Any tips for sitting for a certification?

Saturday will be my first experience sitting for a certification of any sort. I'm pretty nervous as this certification is exactly the break I needed in my career at this point but at the same time I'm fearful of failure because I'd really not like to waste this oppurtunity.

Any advice?

If I had any regrets was not registering for the 2nd to last weekend during the beta. I mean i feel ready but more time would be great. But then again one can over study.

I'd say just relax! (I know, easy for me to say)

Honestly, if you feel like you have a solid understanding of the material, you'll do just fine. The exam is NOT tricky...I think if you can look at the objectives and honestly feel comfortable that you understand the topics they describe, you won't have any trouble.

When you're actually taking the exam, skip over any questions you're having any amount of trouble with. You can come back to them at the end...better to make sure you get through all of the questions that you KNOW the answers to than to miss out on any of them because you wasted a bunch of time on a question you weren't sure about.

Hi Matt,

The JavaRanch SCJA FAQ describes the exam format.

If you have the time, drop in to the test center between now and when you have the exam - take a look at the exam room, find out where the toilets are, take the stress out of trying to find the test center on the day of the test.

You might want to try some of the mock exams for SCJP or SCBCD so you get a rough feel for how the tests feel - the SCBCD mock exams will go into far more detail than you need for SCJA, but they have the advantage of giving examples of drag-n-drop questions.

Regards, Andrew

Honestly, if you feel like you have a solid understanding of the material, you'll do just fine. The exam is NOT tricky...I think if you can look at the objectives and honestly feel comfortable that you understand the topics they describe, you won't have any trouble.

Dave,
i've read some posts from them who have taken SCJA exam. they said that the java section is like SCJP 1.4.
how could you say that the exam is not tricky?
as i know, the SCJP exam is the most trickier exam in the world

The Java questions are really MUCH simpler than the ones on the SCJP exam. There may be a few in there that people would consider tricky, but for the most part I can honestly say that this exam is pretty straight-forward.

Look at the posts on this forum and I'll think you'll find most people who have taken the exam have said that the "core Java" questions are easier than the ones from the SCJP.

-Dave