• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • paul wheaton
  • Rob Spoor
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Tim Holloway
  • Carey Brown
  • Frits Walraven
  • Tim Moores
Bartenders:
  • Mikalai Zaikin

A better approach to scjp?

 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 63
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I'm spending A LOT of time and care to prepare for this certification, but nevertheless I feel like one that has to study for it again and again and much more. I feel confident with the topics I have studied and I can remember them fairly well, perhaps because I do a lot of practice writing small programs too, but I always have the same feeling that what I learn on the book is not enough to pass the exam. For this reason I very often find myself lost in details and overwhelmed by them, spending days reading and exploring JLS, for example. I also have tried to study the book without delve into the labyrinth of JLS, but I'm not satisfied because I think that details are not negligible to fully understand concepts (and achieve the certification).

Should I stick to the book only? I'd really appreciate suggestions about a more efficient approach to prepare scjp, because
1. I have the vague feeling that all this focus on details is hindering the achievement of the goal :-(
2. I don't have all this time anymore
3. I don't want to give up :-)

I'm using K&B and I'm very happy to study on it (though I still have to study generics and threads). I also have read a couple of chapters of another certification book but, guess what, it lacks too many details, really. The good thing is that I'm doing Enthuware mocks and I see that at least what I have studied is still "in place".

Thanks
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 226
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hey,

Don't give up just yet!

I would say that you should stick with the book. Once you have finished the book try some mocks and see how you are performing.

Focus on the areas that you are scoring low. Try the Whizlabs mocks or Devaka's ExamLab (free)
 
Greenhorn
Posts: 20
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
hi Santiago ,

i am new to java as well as c++....i like try some graphics codes in the sample programs. Is this there any forum which clears the doubts in c++ and c graphics.. give me some useful links for c graphics usage ...
 
author
Posts: 9050
21
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi Paolo,

It sounds like you're going overboard a bit! If your goal is to get more than 90%, than perhaps you need to do all this detailed studying, but I wouldn't recommend that approach.

First off, let's do some math. There are something like 37 objectives - so you'll get about 2 questions / objective. In my opinion, the book does a pretty good job of helping you focus on the right topics. So, for instance, if you see a table that summarizes how objects of certain types can be constructed, then that probably indicates roughly the depth of knowledge you'll need for that topic. As an example, let's look at the file i/o and dates/numbers objectives. Each is only a single objective, so you'll probably get 2 questions on each topic. The exam creation team didn't want you to become an expert on the Date class - the team wants you to understand the basics of using the class. Same with file i/o - it's a HUGE topic for sure, but the exam team wants you to understand just the basics. It sounds to me like you're going way past the detail level that you can find in the book's two minute drills. You really don't need to memorize the API - yikes! The idea of including API stuff is to get you to study it and use it a little bit so that you know how to use in the real world - we really try to keep memorization to a minimum!

hth,

Bert
 
archana keerti
Greenhorn
Posts: 20
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
hi,
first of all i need to thank you for the book head first java...it helps me a lot ....
since i am new to java ....suggest me the ways how can i travel through java field in addition to the certifications....
and also how to familiarize the java concepts for certification ....
thank you for considering my question.........
 
Paolo Dina
Ranch Hand
Posts: 63
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi Bert, thanks for your answer and for the book. I'm going to keep your suggestions in great consideration. It won't be easy to say "bye bye JLS", especially to chapter 5 (my favourite and IMHO a very important one, as conversions and/or promotions are almost everywhere in a Java program and we can't play them by ears...), but I'll use the book as a self-contained resource since now on!

And it could be a good choice indeed, as I'm reading right now that someone passed the exam with a very high score studying only the book for two months.



S. Bravo: thanks to you too.

@archana keerti: don't hijack threads, it is unpolite.
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic