Hooray! I passed the
SCJP 5.0 exam today. I got 69 out of 82 questions, so that's an 84 even though the print out that you get after you complete the exam says 95%.
ETA: Thanks to this forum I had some initial confusion about the scoring of the exam cleared up. The print out is correct, it is actually 69 correct out of 72 questions since there are 10 extra unmarked questions. What would I do without this forum? =D
Since this is my first post, I'll add a little background. I had been working with C++ for the past 5 years and started a new job in August using
Java. Not too big of a shift but I wanted to get up to speed fast. Googling good Java books turned up the "K&B". It was a good fit since I didn't want a "how to program" book. I just wanted to get to the details quickly. I went through the book in about a week, completing all the exercises. Most of the OO concepts and syntax was very familiar to me, so I highly recommend the book for someone coming from a C++ background.
Anyway, after reading the book, I figured I'd take the SCJP for fun. It seemed like I was prepared for it. I took some mock exams and quickly failed them. =D I found the API details to be the hardest part to remember and I was a little weak in generics (didn't really use templates much in C++ other than the STL). I took more mock exams, reread the 2 minute drills in K&B and read the FAQ at this site for what to look for on the
test (which is very good btw). That was about a week.
The last week I used Whizlabs' excellent SCJP exam simulator. I used this to gauge my readiness for the exam and compared it to other people's scores on this site. It is true that the score you get in Whizlabs corresponds pretty closely to the score you'll get on the actual test. In case, anyone's interested, my scores were:
Diagnostic: 65%
Practise Exam 1: 68%
Practise Exam 2: 78%
Practise Exam 3: 78%
Practise Exam 4: 80%
I took them in that order. I didn't take the final, I was tired of studying and felt that I was ready for the exam.
For those who are still studying, I found the real exam to be easier than the Whizlabs and K&B exams. The format is also very similar to the Whizlabs software, so this was also good preparation. I also found that the time was quite generous. I was done in just under 2 hours and I had 3 hours and 35 minutes for 82 questions.
A final thanks to the authors of SCJP Java 5 Study Guide book. It's an excellent book even if you're not interested in taking the SCJP. And also thanks to the authors of the Whizlabs software for making an excellent product. The book and Whizlabs plus these forums is all you need to pass the SCJP. Next stop: SCWCD (I need to know this for work as well).
[ September 17, 2007: Message edited by: Diljeet Birak ]