Warning - about asking for or posting "real" questions.

It has come to our attention that despite numerous requests for posters to not ask for "real" SCJP exam questions, some people still are doing this, or posting actual questions that they had in the exam.
We don't want to get into trouble with Sun, who can legally sue Javaranch if they believe we are encouraging people to break the contract they agreed to when they took the exam. That is, when you take the exam you agree to not tell anyone what questions you had.
Since people are still not taking notice of this we are warning you all now that anyone who asks for "real" exam questions or posts "real" questions on this site will be reported to Sun's legal dept. They may decide to take legal action against you .
So consider yourselves warned.

[This message has been edited by Angela Poynton (edited January 15, 2001).]

Notwithstanding the legal mess one could land into, soliciting, advertising or passing around real questions is immoral and unethical. The objective here is not just to get certified, but also to learn the language so that you can achieve your career goals - getting a new job, a promotion or a pay hike whatever it may be.
Learning new things is always exciting and fun. Only when you struggle hard you can enjoy the success.

Ajith
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If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe.
-Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
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Great quote Ajith.

I'm bringing this subject to all of your attention again. Today I sent details of three people who directly asked for Exam Questions to Sun's Legal Dept. I don't want to have to keep doing this, I know it is only a very small minority of people but it's important that we show Sun that we do not endorse this. This is for the sake of Javaranch as much as for the sake of others taking the SCJP exam. So again I'll say this, if you value Javaranch please do not ask for or offer real exam questions to anyone.

Angela,
I was just curious, but do you you give any warnings to these people privately (i.e. via email)?
-Peter

Hi Angela,
I agree with you,and also support you...We all should have some ethics and respect the hard work people do to clear SCJP.

Harpal

No we've decided not to warn people individually that they have been reported. They are breaking the law and have been warned here at the site. If they chose to continue then that's their loss.
We're not reporting people who ask questions such as "Was there anything on IO?" or how many "fill in the blanks" did you get?" but anything which relates to more specific queries will be and have been reported.
We have to do this or Sun could get mad at us and shut us down by accusing us of encouraging people to break the law!
Like I said before though, it is only a few people .. usually people who havn't been around here very long. Thankfully most people here seem to understand and accept the legal and moral standpoint!

I would like to draw people's attention to this post again. We have noticed a few attempts by our visitors soliciting for real questions.
PEOPLE, STOP DOING THAT!!

As well, for anyone even thinking about finding a brain dump and memorizing the questions ... Sun has an extremely large question database. It would take you as much time to memorize questions as it would to study the material and really learn the fundamentals! And, even if you do manage to memorize them and get a job based on having passed the SCJP; your employer will quickly discover the truth ... you didn't learn the language!
So please, don't waste our time by forcing us to police posts and more importantly ... don't waste your own time!
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Jane Griscti
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform

hi angela and other's,
I fully agree with u that we should not disclose the real question at any cost.But i just request u to let me know what a person shoud do, where should he go if he feel's that there were question's which had no correct option to choose.U please let me know if u have removed my post from this forum.I am very sorry for that,same mistake will never be repeated again.
Thank's

If you think that a question has no possible answer then report the question to Sun Educational Services.

Resurrecting an old thread for the benefit of new Ranchers. Please pay attention to our concerns here.

What is the value of *your* certification if you then just give out the questions for others to memorize. Heck, I could tell you to answer: 1. B 2. C 3. A, etc., but if you go into the test with that, and you pass, that greatly cheapens all the work I did in passing the test and basically makes my *certification* worthless.

Taking a certification exam like the SCJP is a high stress situation. Being under high stress is not an optimal situation for memorization of something as the details of an exam (particularly where you have long code segments). An illustration of the futility of attempting to pass based on other peoples memorization is an exchange of emails I had a while ago.
Someone was convinced that the real exam contained questions on the topic of native methods. I was confident that this was not so. After exchanging about 5 emails my correspondent agreed that maybe the exam did not contain questions on the topic of native methods. So if a person can misconstrue the actual topics, I would suggest the chance of correct memorization of entire questions to be very slim.
Apart from which as the other messages have indicating, trying to pass by memorization, is cheating, immorral, unethical, undermines the value of the certification and can get you into discussion with some fierce lawyers employed by Sun Microsystems. Sun Microsystems is a fine friend, but you don't want to be on the wrong side of a courtroom with a multimillion dollar corporation.
Live is sweeter if you never get an email like this
http://www.jchq.net/discus/legal.htm
Marcus

Thanks Marcus for more details for benefits of javaranchers.
your Friendly Bartender
Shailesh.
[This message has been edited by shailesh sonavadekar (edited May 24, 2001).]