R.J. Arzki

It's almost the same as it is with the Oracle certification you can take at home. Worse even, because they make you use Chrome . No matter how you look at it, it's still invasive and breaches privacy. After the Pivotal course I received a voucher to take the exam, but due to privacy issues, I probably won't take it. If I'll do take it however, then it will be at work in a meeting room on a "clean" computer.

I had the Spring Core training by Pivotal last month. They have confirmed the exams are no longer taken at testing centers. If I am not mistaken you have to install some software on your laptop/PC and before the exam starts somebody will check the room via webcam. I also assume you are monitored throughout the exam. Basically you install a spyware on your machine

Here is my experience with the excellent Enthuware:

1z0-808: Averarage mock score: 76%; Exam score: 85%

1z0-809: Average mock score: 74%; Exam score: 72%

As you can see, in my case at least, for 1z0-808 the score difference was consistent to the majority of people reporting it. The 1z0-809 exam, I took on 2nd of December 2019, being already tired from study (way more material than required for 1z0-808) and work. So I hurried a bit to finish the year with a sense of accomplishment. One day before the exam I actually failed the Last Day Test with 64%. So I was quite nervous on the exam.

The questions on the Enthuware are very close to the real thing. However, the extra difficulty comes from the fact that you have more optons to choose the right answer from, some being very similar (so you really need to know the topic). On the real exam each question has only 4 answers. So, even if you have to guess, there are higher chances for a correct answer.

Good luck. As it was already mentioned, aim for 90%!

I live in Germany, and here there is no sale for the Oracle vouchers

At any rate, to answer your question, 6 months is very little time to get certified for both programmer I and II (not impossible, but very hard). Last week I've passed my OCP8 exam and I can tell you my background/experience. I have 15+ years of professional software engineering experience. Pure java development would be only the last 1.5 years (plus other time spent privately on open-source projects, etc...). Last year I've studies for my OCA exam about 4 months (at home after work and on week-ends). This year it took me ~6 months (with a few weeks pause in between) to properly prepare for the OCP exam. This second one is much harder than the first one (the content is about 1.5 time more). For Java 8 there is a lot of additional material out there, but for Java 11 not so much.

So my recommendation would to get a voucher for the first exam (especially if it's on sale) and go form there. This will also help you asses the exam, the material and your ability to study for this exam having a dead-line in sight. I know that J11 has only one certification that required both exams to be completed. For J8 you've actually gotten 2 certifications, one after passing each exam. So you might want to think about that as well when you make your decision J8 vs J11.

cheers.

Campbell Ritchie wrote:

R.J. Arzki wrote:Not a great score . . .

You passed; that's what matters. Well done.

Please find the “Wall of Fame” thre‍ad and add your name to it.

Thank you, and done. I put myself on the wall

Not a great score, but hey, it definitely works for me.

Passed OCA in March 2018 (85%), and this year I've decided to go a step further. For the exam, I've studied for ~6 months with the exception of a few weeks vacation time. The entire endevor is really much harder than OCA. FIrst of all the material is almost twice as much.

Main books I've studied from were Jeanne Boyarsky & Scott Selikoff's "OCP: Oracle Certified Professional Java SE 8 Programmer II Study Guide" and "Java 8 Lambdas" by Richard Warburton. There were other Java books I've read in between (like Effective Java 3rd edition by Joshua Bloch) but not strictly related to the certification exam. As I did last time, I used the mock tests from Enthuware, which were of a tremendous help. My test results were:

Foundation: 78%
Test 1: 76%
Test 2: 77%
Test 3: 70%
Test 4: 76%
Test 5: skipped
Final Day Test: 64% (Yes, I've failed on this test, one day before the actual exam )

The exam itself was hard as expected: lots of questions for only 2.5 hours. But in the end it's all good. I've finished 8 minutes before the time ran out, and I had to review ~20 marked questions. I've only managed to look at 10 random ones.

At any rate, I'm happy to have passed it. Not sure which or if I'll take another Oracle certification in the future. Not for a while at least.

cheers.

Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:
That's your answer! Most employers don't care which version of the cert you have.

I am just studying chapter 7 of your book: "Concurrency". Thank you for great book you've wrote.

Back on topic. My current employer doesn't care about which certification I have (but is happy to pay for it). It was my own decision to study and get it, mostly to prove to myself that I can still do it and secondly because I wanted to improve my skill set as a Software Engineer.

Campbell Ritchie wrote:Which exam do you think you are more likely to get a good mark in?

I am probably more prepared for J8 right now.

Hanumant Deshmukh Ii wrote:

R.J. Arzki wrote:Hi Hanumant,

First of all, welcome to the ranch.

I think you get this sort of question a lot, but anyway, here it is. I am in the middle of my study to take the OCPJP8 exam (already have OCAJP8). Would there by any reason for me to switch right now and take the exam for OCPJP11? If one looks for study material for the exam, there are a lot available for Java 8, but not so much for Java 11. So, my reasoning right now is to take the OCPJP8 exam now and upgrade at a later date, maybe even to a higher version of Java. What are your thoughts?

