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OCPJP 6 or OCAJP 7+OCPJP 7

 
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Hey guys!
I am an Computer Science Engineering student of final year(4th year). I have really bad grades but I am good at programming. I am planning to take the OCPJP 6 exam within a month.

So, I need few suggestions from you guys.

1) I have been told that SE 7 certification exams are in Beta phase. Is it true?

2) How should I choose the certification path? I was thinking about getting OCPJP SE 6 certified and then later upgrade it to SE 7 or SE 8(when the exams are available). Reason for that is as far as I know, you have give 2 exams to get SE7 Professional certification but only 1 for SE 6 certification. Or should I get Associate cert for 7 and then go for Professional cert for 7?

3) What is the market value of SE 6? Is it still in use or is it outdated? Will getting certified in SE6 benefit me? Does it matter for employers if the candidate is certified in SE6 or SE7?

4) How often do recent graduates with little or no experience get the Professional Java Programmer certification? And which version(SE6 or SE7) do they get it of?
 
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1. No, it is not true. They have been available for more than a year now.

2. Usually, I suggest taking the more recent version available but in your case I would suggest you to go for 1.6 because it covers a lot of stuff that you will find useful in interviews. Of course, OCA+OCP 7 will also cover that but you have to spend twice as much. You can study Java 7 topics separately and upgrade your cert later.

3.There is no reliable data available to say anything about about this question. But I can tell you from experience that studying for either of the certifications will definitely help you in the interviews. The certification itself will be secondary but the knowledge that you will gain while studying for it will make a difference in how you answer questions in the interview.

4. No data.

HTH,
Paul.
 
Nilay Mitash
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Thanks Paul,
I think I am gonna go ahead with OCPJP 6.

Can you tell me when the SE8 certification exams will be available?

-Nilay
 
Nilay Mitash
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ok! no problems. I didn't know that writing "urgent" was against the rules. I just wanted to get some opinions as soon as possible :p
 
Paul Anilprem
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Nilay Mitash wrote:
Can you tell me when the SE8 certification exams will be available?

-Nilay


No, and I don't think anyone can
 
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Nilay Mitash wrote:How often do recent graduates with little or no experience get the Professional Java Programmer certification?


It happened at least once. That would be me. But I'll have to change your question a little to be accurate.
Here: How often do recent graduates with little or no experience in Java get the Professional Java Programmer certification?
 
Nilay Mitash
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Thank you for your reply Pawel!
 
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until which time exam of SE6 will proceed?
 
Paweł Baczyński
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abalfazl hossein wrote:until which time exam of SE6 will proceed?


Why do you worry that OCPJP 6 might be unavailable in the near future? Well.. OCPJP 5 is still available ;)
 
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I never have taken any previous Sun Certification, I would like to take the exam for java 7, in this case ¿what is best?, take the exam for java 6 and upgrade to java 7 (SCJP SE 7) or to take OCAJP SE 7 SE 7 and OCPJP SE 7 directly?

 
Paweł Baczyński
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arshdeep singh wrote:I never have taken any previous Sun Certification, I would like to take the exam for java 7, in this case ¿what is best?, take the exam for java 6 and upgrade to java 7 (SCJP SE 7) or to take OCAJP SE 7 SE 7 and OCPJP SE 7 directly?



What is your experience with programming and Java? What are your goals?
 
arshdeep singh
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Paweł Baczyński wrote:

arshdeep singh wrote:I never have taken any previous Sun Certification, I would like to take the exam for java 7, in this case ¿what is best?, take the exam for java 6 and upgrade to java 7 (SCJP SE 7) or to take OCAJP SE 7 SE 7 and OCPJP SE 7 directly?



What is your experience with programming and Java? What are your goals?



Hi Paweł Baczyński,

I have graduated in 2014 and currently working as java programmer. My goal is to get maximum exposure of java technologies and use it in future career.
 
Sheriff
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Hi arshdeep singh,

First of all, a warm welcome to CodeRanch!

arshdeep singh wrote:I never have taken any previous Sun Certification, I would like to take the exam for java 7, in this case ¿what is best?, take the exam for java 6 and upgrade to java 7 (SCJP SE 7) or to take OCAJP SE 7 SE 7 and OCPJP SE 7 directly?


You could take OCAJP8 and OCPJP8 as well

The path OCAJP7 + OCPJP7 will be easier than OCPJP6 + upgrade to OCPJP7, because OCPJP6 requires much more Java knowledge to pass than OCAJP7. The same applies to the path OCAJP8 + OCPJP8 as well.

Another benefit for the path OCAJP7 + OCPJP7: there are some very good study guides available to prepare for both certification exams. For OCAJP8 you already have a study guide available, but not yet for the OCPJP8 one (the exam objectives were released very recently).

Hope it helps!
Kind regards,
Roel
 
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If you are a graduate and already have a job in Java®, please consider whether certifications are a valuable qualification or simply an expense which you could avoid.

Or: Do you actually need certs as well as a degree?

And welcome to the Ranch again.
 
arshdeep singh
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Thanks Roel De Nijs and Campbell Ritchie for your valuable suggestions.

Still I have one confusion, if i can get Professional java Programmer certification by passing alone OCPJP6 exam then why should i pass two exams ( OCAJP7 + OCPJP7 ) as it will cost me double to get professional level certification.

I know in JAVA 7 some extra topics are added but these topics are few and covers very few syllabus.


 
Roel De Nijs
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arshdeep singh wrote:Still I have one confusion, if i can get Professional java Programmer certification by passing alone OCPJP6 exam then why should i pass two exams ( OCAJP7 + OCPJP7 ) as it will cost me double to get professional level certification.


The cost to get certified is definitely one of the criterions to make your decision. And if it's very important to you (because your employer doesn't want to pay the exam fee), this will probably influence your decision.

The OCPJP7 exam covers much more advanced topics than the OCPJP6 exam, like JDBC, localization, NIO2.0, Concurrency,... And OCPJP7 is (of course) more recent than OCPJP6. If you just want a professional programmer certification and money is an issue, just go for OCPJP6. You can always upgrade that certification later to OCPJP7 or OCPJP8 using one of the upgrade exams.
If you want to get the most recent professional programmer certification, it will always require 2 certification exams you have to pass. And you can choose from different paths: OCPJP6 + upgrade to OCPJP7/8, OCAJP7 + OCPJP7 or OCAJP8 + OCPJP8. Important note: currently you can't combine different version certifications.
 
arshdeep singh
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Thanks Roel !

I really appreciate your help.

Now if we remove money constraint then which will we best path for me - OCAJP7 + OCPJP7 or OCAJP8 + OCPJP8 ?

I am considering following points in mind:

availability of both certification exam, study material to prepare, difference in syllabus, benefits in future etc?
 
Roel De Nijs
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arshdeep singh wrote:Now if we remove money constraint then which will we best path for me - OCAJP7 + OCPJP7 or OCAJP8 + OCPJP8 ?

I am considering following points in mind:

availability of both certification exam, study material to prepare, difference in syllabus, benefits in future etc?


Depends on what you find the most important...

1/ all exams are currently available as production exams, except for OCPJP8 which is currently available in beta. End date of the beta is May 30, 2015 (could be extended). Then it will take a few months until the exam will become a production exam.
2/ for OCAJP7 and OCPJP7 you have a few study guides and other resource (like mock exams). For OCAJP8 you'll have a study guide available as well. Currently no study guide for OCPJP8 available (you could use study guide for OCPJP7 and use other online resources for OCPJP8 specific content)
3/ Java 8 is more recent than Java 7, offering some exciting new language features like lambdas, predicates and highly improved date/time API. Comparison of exam topics: Ocajp7vsOcajp8 and Ocpjp7vsOcpjp8
4/ because OCPJP8 is currently in beta, you can take it very cheaply (just $50). You can take OCPJP8 before OCAJP8. Remember it will take 11 weeks before you know if you passed the exam or not. So if you immediately (read: within 30 minutes) want to know if you passed the exam, you have no choice and should go for OCAJP7 + OCPJP7

Hope it helps!
Kind regards,
Roel
 
arshdeep singh
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Role,

My 1 last question,what are the steps to buy exam voucher and validity of that voucher once purchased?
 
Roel De Nijs
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arshdeep singh wrote:My 1 last question,what are the steps to buy exam voucher and validity of that voucher once purchased?


You'll find all information you need on the Pearson Vue website.
 
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It really doesn't matter...And if you get a job at big organizations most of the legacy code you will encounter would be in java se 1.5/1.6..
At least at my company, thats the situation.
I got OCJP 6 last month and it helped me a ton at interviews conducted in 3-4 different new companies (I'm switching).

But if you've got the money and time..you could always try ocjp 7..but it won't be a big leap from my perspective.
for orgs to switch completely to 7, you are looking at another 3-4 years!
 
arshdeep singh
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exactly Siddharth, my condition is same like you.

I am also looking for new job after doing certificationand i am confused which certification will help most in finding good job.

money is also a issue for me.

so what is your sugesstion?
 
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