SCJP 1.5 Study Group.

[Ben Zaidi]

Hello Members,
I am new to Java Ranch and i want to prepare for SCJP 1.5.
I came across an idea on onjava.com

http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2005/04/06/designpatterns.html

That was to form a study group and start learning. I am looking forward
if anyone is preparing SCJP1.5, lets form a study group, make a target
dead-line of when to appear for the examination, from where to start and
share our knowledge and start kicking off. If anyone is interested then
please reply back and lets start immediately with things.

Looking forward towards a healthy collobration.
Warmly,
Beenish

[Siva Anandhi Rajendran]

I'm interested in joining the Study group for SCJP 5.0.
Let's colaborate and do it great.

[Ben Zaidi]

Hi siva,
Thanks for your interest in joining the group. Please put forward
your suggestions of interacting in a teamly fashion. I will put
forward mine and i am waiting as well for new-comers. I look forward
to hear from you.

Warmly,
Beenish

[raj malhotra]

Hi i am also planning to give scjp1.5. I am preparing using kathy sierra book.I am a java professional but i am not geting time to study much in a day.i can cover on average one chapter per week.And there is 10 chapter so thats all about me.just you people tell how you are preparing and when you are planning to give test.I am looking forward to join this group and hope many others will join soon.

[anamika henry]

hii i m also planning you guys i m taking this

[anamika henry]

hii i m also planning to join you guys, i m taking this test on 28 th of april

[Ben Zaidi]

hi people.
thanks for such a response about the Study Group. Well, i am
a Java Professional myself, then lately company demanded to
work in Oracle Portal Development lost my ground in java development
not being in touch for more then one year now getting back to my
favorite platform and i really think that SCJP 1.5 is the way to
brush and test the knowledge.

Well, to being with there are certain people here ofcourse whose
dates are just following down. I am a proper novice, i am gonna start
from scratch. Yes even i have heard about Kathy Sierra, i will be getting
the book tomorrow. First we need to know, if anyone can share, what
is the whole Course Outline for SCJP 1.5. Please post it here so that
people can be aware. I am devoting whole two months for appearing for
SCJP 1.5, means if we start from today, i am planning to give it by
mid of june.

I will suggest starting with Scratch, as i am totally out of touch
myself and if we can on the way try out small coding assignments
even, its just a suggestion, then it can really enhance things up
and coding practises also, as sometimes many of the Questions Compromise
of determining the output also, in way it can enhance the professional
skill also. I will suggest second way is for each topic we can divide
one week, and in that we can suggest an Assignment of Week also and
dedicate sometime in coding for it and sharing each other solutions
on the same platform and finding out whats the better approach. Once
we are done with this venture of Certified Programmer, we can surely
kick off with Developer test as well, try to make a permanent flourishing
group. Right now i can think of these suggestions.

First step, first we need a list of topic of Syllabus which is
required for SCJP 1.5. I hope someone has the knowledge and share
the stuff with us. Thanks again.

Wamrly,
Ben

[P Bala]

Hi there

I am very much interested in joining the Study Group. I would like to follow the K and B book.

Please let me know if you have already planned or let us pool in together and come out successful

[P Bala]

Since anamika is planning to take up this test this month end, am sure she shall be in a good position to chalk out the syllabus and start it off...

[Ben Zaidi]

hey Bala,
right now just some candidates are getting together, i myself plan
to appear for SCJP 1.5 in mid of June and i have put forward some
suggestions, if you like you can go through them. First we need the
Strict Topics which Sun is Including in SCJP 1.5, please do let me
know if you are aware of it. Thanks.
Ben

[Ben Zaidi]

hi anamika
as you happen to be the most senior here as you are already
appearing in SCJP 1.5 in April, it will be a kind gesture if
you can give us an insight of the Official Syllabus.. and yes
lets pool out a study strategy and lets emerge successfull.

