SCJP 5.0 Beta: clarifications

[Bert Bates]

Hi Guys,

I talked with Evelyn yesterday and I have some clarifications that I hope will clear things up a bit.

1 - The voucher that Evelyn is offering to beta participants is available to everyone who:
a: pays $49
b: takes the exam (you don't have to pass, you just have to take it)
c: if you already have done parts a and b, you get the voucher!

2 - Once again, the beta is meant to be a win-win situation for those candidates who are seriously studying for the exam and are really prepared. It's not meant for those people who are willing to waste a day of their life to get a (roughly), half price voucher. So please! Don't take this beta on a whim, take it only if you really mean it!

3 - The beta is almost full! Evelyn won't cut off the entry date early, so you still have time. Sun is happy to get a few more than the minimum number of candidates, but she's close enough to that number that I don't think she'll extend this again.

So for those of you who are prepared (or almost prepared), sign up and take this baby! It really is a good deal!

Thanks,

Bert

p.s. Plus we love to imagine you all struggling with our evil questions

[Dmitry Melnik]

And what is passing criteria for the beta?

[Nicholas Cheung]

Bert,

we love to imagine you all struggling with our evil questions

I love the Tiger exam, and I feel exciting and interesting in fact. Thus, you might be disappointed that I am not that struggle.

Nick

[Nicholas Cheung]

what is passing criteria for the beta?

There is no specific passing criteria.

The beta exam aims to be used for determining the passing rate, and the level of difficulty of the exam, and thus, the passing rate will simply depend on how candidates perform.

Usually, the passing rate is 50%-70%, and our final score is normalized. That is, even we took 166 questions, for example, the score report we get is NOT xxx questions correct out of 166. Instead, it is yyy questions correct out of 60, if the number of questions are decided to be 60 finally after the beta.

Nick

[ankur rathi]

Originally posted by Bert Bates:
It's not meant for those people who are willing to waste a day of their life to get a (roughly), half price voucher.

For you , one day is more precious than 60$ . But not for all ...

[Bhaskar Mahendrakar]

Hai,
Even we are prepared,it is very scaring as i have not seen any kind of sample questions or dumps which will give some kind of confidence,
I was wondering if someone would care to post any more preparative dumps or material..thanks

[Bert Bates]

Rathi -

You make a good point! I meant no offense, as I understand that $60 has very different meanings in different parts of the world.

It does seem though that if a person decides to take the beta unprepared, just for the sake of the voucher, that person is kind of scamming, and it will hurt the overall quality of the certifcation for everybody else involved.

- Bert

[Nicholas Cheung]

Even we are prepared,it is very scaring as i have not seen any kind of sample questions or dumps which will give some kind of confidence

I believe you are in the wrong direction. When you were studied in the university or high school, did you have any dumps for them? If you cant pass exams without dumps, honestly, you wont earn anything during the study.

I was wondering if someone would care to post any more preparative dumps or material.

Posting real questions here is violating the rule of Javaranch.

Nick

[Barry Gaunt]

Yes, you are definitely on the wrong site for dumps!

[Bert Bates]

YAC ! (yet another clarification)

Evelyn has confirmed that EVERYONE who takes the beta this week will get a voucher, even if she gets over 500 candidates... so this is it folks!

Study up, and go get an inexpensive cert. AND another voucher!

- Bert

[ankur rathi]

Originally posted by Bert Bates:

Evelyn has confirmed that EVERYONE who takes the beta this week will get a voucher
- Bert

seems like , it will extend again ...

[Mark Spritzler]

Originally posted by rathi ji:


seems like , it will extend again ...

Actually, what this says, to me, is that it will not be extended again, and that Everyone who pays and takes the Beta will receive the voucher, even if you are over the first 500.

Mark

[Nicholas Cheung]

seems like , it will extend again ...

From Bert's response, I believe the beta will not be extended. As Evelyn said, even if there are more than 500 candidates, she will give out the vouchers. Thus, in fact, the number of candidates is very close, if not exceeded yet, to 500 already.

Nick

[Bilal Sallakh]

I took the exam on 24 Fib and haven't received anything yet. Have anyone received the offer? When did you take the exam?

[ankur rathi]

Originally posted by michael yeung:
The post clearly stated that we will receive it before the end of March, and thus, please wait for it patiently.

Also, even if you received it now, you cannot use it till July 2005.

Nick

Why you used Nick ...

[ankur rathi]

I am giving beta tomorrow , I have paid 49$ to prometric center . Should I pay them 35 $ for voucher tomorrow only or what is the process for this ...

Thanks .

[Anselm Paulinus]

I am not taking the Beta, but kind of curious. What is this voucher that one has to take the exam to get? What is it for? Retake voucher or what?

[Serkan Yazici]

Originally posted by Mark Spritzler:


Actually, what this says, to me, is that it will not be extended again, and that Everyone who pays and takes the Beta will receive the voucher, even if you are over the first 500.

Mark

So, does this mean we can take the beta a second time for a second voucher?

... Anyways ....

I think this version of the certification exam is much better than the previous one. I found it quite enjoyable and I think it measures the level of actual programming skill better than its predecessor. On the beta, there was only a single question that I've found utterly pointless, and I believe there were less than 10 minor errors (that I could spot). My only problem was the sheer amount of questions, and time it took to go through them.

Man... that was a test of endurance! and I'm glad that Sun decided to offer this voucher (so we can go through another 2 hours of intensive brain gymnastics)

[Mark Spritzler]

So, does this mean we can take the beta a second time for a second voucher?

I just want to take it a second time for the fun of it.

Mark

[Bilal Sallakh]

Originally posted by Bilal Sallakh:
I took the exam on 24 Fib and haven't received anything yet. Have anyone received the offer? When did you take the exam?

Till now, I've not received any notification, or so.
Have anyone received anything?
I'm asking because I'm afraid the employee in my Prometric Center mistyped my email info!

[Bilal Sallakh]

BTW, when will our results show up?

[ankur rathi]

I also didn't get any mail regarding voucher or result ...

Gave exam on 5th of March .
[ March 16, 2005: Message edited by: rathi ji ]

[Derika Francis]

Hello people,

I guess I'm here to do the following :
1)Vent a little anger about the Tiger Exam '
Anybody else thought that it was lame to not even tell the developer how many questions were right/total after 5 hours of testing. I was like 'noooooo'. And while I understand the logic (Sun doesn't what the passing score is, what questions Sun will keep etc), I was very dissappointed. So here's my suggestion for future beta test "Give us a percentage right/total not pass/fail". I guess I'm upset because I still have no idea how I did on a test that I took over 3 weeks ago (Feb 28). I come to the site everyday for hope.
2) Attempt to understand how scoring/reimbursement works.
I was under the impression that we just paid $49 to Prometric versus paying approx. two bucks for the test. Is Sun going to send me a check? :-)

3) Get some java 5.0 ?'s answered by our experts on the java ranch
a) Did any of you think that the exam was 50% really easy versus 50% really hard?
b) I've been building java applications since Java 1.1 and I felt I got a few answers wrong because of assumptions I made based on previous versions of Java like the "private static void main ?" urrrrrrrrgh. I don't think tricky questions like that should be on the test.
c) I wonder why bit manipulations were on the test? Has anyone ever used them in there profession?
d) Anybody thought the drag & drop enviroment needed improvement?
e) 5 hours to take the test. With all that tracing. It needed to more like 7, just so we could leave comments.

PS. I just want to say "Even though I sound bitter, I love Java. I have been using it to design applications for universities and banks since 1998. Java & I are married for life"

[Nicholas Cheung]

BTW, when will our results show up?

6-8 months after the beta period ended.

Thus, the result should be available at end of April, as another beta exam is going to come out at May.

Nick

[Nicholas Cheung]

I also didn't get any mail regarding voucher or result ...

Gave exam on 5th of March .

Be patient to wait, I took the exam one month earlier than you, so the exam taking date is not important.

The email said you will get it by the end of March.

Nick

[Nicholas Cheung]

1)Vent a little anger about the Tiger Exam '
Anybody else thought that it was lame to not even tell the developer how many questions were right/total after 5 hours of testing. I was like 'noooooo'. And while I understand the logic (Sun doesn't what the passing score is, what questions Sun will keep etc), I was very dissappointed. So here's my suggestion for future beta test "Give us a percentage right/total not pass/fail". I guess I'm upset because I still have no idea how I did on a test that I took over 3 weeks ago (Feb 28). I come to the site everyday for hope.

I understand people are usually care about their results, however, this is not the purpose for beta. Beta exams are used to determine the passing rate. If SUN can tell what is the passing rate before the beta exam concluded, then why SUN need to hold such non-profitable beta exams?

2) Attempt to understand how scoring/reimbursement works.
I was under the impression that we just paid $49 to Prometric versus paying approx. two bucks for the test. Is Sun going to send me a check? :-)

Nope.

a) Did any of you think that the exam was 50% really easy versus 50% really hard?

The new exam format makes the exam harder, however, in general, it is not that hard, I guess easy vs hard is 60%:40%.

b) I've been building java applications since Java 1.1 and I felt I got a few answers wrong because of assumptions I made based on previous versions of Java like the "private static void main ?" urrrrrrrrgh. I don't think tricky questions like that should be on the test.

This is a NEW exam for Tiger. You should really know what's new, and what is the current implementations. You should also know what have been deprecated. Otherwise, why SUN need to introduce new exams?

c) I wonder why bit manipulations were on the test? Has anyone ever used them in there profession?

I dont have such questions during the beta, and it seems that this topic is not in SCJP Tiger objectives. In addition, some semi-low level system might need to use bit operations, like IVRS. Of course, such cases are rare nowadays.

d) Anybody thought the drag & drop enviroment needed improvement?

I wish DND type questions allow us to "review" the answers, instead of clearing them each time. However, this "features" has been there for a long period (around 1-1.5 years since SCBCD beta exam).

e) 5 hours to take the test. With all that tracing. It needed to more like 7, just so we could leave comments.

It depends. I took 1z1-042 and 1z1-043 (Oracle 10g DBA exams) before SCJP Tiger. Oracle only provided us 3 hours to complete 215 questions! So, 5 hours for 166 questions should be more than enough.

PS. I just want to say "Even though I sound bitter, I love Java. I have been using it to design applications for universities and banks since 1998. Java & I are married for life"

I do think so.

Nick

[Mohammed Al-Qaimari]

I've just got hired for a software company, I can't wait to see my result and pass it to my employer.

[Nicholas Cheung]

I can't wait to see my result and pass it to my employer.

But still, this is out of your control.

Nick

[Shaaf Syed M]

Any Idea when the results are supposed to be announced?

[Nicholas Cheung]

Any Idea when the results are supposed to be announced?

6-8 weeks after the beta exam period ended.

It should be around end of April, and before SCJA beta period begins.

Nick

[Bilal Sallakh]

Originally posted by Bilal Sallakh:


Till now, I've not received any notification, or so.
Have anyone received anything?
I'm asking because I'm afraid the employee in my Prometric Center mistyped my email info!

Has any beta-taker received any info about the voucher?
A friend of mine said that on 31/3/2005 it's all over.
I've not received any confirmation yet (I took the SCJP 5.0 beta exam on 24/2/2005).

[Eusebio Floriano]

Originally posted by Bilal Sallakh:


Has any beta-taker received any info about the voucher?
A friend of mine said that on 31/3/2005 it's all over.
I've not received any confirmation yet (I took the SCJP 5.0 beta exam on 24/2/2005).

I sent an email to Evenlyn in the last week of the exam (actually 2 days before the deadline) asking if the promotion was still valid and she replied me yes.
So, be cool that we all will receive it.
Regards,

[Nicholas Cheung]

A friend of mine said that on 31/3/2005 it's all over.

Anyone who completed the beta will receive an email from Prometric. Read the email carefully and you can see that the discounted voucher will be sent out before 31/3/2005, and in case, if you cannot receive it, you can send a request to Prometric for follow-up purposes.

Nick
[ March 28, 2005: Message edited by: Nicholas Cheung ]

[Shaofu Wang]

Can I take the exam in Guangzhou in China?
If can, How ?

[James Nuzzi]

Originally posted by Nicholas Cheung:

Anyone who completed the beta will receive an email from Prometric. Read the email carefully and you can see that the discounted voucher will be sent out before 31/3/2005, and in case, if you cannot receive it, you can send a request to Prometric for follow-up purposes.

Today is April 1 and I have not received my voucher yet. Has anyone received the voucher yet?

[ankur rathi]

Not yet ...

[Henry Zheng]

if you cannot receive it, you can send a request to Prometric for follow-up purposes.

Hi Nick,

To whom do we send this request?

Thanks.

--Henry

[DeyaEddin Muh]

can anyone confirm to whom do we send this request?

[Vincent Brabant]

Originally posted by DeyaEddin Muh:
can anyone confirm to whom do we send this request?

Just do a reply to the mail you received from Prometic.
That's what I did yesterday. And I receive a reply.

Vincent

[ankur rathi]

I haven't receive any mail from prometric till now ....
What should I do ?