Passed SCJA...barely

So I just passed about 3 hours ago, and am very grateful Sun made this certification. Why? Well, for me it's really more of a confidence booster and path setter than something that will have financial impact. I know the SCJP is very difficult and demanding. To me the SCJP is like holding a string just high enough above a cats head so that it can't get it: eventually the cat gives up if it never even touches the string. Well, getting the SCJA is sort of like touching the string for me. I had originally studied the SCJP on and off for about 4 months, but gave up, at least until I heard about the SCJA about 1.5 months ago. Now I'll pursue the SCJP once again.

I have studied, either in an academic setting or on my own, all of the SCJA objectives except the J2EE stuff. However, this was all over a year ago.

So, I bought Cameron's book (EXAMSCAM) and instantly felt I could obtain this cert with little effort, due to having studied most of it previously.

I also bought Sun's online test software, which gives you 3 tests composed of 51 questions each, which is to simulate the real test. Several questions on the real exam were identical to questions found in Sun's practice exams.

I viewed the "free UML pdf" found on the SCJA FAQs link at the top of this web page about 3-4 times.

All of the studying, reading the book, testing software, etc, were all done within the last 6 weeks.

Also, I had one 'lollipop' question, which happened to be my last question.

Overall the test, I think, was noticeably more difficult than questions found in EXAMSCAM, though the questions within that book were also very useful. And slightly more difficult than Sun's testing software I mentioned above.

Good luck to everyone else.

Originally posted by Michael Raymond Jr.:
...I had originally studied the SCJP on and off for about 4 months, but gave up...

Years ago, after working through an SCJP certification book, I tried one of the mock exams in the back of the book. I expected to do fairly well, but I scored a dismal 35% or so. Obviously, I didn't know the details they were testing. It took a while for me to come back from that.

Passing the SCJP requires a serious commitment, but it is within reach. So now that you've got the SCJA as a foundation, I guess we'll see you in the SCJP forum...

Congratulations!

Congratulations on your passing score! I'm glad some of my books and exams could help out. Feedback like yours has helped me update and improve the quality of the books tremendously over the past few months.

Indeed, SCJA was the perfect exam for you. It's certainly a tough exam, but not quite as syntax focussed as SCJP.

It does look great to say that your Java 5 Certified by Sun Microsystems. It sure looks great on a resume.

Congratulations!

-Cameron McKenzie
[ March 17, 2007: Message edited by: Cameron W. McKenzie ]