[anamika henry]

Hello All,

Well the Syllabus for SCJP1.5 is;
1.Declaration and Access Control
2.Object Orientation
3.Assignments
4.Operators
5.Flow Control,Exceptions and Assertions
6.Strings,I/O,Formatting,and Parsing
7.Generics and Collections
8.Inner Classes
9.Threads
10.Development

These are the 10 capters we have to start with. I have completed these..if capters twice,but i still have difficulty in Generics,Threads parsing if any one help me out in coding..I am really bad in coding i haven't tried any coding yet ..I have just read the book and have done mock exams of Wizlabs...but that is too hard
thanks

[anamika henry]

I am new to Java ,i have learnt it all by mysel. Sice few months i m trying to study java and clear the certification..

[Ben Zaidi]

aanamika..
have you bought your exam vouture for the April end,
what you think, should you consider prepared enough
to enter for the exmaniation or wait a couple of weeks
more and lets try to give it together with a little more
preparation, do let us know. thanks.
Ben

[Ben Zaidi]

hi guys..
official syllabus from sun site, here is the link

http://www.sun.com/training/catalog/courses/CX-310-055.xml

Thanks,
Ben

[Ben Zaidi]

Many confusions asked what's the difference b/w SCJP1.4 and 1.5
though it is published on this site, but i thought as we are piling
things here so lemme try to copy that Section from FAQ here, which
will make things more clear i guess....

Exam objectives: Several important new language features have been added, including enums, generics, static imports, and autoboxing/unboxing. API features added to the exam include java.lang.StringBuilder, java.util.Locale, java.util.Formater, java.util.Scanner. java.util.regex.Pattern, and java.util.regex.Matcher. Java IO features have been added, including File, BufferedReader, BufferedWriter, FileReader, FileWriter and PrintWriter. Concepts such as loose coupling and high cohesion have been added, as well as greater emphasis on encapsulation as it relates to JavaBean conventions. Bit manipulation (e.g., shifting) has been dropped.

Number of questions: 72 (increased from 61)

Time: 175 minutes (increased from 120 minutes)

Passing score: 59% (increased from 52%)

Level of difficulty: The concensus is that it is more difficult.

Format of questions: As before, you will always be told how many options to choose. No credit is given for partial answers.

I need a healthy collobration from all people participating in
order to Chok out a decent strategy and start working now..thanks.
Ben

[Sourin K. Sen]

Hi all,

I'm in as well. It's really an excellent idea to form a study group for the cert preparation.

Although I'm not a java pro, still i have good knowledge of java (atleast i think so), and i too will be giving the exam by this month end or the 1st week of May.

i have completed reading the K&B book (although just once) & have given the diagnostic mock exam of whizlabs (got 67% in it). Still i think i need more practice as i have done very little of coding myself & there's an ocean of concepts waiting to be explored.

So what i would suggest is that share whatever materials that you all can & whenever anyone comes across some code which seems to be deviating from the concept that you have learnt, please do write about it no matter how small that deviation may be or how insignificant that concept may be. Each & Everything counts.

Also, regarding the search of online study guides & mock exams, here's a link which has a systematic collection of direct links to all those sites having study guides & mock tests :

http://www.javacertificationexams.com/scjp-community.php

So let's start our mission : SCJP Certification

Regards,
Sourin.

[Ben Zaidi]

Hi,
I just choked out a simple Plan out, as i have discussed it with
many senior programmers in this Company. They have suggested that
only Passing SCJP 5.0 is not necessary, they were of the veiw that,
we have interviewed many SCJP5.0 programmers and they dont have slight
concept of what Object Oriented Principles, so they a Certification
objective shouldnt be only, to pass the examination which may look
impressive over the Resume, you should know how to think in terms of
Objects, and apply the coding Principles as well. Well, after discussing
all the situation with my Fellow Colleagues and other Online Programmers
also, they have adviced for a Novice Programmer, its better to Take three
months to prepare for the SCJP5.0 examnination. That is 2 months just
to prepare and study and 1 month or atleast two weeks of the Mock Exams.
In any case, the dates will be falling in end of June, so i am keeping
my mission target deadline finally as fully prepared till end of June.
Please make this thing successfull.

I am working full time, and i don't have time to study but i am devoting
all my eveings for these months to become Better Programmer and go for
the Certification. Here is my Choked out Plan.

