I only found the Scjp Wall of Fame today, so I decided to add myself to it.
During the exam, I definitely didn't feel like I had scored what I scored. I actually did use the whole 3 hours, and I didn't get to check all my answers once through either, I only got half way through the checking. And at the end, I was scared I might have failed and was thinking about what sections I needed to reread to retake the exam.
I definitely felt that the first 20 questions were a lot harder than the last 40. So it was an emotional rollercoaster for the first section as I wondered if the whole test was going to be that hard. Not that the last 10 weren't hard, I had to guess a few of them too.
For those who are preparing, if this helps at all, this is what I did:
- Read and took notes of the SCJP Sierra Bates 6 book. (On and off, but really did most of it in December 2009) That book is pretty awesome. Read the notes and 2 minute drills.
- Took both the LearnKey exams, scored 55 then 75. I figured that with 75, that would do, I was tired of sitting more practice exams.
- I took 3/5 of Devaka's exams. (I left 2 there just in case I failed). They're really good, but not much of a confidence booster since I scored 55, 55, 62
- Write about 30 or so little programs just to try out weird stuff
- Printed out and read the Java API on the Thread, Object, PrintWriter, Console, Scanner, etc. classes
- Pray during the exam. Yes, I really did feel that bad during it.
- Relaxed and had a Christmas break.
- Sit the exam on Friday afternoon right (Jan 15th) after I'd have crammed Monday - Thursday before it and had sat a few more practice exams. I think there's something about losing memory over a weekend.
Of the 60 questions, there were about 12-18 that I wasn't absolutely sure on. So averaging ... that should be 7 or 8 wrong, so I'm really amazed that it was only 2. Imo, that must've been an answer to prayer.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at by Albert Tang
"Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand." --- Martin Fowler
Please correct my English.
That's a relief! Some of these mock exam questions are killer - presenting you with lots of code to work through, and you choose the right answer, only to discover WRONG! You didn't import java.io.*, so the answer is 'wouldn't compile!' Those questions seem sneaky. I hope there's not lots of ones like that on the real exam, which I'm taking in a couple hours.
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I hope there's not lots of ones like that on the real exam, which I'm taking in a couple hours.
