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Java Certifications

 
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I want get SCJP certification. I was working in one company for 2 years. I did all java projects there. I resigned that job last year. I am home since then. I haven't study anything in java for last whole year. Now I want to get certification. Should I read book or directly I can start taking mock exam? What is first step I should start for Certification?

Also, I do have ALL-IN-ONE Java 2 Exam guide from BARRY BORNE/WILLIAM STANEK.

Thank You,
Angela
[ October 07, 2004: Message edited by: Angela D'souza ]
 
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I normally recommend getting a good exam prep book to help you preapre. There are some things on the exam that you just don't see every day when you're programming (depending upon the work you're doing). However, with a couple years of experience, you might want to jump right into the mock exams and see how you're doing. If nothing else, the mock exams are free and would be a good indicator of how much work you have to do before you're ready to take the exam.

One thing about the exam that I noticed is that, besides knowledge of Java, it's important that you know how to take the exam. Taking mock exams will open your eyes to little tricks and nitpicks that you could get caught up in on the exam. The more mock exams you take, the better prepared you'll be for such things.

Best of luck to you!
 
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You're starting where I kinda started. Few years on the job, and away from Java for a while. If I had to do it again, I'd probably take the following fast route (in this order):

1. Go to http://www.jchq.net/phezam and do about 40 or 60 questions to see how much I don't know.
2. Read one book and one book only. I read K&B but then I should have stopped there, but I figured I needed more so I spent a lot of time reading a few other books. Minimal benefit for a lot of extra time. I'd look at the 6th word in Corey's post and then look around in this forum for what book most people seem to be liking. Then read every single word of it and do every single test question. And code some of the examples yourself and compile them.
3. Do about 30 or 40 of dan's tests.
4. Read the faq http://www.javaranch.com/certfaq.jsp and do all 3 of Marcus' mock exams and maybe a few other "good" mock exams until you get an 85 average on all of them together. Then write the test. Getting a 90 on SCJP takes WAAAAY too much extra time: IMHO, it's not worth it.
5. Read a few questions at javaranch each day for a month or longer.
 
Angela D'souza
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Thank you for your reply.

I am planning to buy Sun Certified Programmer and Developer for Java 2 by authors Kathy Sierra, Best Bates. Is this best book?

Also, I visited Sun website and found following link:
http://suned.sun.com/US/catalog/courses/CX-310-035.html
Is this latest exam for SCJP? If yes, should I buy above mentioned book for this exam? If yes, any specific version of this book?

Please let me know.
Thank You,
Angela
 
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Yes its an excellent book. I am also preparing for the exam. I have 4 years of java programming experience and trust me it is beneficial to read the book not just for the certification but for yourself. Reading the book is filling all the little things I took for granted and thought I knew.

Good luck!
 
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I purchased a couple books when I was preparing for the SCJP, and Kathy and Bert's book is by far the best. Had I purchased it first, I would not have bought the others.
 
Angela D'souza
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Originally posted by Francis Palattao:
Yes its an excellent book. I am also preparing for the exam. I have 4 years of java programming experience and trust me it is beneficial to read the book not just for the certification but for yourself. Reading the book is filling all the little things I took for granted and thought I knew.

Good luck!



Where did you buy this book from?

Thank You,
Angela
 
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I bought my KathyBert SierraBates from Amazon.com. (Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates before the transporter accident.) Along with coding, the APIs, and practice exams, their book was all I needed to score 94%. (Note - I had some Java programming experience, and I wrote, compiled, broke and fixed every sample of Java code I could get my hands on. And I spent lots of time with the practice exams, both free ones out there on the 'net, and the two that come with the KathyBert book. Practice, practice, practice. You'll not only do great on the exam with that three-pronged approach, but you'll also become a better Java programmer.)

Good luck!
 
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the book is excellent. I'm now reading it for the second time to make sure all the nitty gritty details you never have to cope with stick in my thick brain .
At the moment in mocks I get almost 100% (once in a while I misread something being too hasty) on topics I've already studied in detail, compared to 50-75% on others (despite 6 years experience in Java by now of which 5 fulltime) so go figure.

The WAY the questions are constructed is a major factor in this. You're easily tricked into misreading them and coming to the wrong conclusions.
A lot of the code tricks and pitfalls used are things you'll never encounter in real life. This could well put more experienced people at a serious disadvantage because the code in the exam looks so different from what we see all day (while people with no experience have no expectations as to what the code should do when it looks a certain way).
 
Angela D'souza
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Thank you guys,

Angela
 
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