Passed with 89%, solved the "quotes" mystery.

Yes, Dear JavaRanchers, I finally made it thanks to God, and all the extremely helpful people here.
The Section Analysis:
Declarations and access control100%
Flow control and exception handling100%
Garbage Collection0%
Language Fundamentals88%
Operators and Assignments85%
O.O. RTT, and Object Orientations71%
Threads85%
The java.awt package100%
The java.lang package100%
The java.util package100%
The java.io package100%
I sat for the exam yesterday (21st May 2001), saw the first question, and felt as if I was hit by lightning! It was a type-in question!! What a way to start the test!!! Throughout the 2 hours, a cloud hung over me, and I was very tense for almost 10 minutes. The type-in questions have caused the most confusion and controversy(to-quote-or-not-to-quote), and I was hoping that I would get none of them... I got four! yes I have typed it right, four!
I marked the first question, as I could not concentrate. After about 10 min, I relaxed a bit, and was able to concentrate properly. The type-in questions came in regularly after a gap of about 9-10 questions, and I would get a little bit tense again.
I decided to stop thinking about the type-in questions and started answering other questions. As I was well prepared, I was able to answer most of the questions confidently. There were no surprises on the test.
I decided to use a strategy for the type-in questions. Wherever it was asked "What is the output?", I did not use quotes. Wherever it was asked "What is the value of the String variable after the code is executed?", I used quotes.
I got all the four type-in questions correct!!! So I guess it was a correct strategy.
I would sincerely like to thank all the people who helped me with the difficulties, especially Cindy, Bill(so kind of him), Velmurugan for his fantastic notes, Marcus Green for his mock exams, the JQPlus team, and Maha Anna for the excellent links to the resources.
My Garbage Collection score is awful; I could not sleep last night because of it. It was the simplest of all GC questions, asking on which line is the object eligible for GC. How could I have missed it? GC was one of my strong topics. I am so embarassed. I think Sun should ask 2 questions on GC, so that even if someone misses one of them, he/she can still have a chance to get a score.

Anyways I am happy now, and I would again like to thank all the people mentioned above; without their help, it would have been very difficult to get the Certification.

Prasanna Wamanacharya
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform
[This message has been edited by Prasanna Wamanacharya (edited May 22, 2001).]

Contratulation !!!
Can you just tell me how did you prepare for the exam during the last week.

Thanks Ash. During the last week, I wrote a lot of codes, and gave one mock exam daily. I used to make notes for any important points understood after the exam. If I had a slightest doubt about any concept, I wrote code, and tried compiling it. I was also reading Exam Cram.
Two days before the test, I gave 2 mock exams everyday(JQ+ Random, MG 1,2,3). On the exam day, I just skimmed through Velmurugan's notes(I had thoroughly studied them earlier). They are the best.
Prasanna Wamanacharya
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform

Congratulations Prasanna on passing JCP with a great score!!!

A BIG THANKS to u for solving the "quotes" mystery.i too was quite confused reading the various posts in this forum related to this confusion and was getting all the more confused.The reason being some said quotes have to be included while others said no.
rajashree.

Congrats!. BTW I have created a test at www.webappcabaret.com/exams/examlogin.jsp where in you may get some questions with type in answer type too. You can practice the same and I have given the answers in the last also. so this should help you out. If you have any good suggestions I wud be too willing to implement them
Jayashree

Hi Jayashree,
Whenever I am trying to login in your site, the internet explorer gets into error and shuts down.

I made it through 17 questions, but there was an error on the 18th and I couldn't go any further:

There has been an error and an email has been sent to the administrator.

Paul R

Thanks for your feedbacks. I cant figure out the problem you have Bhaswati as I have tried with IE and Netscape and it works with both. However I can understand Paul Ralph problem and at the moment I am helpless about this. The problem is the servlets get passivated and reactivated at certain intervals. As you know Webappcabaret is a free hosting area and that is how they have designed it so that the resources are not locked up by a particular program. However if any one is able to help me out with any other free hosting site which does not have this problem of activation and passivation at regular intervals then I will load the program in that site immediately.
Jayashree

Congratulations Prasanna

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Jane Griscti
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java� 2 Platform

Thank you Rajashree, Jayashree, Jane.
Prasanna
SCJP2

FY!

Congrats prasana great score!what is your next step?
I am planning to give exam around next week,I am little bit
nervous i studied only " Roberts ,Heller,Ernest" book only.
and maha site,java preparation tutorials,velmurugan thread notes.
do you think this is enough to pass the exam.I need your advice.
ONCE AGAIN CONGRATS PRASANA!
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By sumathi krishnan.

Thanks Sumathi. As far as my "next step" is concerned, I am very very eager to start learning servlets, ejb, jsp, j2me, xml, etc. I am currently reading "Java Network Programming" by Elliotte Rusty Harold, which is a good book to start with. It gives a firm foundation of networking fundamentals, on which one can build upon.

I am planning to give exam around next week,I am little bit nervous i studied only " Roberts ,Heller,Ernest" book only. and maha site,java preparation tutorials,velmurugan thread notes. do you think this is enough to pass the exam.

I think that there is absolutely no reason to be nervous, as RHE is one of the best Certification Books(although my opinion is that Mughal is THE best). Try reading Velmurugan's entire notes, not just thread notes. And most importantly, start giving mock tests(maha anna has an excellent list of mock tests at her site). It is only after giving mock tests that you can judge for yourself if you are ready for the exam or not. If the results of the mock tests are not according to what you had expected, re-schedule the exam by a week or so. I myself had re-scheduled my exam.
HTH
Prasanna
SCJP2

Thanks Prasana:
Yes you are right I already rescheduled the exam because i need some time to practice.Thanks for your advice.
Constrate your study.
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