Informal survey for people passing SCJP2

I've seen several messages from people that have passed the SCJP2 exam saying that JavaRanch helped a lot or that JavaRanch added so many percentage points. I find that seriously cool. And then I think that might be good info to use to help direct people to come to JavaRanch.
For those of you that passed the SCJP2 exam, could you reply to this message and pick a number of percentage points that you think participation in JavaRanch helped you with? This question seems poorly worded, but I'm not sure how else to ask it.
I suppose an answer could be "I think that participation in JavaRanch boosted my exam score by X%"
I know this sounds real cheesy and stuff, but I think it might help bring other Java people here that want to get certified. And it's not like we charge money or anything.

Thanks!

I think JavaRanch boosted my score by 5%...
The InnerClass artilce is a must read....I was able to answer the 2-3 inner class questions because of that article alone.....

In my case, I would say 15%. When preparing the exam, I came to
this site not just for my question. I also followed other people
' questions. Interestingly, most of the people shared the
similar difficult problems. I gained a lot from this situation.

Paul,
just rules rounds up helps so much for fundamentals, i think it helped me a lot to remember fundamentals
great game,
also would be nice if we have some stories in camp fire on constructor calling and awk. tool kit
Regards

JavaRanch helped me to score more points, atleast 5%. I was not clear about some concepts, after following the discussion on this site, it helped to score more points. Not only certification stuff, I wish folks discuss about servlets, oops concepts more on JavaRanch.
Thanks

at least 10%.
RN

I'd say 10% maybe more on the test, which in my case was the difference between passing and failing. But emotionally, I think it helped even more to get up for the test, just reading what everyone had to say about the test, both before and after they took it. I also like the "we are all in this together" attitude here, and on an international level.

I'd say that javaranch helped me gain an extra 5-10% on the exam

I'm sure that Java Ranch gained at least 10% for me.

It helped me 10%.
bidyut

Paul,
Javaranch helped me at least by 7-10%. Good work and great site.
Thanks
Ajay Kumar

I think this site added at least 10% to my score, if not more. Given my score of 83% it's probably fair to say that you were the difference between me passing and failing. As someone has already said the Inner Class article is a must read, it really clarified things for me.
Badvok

I 'd say 5% at least. The most important is you got confidence as well. Before I visited javaranch I thought I wouldn't be able to pass for the first try. Since there are so many people here got high scores and I got confidence from their ideas about the exam gradually.

The exam likely boosted my score by 3-5%. The only reason it did not have an even greater positive effect was that I consulted the page for only a few days before I took the exam. I attended mostly to discussions of overall exam format and content; much of the discussion on particular questions was slightly over my head (I got an 80% on the exam). The hints about the various online mock exams were very useful.
More than anything else, the exam gave me a general confidence. Just to know that other people found certain questions difficult or confusing enabled me to know approximately where I stood in my preparation, and that I was ready to take the exam.

(just freshening this message up so people that recently passed the exam might not miss it)

JavaRanch helped me by about 8-10%. It is still helping me understand so many new concepts every day.

Ajith

javaranch definitely helped me for the SJCP at least 10%. I was scoring around 70% on these mock exams after I finished RHE, before I went through all the threads here. And then the second time I did mock exams, the score was up to 80% mostly. I would say, javaranch is like the biggest mock exam with the best explaination, covering all the things we need to know for the SJCP. (except that "semicolon" issue.

)
Indy

hi paul,
in my case, I would say javaranch helped me gain more than 10%!! I think it would have been more, had I gone thru all the pages. I didn't get time to go thru all the pages!! Only after booking for the test, I found this site!!
Paul, thanks a lot for such a great site!!
Regards,
Suresh.

I was getting around 55 before I came and by the end I got 88. Of course I read RHE and took a few mocks in the meantime...
Eric

10%, atleast.

I'd guess about 10%.

I would say a

10-15%.
Regards.

I can't really say how many percentage points JavaRanch helped me, but I can say that JavaRanch is the reason I took the SCJP (tell that to Sun!

).
I somehow strolled across the "Rules Roundup" game about a month ago, and was shocked to get about 50% (I had been programming in Java for about a year and a half). Hot-shot shot down.
I decided that there was obviously value in the SCJP exam, picked up Mughal & Rasmussen's "A Programmer's Guide to Java Certification" (which I found to be extremely thorough -- with my experience I found RHE to be a little too sparse).
Today I just took the SCJP exam and passed with 95%. My Java skills are much sharper after this (at least I won't be using the compiler to check syntax/semantics nearly as much!)

I should say I was one of the many who utilized the ranch
for almost everything. Apart from burning the midnight oil
all thru in my preparation, I gained enormous amt of
knowledge here by participating in many of the discussions.
I for one am not a java programmer(work-wise as yet), but
it has been a challenge, personal sortof, to be SCJP.
I like OO approach and wanted to get into java. Came across
this website and used and used and used it till I gave my
exam and ofcourse am still here participating.
I would say I gained atleast 25 % of my knowledge here on
the ranch. Apart from learning the subject matter to a
certain extent, participating in discussions and gaining
confedence were some of the things I did on the ranch.
Again Thanks javaranch.
Regds.

- satya

I passed the exam with success today.
JavaRanch made the difference for me bettween success and failing since I was studying alone.
I will say that now that I have some base (after all I'm a SCPJ2 now) Java ranch still a good place to improve and challenge what I know.
Thanks to all
Vroummmmmmm
(My nick name that can only use my friends, prononce it with a strong french accent).
[This message has been edited by Vroummmmm (edited June 13, 2000).]

I would say about 10-15%.
Reading the campfile stories (Inner class and Dog-polymorphism particularly) early on in my prep helped a lot.
Rules Roundup was also useful, and so also was reading what other people asked in this forum.
Also, I like the website design. V.cool.
Catherine
(85%, says she smugly).

For me to grant less than 30% to Javaranch would really be mean.The ranch has contributed tremendously to my success in my certification. I have had no tutor, all I had was a couple of books and my Internet home page set to Javaranch.The most important thing is the psychological preparation that Javaranch gives you and indeed this exam is quite psychological.35 % to Javaranch.
Herbert

Hi,
As i said in my previous mail, Javaranch was the backbone to success in SCJP. It helped me know about the finer details thru the numerous questions and discussions andgave me the confindence to take the exam.
In percentage, i would say 25% the least.
Cheers
Sankar

I think this side raised my score 5% to 10%. During my two days of cramming, I spent many hours playing Rules Roundup. When I just couldn't stand to spend another minute looking at my Exam Cram book or taking a traditional mock exam, I could (almost) always motivate myself to play a few more rounds of Rules Roundup. Thanks for making that wonderful game available.

I think javaranch boosted my score by atleast 10%. The oppurtunity to clear my doubts made a lot of difference. Thanks guys

This site helped me up to 20%. Primarily in motivation and also it made me realize the obfuscated questions the SCJP test may ask about details in Java I wouldn't necessarily know as a Java programmer but would need to memorize for the test.
I was a bit lax prior to coming to this site. . .
(Great job all!)
Octavyn

JavaRanch helped me by about 10-12%. Hope the ranch keeps motivating me in my further pursuits in Java.