I passed the programmer exam, after studying intensively(as my schedule allowed) for about 6 months, I knew next to nothing about programming this time last year, and never even knew I could learn a "hard " language like Java, I went to a training school which claimed it will teach me Java in 2 weeks, what I paid for at the end of the 2 weeks, as far as I was concerned was the training Manual.
I studied with the Manual, Jvaranch, Marcos Green( God Bless you) and the internet, did not buy any books. also bought a software off the internet( JQuest, which ended up being my saving grace). the exam was tough for me which accounted for my 67% score. I got alot of long lines of codes, and I must have had atleast 7 codes longer than 12 lines, one was 27 lines.
Thanks alot to all you guys at JavaRanch, I wouldn't have made it without you guys, I am thinking of learning abut servlets, osing Bean, XML, and E-commerce solution, my focus is Telecommunications.
I want to encourage all the guys studying for the exam to keep at it, you can make it, if I did, at first attempt.
Sola.