Hi All,
I am happy to inform all of you that I cleared 1Z0-803 exam yesterday with 81% result. I would like to share my experience with you, hear.
I have done masters in computer and had 3 yrs of work experience in Java, JSP, EJB, Servelets. As someone said in this forum, I was using those in my work, rather than knowing them, This was the story before 2009, since then, due to some reasons I could not work, Even though I was happy in my life something was missing in my life, my passion for java, dint let me be merely a house wife, and go on according to the flow. I came to know about this certification and wanted to go for it. Thanks to my husband, even though he knew, this certification is just a piece of additional paper in my degree folder, he didn't hold back.
The resources I used are pretty much same as everyone mentioned,
1> Mala Gupta’s book
Arrived at my door on October 17th 2014, Took a month to finish it. By this time I thought I was ready(Even though had failed in mock test) and booked the test, wanted to have it in December but due to unavailability booked them for Jan-9th 2015,
Prior to this book I even forgot how the main method syntax look like, how to write a simple “hello world” program!!. Thanks Mala Gupta, you thought me ABCD of java (again).
2>Esteban Herrera’s book
This book is very good, those who want extra practice with the questions, I would suggest them go for this, kindle edition is available only for 99p, a paper back costs 6.50£. Only things that have to be taken care of is, this book has got old exam topics included, such as shift operator, multi catch block, etc. If you are very sure of the topics which are there on the exam, then can practice only those questions from this book.
3>Hanumanth Deshmukh’s question bank
Purchased it in November 25th, Starter test failed drastically, Thought, I know the topics very well but attepting the questions within time frame has to be fixed. Went for fist test, failed by scoring 34%, point to note is I was using timer for all the tests done so far. This time I woke up, I realised that everything is wrong here, I don’t know the topic very well, I know them superficially.
Went into shock, was thinking to give it up, started to look for help in the internet, at this time I came to know about this wonderful forum, where I got to know about Enthuware, as I already had Deshmukh’s book was not sure to go with Enthuware, this forum helped me a lot in decision making to by Enthuware as well as K&B book.
4>Enthuware exam software
Purchased in 7th December , what should I say about this, my score would still be 36%, without this software. Thanks very much for making this, we need you. Whatever I have scored today, most of it was only because of this software.
After failing in same starter test and first test in Enthuware, I decided to postpone my exam to 13th Feb and got K&B book as well.
5>K&B
Arrived at 31st December, Good book, but one should go through the book only if they know how to write simple java programs, It covers topics exclusively for the exam and a very good book to read after reading Mala Gupta’s book. Especially topics on garbage collection and object creation are very well covered in the book.
Finally I read both of the books twice, Went through review notes of each book 4 times, did each chapter test 4 times, each mock test (1 from Mala’s book and 2 from K&B’s CD) did it twice, wrote 560 programs, starting from “Hello java” to garbage collection, polymorphism, etc.
Enthuware test attempted only once but with different attitude each time, average score mentioned was 75%.
One day before went through all the questions in Deshmukh’s book(Same questions that Enthuware has) , which was extremely helpful in determining answers within a minute, things like if there is only one object created, and all the methods are overridden, in that particular class then no point in looking for which method will get called.
Last but not the least I would like to thank you all the java ranchers who helped me lot in this journey. A heartfelt special thanks to my 2 mentors or guide, without whom I would not even dreamed of achieving this. I would have given this up in November itself. Thank you Roel De Nijs and Sergej Smoljanov. There was no post of mine, which was not answered by either of them. Really grateful for your effort, time, patience and kindness. Roel, your knowledge is unmatchable. Please be with us we need you.
Oracle testing software was bit disappointing tough,
As mentioned in forums I was expecting some demo test, in order to test the software, but nothing of that sort, it gave some instructions about the software and directly start test button was there.
No. of correct answers were hidden in lengthy explanation, like “Which of these two options can make code to print this and this output”. Those questions which had only one correct answers, were not mentioned anything about the no. of correct answers.
In the beginning of the test I was very nervous, hence double checking the code for compile time error, wasted lot of time here, in the end there were so lengthy questions that I had to look up in the 2 separate tabs for the code, and within last 40 minutes covered 35 questions, and lengthy questions were just a guess. My advice for others, don’t do such mistakes.
In the end, I thought the result will be displayed but no, just the message saying you will get an email, follow the link in the mail to get the results. I had the test about 1.30 hr distance from my place, throughout the journey back, couldn’t access the net. Was feeling miserable not to know my results until reaching home!, that too we have to register with oracle!!, all these process took 2.30 hrs to fetch my result.
Lastly I learnt lot of things in this 4 months journey, It, includes dedication, patience, joy, confidence and many more things, apart from java. Thanks to this certification itself.
With Kind regards,
Prathima