First off let me say the actual experience is not as difficult as I imagined.(Maybe I feel that now.....)The questions were relatively manageable and had a lot of gotchas that I managed to spot which I will stress on later.
Let me tell you about my preparation. As soon as I knew KB book 6 was going to be released I immediately placed an order and postponed any plans of giving version 5.0...The book came agonisingly late but was well worth it. I feel it is more than sufficient to cover the theory for the exam. And the questions are pretty good too both in self study and the CD. I used quite a few of them wrong on my first attempt and some even on my second.
And obviously to get more practice, I got whizlabs as well. Here is where the real tension began..Let me tell you I never scored above 63% in a single whizlabs
test Which is what made the exam all the more interesting for me.
But that maybe because of all the music I play in the background or constant distractions generally found in a household....I like to think so anyway.
The exam was a mixed bag for me - Some questions were so easy I must have taken less then 10 sec to answer. While some on the other hand - !@#@$
That snoochy poochy(people who gave the exam might have gotten it) question rattled my spinal cord - caused beads of sweat even in an air-conditioned environment....I was never that comfortable with GC related things.
So I guess things were balanced out in the exam:lol:
It was fun spotting those super calls to static methods or even calling instance members directly from static context.
I am not sure how much I am allowed to disclose but I got some(very few) questions from the new topics as well which were relatively easy after preparation.
All people planning to appear for
SCJP 5.0, I definitely feel
you should put a little more effort and give 310-065 instead. The new topics are rather simple too.
I was pretty sure I had messed up quite a few at the end of those concentration filled 200+ minutes. But the sweet sound of the exam coordinator congratulating me is still fresh in my ears. - I scored a WHOPPING 94% - 68 questions right......Man!!! it sure gave my confidence a big
boost.
At the end I will like to thank The wonderful authors Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates for a truly spectacular book. Bless them both! It is not often that I have laughed or smiled while reading a course book apart from the usual zzzzzz. The wonderful Animal - Dog analogies and examples - absolutely fantastic and easy to understand. I truly have begun to treat objects as real world entities. And of course whizlabs too,for keeping me grounded.
I didn't do much on javaranch except read a few questions her and there. Most of them were filled with some interesting queries that any programmer might face. Thanks guys for this wonderful community. May it grow more and more.
I hope my rambling didn't bore you guys (if you read it
)
:cheers: