Thanks Kathy and Bert for your wonderful
SCJP exam book.
Thanks everybody who gave me feedback on my questions.
The discussions on this forum were very interesting and challenging.
How it went.
My reading glasses were fogged as I was filling out the 2 Sun surveys.
The clock did not tick yet, as somebody suggested at JavaRanch, but this could be a NZ benefit only
Luckily my classes were clear by the time I started the real thing.
There was a rattling noise coming from the ceiling, probably from the air conditioning.
My neighbor was banging on the desk with his arm, which made my monitor shake like an earthquake, something that happens about once a month in NZ, but not every minute.
After making a remark this problem was solved.
While I was looking at the first question I discovered that the right parenthesis was distorted. In stead of part of a circle it looked like a polygon with upper and lower part bent outwards. This made it hard to see a difference with a right curly brace.
The only thing I could do is keep my nerves calm, but it certainly costs me about 10 minutes more time.
After the exam I informed the lady behind the desk about the problem with the right parenthesis, but rather than take action she preferred to check the opinion of following exam takers.
Can anybody advise me where to lodge this problem ?
Level of difficulty
The
test was from the same level of difficulty as the mock tests in the SCJP book of Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates.
If you do well on these test, you can expect to do well on the exam.
My lowest first time score on the mock tests was 72 % (Operators) and the highest first time score was 95% (OO). Most scores were over 90%.
My first time scores are pretty close to the actual test score.
My preparation.
I studied the book of Kathy Sierra intensively. The second time I studied the parts that I was not sure of.
I paid special attention to each exam watch and this surely paid off during the exam.
Do not get paranoid about tricks as most of them are obvious if you know your stuff well.
During my study I typed virtually all code examples and tested them. Each test was put in a folder that represents the chapter and page.This makes it easy to find them back later on.
I cannot stress this enough: practice makes perfect.
Try out variations you are not sure about, until you are satisfied you have tackled the issue from all angles. This will pay off during the exam when several topics are combined in 1 question.
Programming is a craft. Learn by doing it.
After reading the book I spent a lot of time with mock test. Maybe too much time in hindsight.
I could have spent an other half year doing mock tests without increasing my exam score.
While doing mock tests I tested each and every test I failed, trying out variations.
Personally I like the online mock test best as they can be updated easily if there is a problem.
Kathy recommends to compile and run your code examples for the commend line.
This advice is important to understand how the compiler works and how to pass parameters from the command line.
The bulk of my code examples were done with the NetBeans
IDE. You can download NetBeans for free from
http://www.netbeans.org NetBeans 3.5 runs very smooth on Linux (my own experience) and OSX (from others).
On Windows you may have to do some performance tuning <insert evil laugh here>.
I have some
Java books like "Thinking in Java" from Bruce Eckel and "Just Java" from Peter van der Linden. Thinking in Java can be downloaded for free from the Internet in PDF format. Very handy of you are looking for a particular topic.
I checked these books if things were not crystal clear to me.
This is important: any uncertainty you have can become a problem on the exam. Sort these out before you go on the exam.
Scope of exam tests.
With regard to the scope and depth of the exam you can trust the content of the SCJP book of Kathy.
There are no questions about anything that fall outside the scope of this book.
In order to pass the exam, limit the scope of the mock tests, as you can easily get side tracked into areas that may be interesting, but not required on the exam. In the worst case it can even work contra-productive.
I was side tracked a few times myself, not a problem, but it is important to stay focused on the exam.
The exam tests cover all topics.
My lowest score was 66% on Garbage Collection. Rather ironic as I am tidy by nature
These tests were at the end of the exam, so stay focused until the very end.
Keeping concentrated is important, so take your
water bottle with you !
Good luck with your exam.