Thanks.

I would put in a little extra effort and go for OCPJP 11 because it is the current version of the certification. You can use the resources mentioned here to make up for the differences between OCP 8 and 11: https://enthuware.com/pass-1z0-816-certification-exam

Thank you for your answer and to the link to enthuware. They are always a real good source of study material.

Hi Hanumant,

First of all, welcome to the ranch.

I think you get this sort of question a lot, but anyway, here it is. I am in the middle of my study to take the OCPJP8 exam (already have OCAJP8). Would there by any reason for me to switch right now and take the exam for OCPJP11? If one looks for study material for the exam, there are a lot available for Java 8, but not so much for Java 11. So, my reasoning right now is to take the OCPJP8 exam now and upgrade at a later date, maybe even to a higher version of Java. What are your thoughts?

Thanks.

Paul Anilprem wrote:
We are working on it but we do not have a release date yet. Could be a couple of months or more but definitely before the end of the year We are unable to give any date because we do not compromise on quality in the need to meet some deadline. Developing qood questions with accurate explanations is hard and we give our authors as much time as they need.


Taking OCP 8 and then OCP 11 will cost you twice the money. I think opening up of the OCP11 exam for OCA 8 cert holders is a great opportunity to acquire the latest cert at the cost of only one exam.  So, if you can wait a couple of months for the study material, take OCP 11 then.

Or, take a little bit of risk, study new topics on your own and apear for OCP 11. Even if you fail, you will know what you are missing. You will be able to pass in the second attempt. Will cost you the same as OCP 8 + OCP 11. I don't see any downside either way

Thank you Paul for the answer. In my current situation the cost is not an issue, since my company is paying for me to get certified. However, I have to pass this year

In this post: https://coderanch.com/t/708409/certification/Java-certification-exam-relevant-OCA Jeanne Boyarsky recommends to stick to OCA/OCP8 for at least one more year until materials are available for the new exams.

Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:

Paul Anilprem wrote:OCAJP/OCAPJP 8 will not be "old" for another couple of years at least.  Java 8 exams already include some of the most important topics (streams and lambda) so I would not worry too much about it going obsolete anytime soon. It will still be as valuable as it was.

Agreed!

Paul Anilprem wrote:I don't think the new exams (815 and 816) are any more tough that the older (808 and 809) exams but the absence of books and mock exams certainly make them look like so. This will not be a problem in a couple of months time. However, the bigger issue is the focus of the new exams. The new exams focus quite a bit on modularization. But modularization is not yet a clear winner in the industry, IMHO. So, I don't think you would be losing out much by not going for the new exams.

Scott said the 815 is harder. Neither of has taken the 816 yet so can't comment on that though.

I would strongly recommend people take the OCA/OCP 8. Probably for another year.

Thank you Jeanne for the recommendation. I have OCA8 and didn't know which way to go for the OCP (809 or 816 exam). Now the answer is clear, OCP8, there is a lot of material on that one.

Paul Anilprem wrote:

Evandro Luis Machado wrote:I just can't understand Oracle's PDF that says that an OCA 8  can do directly  Java SE 11 II (1Z0-816)
Page 4
https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/dc/ou-5021-java-se11-faq-4.pdf?intcmp=WWOUCERTBLOGECIHA032019

That was my initial plan, is there something i'm missing ?

You are right. I was not sure about whether one could take 816 after 808. But Oracle has confirmed it. You can directly go for 816 if you have cleared 808. No need to take 809.

Hi Paul,

Any idea by when will Enthuware have mock exams for 1ZO-816 ready? I have OCA8 and I wanted to go for OCP8 this year. But reading Oracle's pdf, I realized that I only need to pass 1ZO-816 exam to get the OCP Java 11 certification. However I am worried that there is (and won't be by the end of the year) not enough preparation material for OCP11. My other option would be to go for OCP8 (because there are tons of materials on this topic including your nice mock-exams) and later (if ever) I should do the OCP11 upgrade.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

Hi all,

The new OCPJ11Dev (or whatever it's shortcut will be) has been released but it seems to have a different format than the Java 8 one. It doesn't have an OCA and an OCP anymore, it only has OCP with 2 exams needed to pass. I already have the OCAJ8P certification and I was planning to take the exam for OCPJ8P as soon as possible, and at a later date if I need to, do the upgrade to OCPJ11Dev. This way I will keep on having a new certification after each exam.

Would it be reasonable for me to assume that OCPJ8P will not be retired this year? That would give me enough time to prepare and pass the exam.

Thanks.

P.S. I know that only Oracle could give me a 100% answer, so I am just looking for best guess here.

Hi,

It's always good to see a general Java programming book. Although I've read a few, I have to admit I've never read the Core Java one. So I was wondering if the style of the book is more of a tutorial or a reference book?.

Thank you.