Hi everybody,
First of all I would like to thank to Dan Chisholm, javaranch, Kathy&Bert, Khalid A. Mughal , Marcus Green (I put them in alfabetical order since all had MAX_PRIORITY :-) ) for their help in suceeding with the SJPC. I passed with 100 %, so I can garantee that the rumor that sun would not allow 100% (discussed
here) is not true.
Concerning the "nice-part" of the experience taking the exam:
- clarifies some notions for you,
- it really helps improving the quality of your code
- nice to learn so many things (especially from javaranch)
- I liked the questions since most of them do
test your knowledge on the language itself and not all kind of tricky things you can find in the mock exams (BUT don't worry I said most of them, not all of them). And don't missunderstand me, taking the tricky mock exams did help a lot.
Concerning the "not-so-nice-part" of the experience taking the exam I can say two things:
- I found it very unfair from SUN that the time starts counting from the moment you have to agree to all kind of agreements (and it did happen to me that I said myself why not reading this time the agreements since I almost never do it :-) ). So when I saw actually my first question, I already had 5 minutes less. Is true time is not a real concern if you are prepared but still, I have to admit I panicked a bit to see I wasted time with ... noting.
- I found the exam level a bit low; I expected more tough questions. Or if not tougher questions then at least a higher passing score. But once again, don't missunderstand me: no reason to go there if you didn't study for it (even if you are programming in
java for quite a while).
Just as some eventually helping ideas:
- I wouldn't take such exam before actually programing in Java (definately not because I woldn't pass, but because I wouldn't find it so usefull)
- If you just want to pass the exam then go through Kathy&Bert's book and do some of the Marcus Green's exams. It should be enough. If you are a bit more ambitious and do all the tests and the master exam
you should get between (70-90) %.
- If you really want to get over 90% giving some answers to javaranch (just to get some self confidence), taking Dan's mocks exams and studying Khalid A. Mughal as well would help a lot.
Success to all who did not pass yet!
Miki