1)Simple Clases Concepts ( 1 week )
2)Objected Oriented Priciples (1 Week )
3) Flow Control, Simple Looops and Initialization( Combination of Last two Weeks)
4)API like String Builders and Stuff ( 1 week )
5) File Streams ( 1 week )
6) Exceptions ( 4 Days )
7) Data Structures/Generics( 4 Weeks, With Exhaustive Coding Practise)

I will again suggest, emphasizing on Concepts is very necessary
but to try Hands on are Necessary as Well. As i complete the following
Schedule, in end of May, i am buying WhizLab tests and i am gonna
dedicate atleast 2 weeks by solving different Mock Exams so we are
fully prepared. Please share your attacking stratedy as welll, and
lets start learning and Make our hands dirty. I will apprecaite all
suggestions, if someone can help me out, to correctify the Schedule
and i will share all the ideas i come across on this forum. Thanks.
Warmly
Ben

[Chandra Bhatt]

Hi,

Sen I am also supposed to write exam by this month end and surely before 5th May. I would also like to join the study group it is about to be formed.
Better we start ASAP.

A lot of code tricks we will be sharing. I do have a lot and would expect from you people too.

So lets start.
Pick any topic and let start bombardment of Java codes which we come across and feel may give something to us.


Regards,
cmbhatt
[ April 10, 2007: Message edited by: Chandra Bhatt ]

[anuradha chekuri]

Hi Guyz,

Even i booked the date for may end.I just started my preparation last week.So even i want to join this group.I need suggestions from you people.I am also going with k&b book and then the mocks.

Anu

[Ben Zaidi]

hi.
pls anu, put up messages and suggestions here and the strategy
which you all are employing for the preparation, as i did mine
as May End and June Mid, both are not very different, so i highly
expect that i even should be completing the Preparation atleast
by end of May, so lets start with the Beginning, pick up the topic
and start blazing off + guys pls put up the suggestions for the strategy
as well suggest you devised methods as well, and truly make it a fun.
Thanks again. High co-operation is expected.
BEN

Mission: SCJP 5.0
"The men of character in peace are the men of courage in War"

[Sourin K. Sen]

Hi Ben,

I believe that not all are preparing at the same speed. Some are planning to give their exams (including me) this month end while some are going for it after 2 or 3 months as according to their capacity.

What i would suggest is that let's create 7 threads as according to your plan & ask the forum moderators to make them sticky so they always remain on top.

Next, whosoever wants to prepare with our study group may choose any topic he/she wants to learn & make their posts accordingly. Then it wont be a problem with those who want to learn say Data Structures/Generics but had to wait until we reached to that topic otherwise.

With this, all of us, whether a newbie or a pro can start with any topic any time. Also, it might happen that not all would like to study sequentially. So in that case, this approach would help.

I hope you understood what i wanted to say.

Regards,
Sourin.

[Chandra Bhatt]

OK Benz,

What pattern you built:

We can start with:
1)Simple Clases Concepts ( 1 week )

What top level class is and all about accessibility:
private, protected, "default" and public.
What can be and what can't be!
main() method, signature often missed thing!
Any code and trick any example regarding the above topic are welcome during the ongoing session or otherwise later also

We can open the opportunity to ask any questions regarding the ongoing topic. In that way we can exhaustively go through the particular topic.
Questions are open. Tricks will be shared...


What do you say about this strategy!
Thanks,
cmbhatt
[ April 10, 2007: Message edited by: Chandra Bhatt ]

[Sourin K. Sen]

Hello Bhatt,

I would request you to please give my suggestion a consideration before you start posting because otherwise things would get messy.

I hope you wont take me wrong.

Regards,
Sourin.

[Ben Zaidi]

Hi Sourin and Bhatt..
I hope you both are doing great.

First of all Sourin, i wish you best of luck for your exam preparation.
Yes i strongly agree with you, lets make threads of our topics and make
this study group strong and stick to this strategy. I really think you
have suggested a very good approach, so that nothing gets messed up, and
the Study Group remains totally clean, thats totally Correct.

