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When to take the certification test

 
Greenhorn
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I am currently a CS major and was curious when you think it would be suitable for someone to take this test. At the school I go to they offer the 1301 and 1302 programming classes, both of which are Java programming. Is that enough in order to pass the certification course, or would it be more beneficial to finish my degree and then take the test? I was planning on taking the summer off to work, and wanted to get some certification courses done in the down time.
 
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sam jones wrote:I am currently a CS major and was curious when you think it would be suitable for someone to take this test. At the school I go to they offer the 1301 and 1302 programming classes, both of which are Java programming. Is that enough in order to pass the certification course, or would it be more beneficial to finish my degree and then take the test? I was planning on taking the summer off to work, and wanted to get some certification courses done in the down time.



I think the school knowledge will be an advantage, but you should spend time to study for the exam and doing mock tests. SCJP requires you a solid understanding of the language and it's hard. Even an experienced Java programmer may fail the test. So take your time and study for it.
 
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Sam, I don't know what exactly they gonna cover in 1301 and 1302 programming classes, better you checked out the SCJP FAQ's which list out the syllabus and clarification about basic doubt regarding SCJP.

If you can dedicate 2 - 3 hours daily for SCJP preparation for a month side by side doing your graduation, I'm pretty sure you can cover the things within a month. After all, its depend on your confidence, dedication and its always good to graduate with some certification, which definitely decorate your CV and bring the good chances of employment in such recession period.
 
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Its a good thing to study SCJP along with your school courses but SCJP would definitely require a lot of training and you would need to study from multiple sources, take some free tests online
 
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Sam,

Did your coursework introduce you to Java or do you have familiarity with Java even before? Reason why I asked is, if you are a newbie to Java and the courses are the only sources of your learning so far I would recommend you first finish off your courses. SCJP is more technical so you would be better off having primary knowledge and then starting to prepare for SCJP rather than learning Java and preparing for SCJP simultaneously. It would take solid prepping for a month after you finish of your coursework to attempt SCJP.

Like Sagar quoted, please compare the syllabus of your coursework and that of SCJP's and make sure you would be familiar with all the objectives of the exam. However if you are already familiar with Java (prior to coursework) it would be fine if you can study both in parallel.

All the best !

-Reuel
 
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Well, I have a CS degree too. If the the courses are introductory, the main objective is to teach OOP using java and enough programming for your junior/senior courses. In my case, studying the SCJP has been a different experience than learning java while in school. The SCJP goes in so much details about java comparing to college courses. The SCJP have some topics on data structures, operating system, and software engineering, but in a different perspective than a CS curriculum. If you have a basic understanding on OOP, I think you can start working for you SCJP, but depending in your schedule, I think a more realistic frame time could be at least 3 months of hard work!

- Armando
 
Sagar Rohankar
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armando fonseca wrote:The SCJP have some topics on data structures, operating system, and software engineering, but in a different perspective than a CS curriculum.


 
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Maybe it would be a good idea taking SCJA (Sun Certified Java Associate) first, if you don't feel very confortable about all the topics covered by SCJP:

http://www.sun.com/training/certification/java/scja.xml
 
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Rogerio Kioshi wrote:Maybe it would be a good idea taking SCJA (Sun Certified Java Associate) first, if you don't feel very confortable about all the topics covered by SCJP:

http://www.sun.com/training/certification/java/scja.xml



What in your opinion is the advantage of taking the SCJA for someone in the U.S. I think the exam was tailored for some specific markets outside the U.S. It is a waste of money to take SCJA if you reside in the U.S. My advice is for him to channel the energy he would expend preparing for SCJA towards the preparation for SCJP.
 
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Anselm Paulinus wrote:

Rogerio Kioshi wrote:Maybe it would be a good idea taking SCJA (Sun Certified Java Associate) first, if you don't feel very confortable about all the topics covered by SCJP:

http://www.sun.com/training/certification/java/scja.xml



What in your opinion is the advantage of taking the SCJA for someone in the U.S. I think the exam was tailored for some specific markets outside the U.S. It is a waste of money to take SCJA if you reside in the U.S. My advice is for him to channel the energy he would expend preparing for SCJA towards the preparation for SCJP.



A friend of mine has done the SCJA beta exam and he passed easily. He didn't study too much because this exam covers superficial IT aspects. I think passing this exam can improve your confidence if you are not very familiar to programming.
I also think this exam is not so valuable as the other Java certifications if you wanna work with programming, but if you fail your first exam trying SCJP that can produce a feeling of failure, which is not something very nice.
 
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