have more or less?
3. How do you deal with "does not compile on line x" and "runtime exception" questions? Approximately how many questions did you see yourself mostly answering that some code will actually NOT compile?
4.How much harder is the real test as compared to the enthuware tests? I got a 57% on my first attempt about a week ago and and a 65% on my second attempt this morning.

I plan to take the oca8 before my next semester starts at the end of January. Im not really concerned if i pass or not but of course I would like to pass. Feel free to leave any suggestions and I would really appreciate all your responses!!

Sincerely,

Sebastian.
 
Greenhorn
Posts: 7
Eclipse IDE Oracle Tomcat Server
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Sebastian Drozd wrote:Hello all!

I would like to first of all thank everyone here for the amazing threads that are being posted. I have been "stalking" these threads for a couple weeks now but only today did I create an account.

I am currently 26 and just now  finished my first semester at college in CS. I have been meaning to take the OCA for the past year already , but was always intimated by it and thought that I would for sure fail.

School has given me more confidence and I am willing to take the OCA just to see if i can do it, especially since the exam is now 50% off till the end of the year

I know that no 2 tests are the same but  my questions for you are:

1.  What is the most prevalent topic on the exam? (From my point of view after doing the practice tests, polymorphism and class design seems to be the bulk of the questions)
2. Java apis: How many questions relating to date did you have more or less?
3. How do you deal with "does not compile on line x" and "runtime exception" questions? Approximately how many questions did you see yourself mostly answering that some code will actually NOT compile?
4.How much harder is the real test as compared to the enthuware tests? I got a 57% on my first attempt about a week ago and and a 65% on my second attempt this morning.

I plan to take the oca8 before my next semester starts at the end of January. Im not really concerned if i pass or not but of course I would like to pass. Feel free to leave any suggestions and I would really appreciate all your responses!!

Sincerely,

Sebastian.



Welcome!

I am fairly new here as well, and I just passed the OCA last week myself!  So the test is still fresh in my mind.  To answer your questions -

1) I was very surprised at the distribution of topics for my particular exam.  By far, without question, Arrays and Array Lists dominated the material.  A lot of rules and exceptions pertaining to handling both, as well as iterating/determining output for each.  Exception handling questions were numerous as well.  Polymorphism and other OOP concepts were represented pretty much in proportion to what I expected.

2) Surprisingly, there were only 2 maybe 3 questions pertaining to java.Time.  Need to know the Period class.

3) I stress that it is very important for you to ingrain into your brain all the nitpicky syntax rules, etc that will cause a code to fail compilation and/or throw an exception.  Know how to recognize it in code without using an IDE.

4) I did not use Enthuware, though I hear it is a very useful tool to use in your study.  For me, I STRONGLY recommend the OCA Study Guide by Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff, which helps you prepare specifically to do well on this exam.  This also comes with access to practice tests which are very much like the actual exam questions.  I have no doubt their book was the difference for me in passing this exam.

(By the way, exam vouchers are half off when purchased in the month of December, so don't wait!  You can get the voucher and schedule the test later)  
 
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic