Prior Certification Requirements OCPJ Programmer II

[Arien Kock]

On the Oracle site the certification path clearly shows "Prior Certification Requirements" and lists OCPJ Programmer I. Going by the exam topics and having done SCJP5 years ago, it seems like a bit of a waste of effort, time and money. No offense, to anyone having gone that route.

So, how hard is this requirement? Will I not be able to register for the Programmer II cert or will it not be awarded when completed?

[K. Tsang]

Welcome to the Ranch

For previous certified JP, there are many ways to get the latest OCPJP8
1) the traditional route = OCAJP8 + OCPJP8
2) upgrade route A = OCPJP7 upgrade (805) + OCPJP8 upgrade for JP7 (810)
3) upgrade route B = OCPJP8 upgrade for JP6 or older (813)


I believe the traditional 2-exam route may need to learn the topics more in depth.
The upgrade route A allows you to focus to v7 new features and v8 new features separately
Lastly upgrade route B may be less expensive but covers both v7 and v8 topics

[Scott Selikoff]

I believe the testing site will let you register, take, and complete any exam, although you are not given the OCP title unless you complete the prerequisites. In other words, you can take the OCP 8 exam before the OCA 8 exam if you wanted, but you are not OCP 8 certified until you complete both.

Keep in mind, there's three different OCP 8 exams, each with different requirements:
- The "full" exam requires completion of the OCA 8 exam
- The "upgrade from 7" exam requires completion of an OCP 7 exam
- The "upgrade from 6 or below" requires completion any Sun/Oracle exam prior to 7 (SCJP for example)

Our book covers all three exams and includes an dedicated appendix for the last exam, as that includes topics not on the other two exams.

[Arien Kock]

Thanks for the answer. I didn't realize my old SCJP5 cert was still useful for an upgrade path.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Scott is correct. I actually took the OCP 7 before the OCA 7.

I don't recommend taking them backwards though. I did it because the OCP 7 beta was about to end when I wanted to take it.