Suggest a crash strategy to prepare for SCJO 1.5

Hi Folks,

I have completed the K&B book once but didn't solve the questions at the end of the chapters. Will again do a reading with questions as well. Due to certain reason I need to appear for the exam on Nov 3. Please suggest some good strategy of how to go about it?

You help is highly appreciated.

Thanks,
Living Celluloid

best bet is to solve at least 500 mock exam questions from whizlab and enthuware and understand each exam questions.

Hi L.C.

I suspect you will be getting some heat on your display name. You may want to consider changing it in your profile in the Publicly Displayed Name: field.

Since you've already read K&B, going through it again will be easier. It is for me. Definitely do the mock exams and review the chapter for the ones you miss.

Participate in the forum. There are other sources of mock exams that are frequently asked here. Try for yourself to make sense out of them.

Write lots of small test programs to observe the behavior of the JVM.

Since you are starting to review, there's a good chance for you. I just started my review last week and am trying to be ready about the same time you are.

Aloha,
Doug

-- Nothing is impossible if I'mPossible

Thanks Tony and Doug,

AS you suggested Doug , I have changed my screen name

. Does it looks possible for me to clear the exam in 2 weeks. I have been getting only discouraging comments from folks around me. Plus i am a working person so can't squeeze out 12 hours a day for sure but have been trying to put in my best.

Thanks a lot for giving me directions.

Hi Paritosh,

Originally posted by Paritosh:
Does it looks possible for me to clear the exam in 2 weeks. I have been getting only discouraging comments from folks around me. Plus i am a working person so can't squeeze out 12 hours a day for sure but have been trying to put in my best.

Don't sweat the discouragement from your peers. If they aren't willing to help, blow them off.

Since you're working, there's more pressure on your shoulders. As for me, I'm between jobs atm and am getting fresh certs with my time as a lot of my others are outdated. I'm able to get about 6-8 hours a day study time plus some relaxing time to hang out at the ranch

. However, because the amount of knowledge that needs to stick, I'm living & breathing Java. I need to do some studying in other tech areas, but am holding off until after the exam.

On the mock exams you should be scoring about 10% higher of what you expect to score on the real exam.

Since you've read the book, you should have a pretty good idea of your weak spots. Start attacking those now and when you start studying each day while your fresh. The more time you spend on them the better.

Aloha,
Doug

-- Nothing is impossible if I'mPossible

Paritosh, please check your private messages. You can see them by clicking My Private Messages.

Originally posted by Paritosh:
Does it looks possible for me to clear the exam in 2 weeks. I have been getting only discouraging comments from folks around me.

A lot (obviously) depends on your prior experience too.

I've been reading the K & B book only on the train back home every day for the last 2 weeks. Since I'm a professional programmer for quite some years, Ms.c too, I skipped most of the basics and only tried to memorize some of the stuff I normally don't really use a lot.

My exam date was scheduled for today. As luck had it (not), I got sick during the last 4 days, so I was only able to practice with some of the end of chapter questions just the other day. The first time I performed surprisingly bad on those, but it gave me a good clue of what exam-specific knowledge I was lacking. I (re-)read the associated topics in the K & B book (taking only a few hours) and today I passed with a 90% score.

Of course, if Java is not already in your daily job, you may need some more time or some more intense training.

Writing small pieces of code to observe JVM behavior is a good idea too (helps a lot in understanding the language, even when you're not training for the exam).

Hi Paritosh,

I am hoping to do the SCJP Exam around the same days. I also got K&B with me and thats the only book which I have referred to so far, and I think the book itself will be enough. I did work on the book once before but I did not had enough free time to write the exam, because I'm an undergraduate. Well, I'll be finishing one of my semesters these days and hope to do a review on K&B and write the exam, and I'm pretty confident I can make it.

I think what you should do is forget all the things others can say to discourage you and work on K&B, reviewing and completing all of the chapter quizes and the mocks, and then work on few extra mocks as well. I think you will make it !