Bhatt, sure what are the outlines you have suggested are the best,
even i am gonna follow the K & B book, in the same while, some people
have also suggested to go thourgh Thinking in Java Third Edition by
Bruce Eckel ... All the topics which you have suggested are really
defining the clean structure which we wnat to cover. Plus i would like
to add up a suggestion to you, while covering this topic, lets get our
hands dirty by doing some hands on practise on particular assignments
as well, as the Objective of SCJP is not only to pass through the
examination but to make it sure, that we can code in the particular
environment also having a very strong background in the Fundamentals.
Yes true, we can put a section like Tips and Trick in our section as
well, and even we can put things like informative links which we are
studying according to a particular topic.

The book i have suggested like Bruce Eckel Thinking in Java is free
for download even the code is freely downloadable. For the assignments
like we can dedicate like "Assignment of the Week" and put together
all the contructs by documenting the code well, following design
Patterns and showing the stuff to each other. I think so it can give
us a really great oppurtunity to work as a team plus passign through
SCJP 5.0 with no difficulty.

Please if you agree, do gimme a feedback. I wish all people luck who
are appaering for SCJP 5.0 next month in the initial Week. Comeon ppl
be enthusiastic, lets make this Group Rock and Attain our Target as
well.

Warmly,
Ben

[Chandra Bhatt]

Great! Flow of enthusiasm has made this thread loving to all.
Well start is half done!

Some of us are going to write the exam very soon.
Benz, you are the originator of this link. Quick start should be from your site. Let people coming, all will be making our study group more powerful and we will have opportunity to have more and more ideas and ways things are done.


All the best!
cmbhatt

[Ben Zaidi]

yeo Bhatt.
Once a young person wrote to President Lincoln that he wanted to
become the Lawyer, by seeing his Enthusiasm, the President replied,
if you are enthusiastic, then half of the thing is already done

Same here, yes some of the people are gonna take the Exam pretty soon.
hehe One idea is that, i have roughly estimated such a time like 1 Week,
but if we can wrap up things, in short span of time also, it will be great.
7 days task can be wrapped upto 4 , so nearly, when bhatt, you will be
appearing for the exam, we will be half way through also.. So what do
you think for the suggestions i have referred, please do include your
Comment and yes, i am gonna give a quick start from today Only and soon
you will be finding Quick notes from my side . Lets Rock Group.

Mission: SCJP 5.0
"Once a new technology starts rolling, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road. "


Best of Luck for the Start Guys:

[Trevor Johnson]

Hey everyone. I wish I would have noticed this forum sooner. I am taking the SCJP exam this Friday. For those of you who have not purchased a voucher from Sun yet, they have a deal right now: It will allow you take retake the exam for free if you do not pass the first time. http://www.sun.com/training/savings/retake.xml I would suggest doing this. I purchased this same voucher last year and did not pass. I am using the free retake for this Friday. The book written by Sierra and Bates is very well written. There are about 20 developers in my group and we all are currently using this book. In the last month 4 have taken the exam and passed. I just wanted to help out. Good luck!!!

[Chandra Bhatt]

benz, I have gone through your strategy plan, I have couple of weeks, and I don't think it is less time, at least I can be an active part of the study group. Purpose of everybody should be solved equally along with my purpose.

Eagerly waiting for the quick start that you said "today".

Thank you very much for your bucking up this lively thread.


Regards,
cmbhatt

[raj malhotra]

Hi Friends!
I have noticed that most people are following K&B book.so we can start with first chapter:-Declaration and Access Control.Here is my first doubt.I have seen one line in K& B at pg 58 bottom of page. ie

Doubt1:Final variable cannot be assigned a new value,once the initial method is made(the initial assgnment of a value must happen before the constructor completes.) can any one clarify this???

[Ben Zaidi]

hi raj..
it means that the initilization of the Final Variable should happen
before the constructor completes means that Final varibales should
have the property and compulsion either they can be initialized at the
class level or it can be initialized at the constructor means that
all Class level variable variables are initialized before the constuctor
is called.

Say, if you have just declared a variable as final like

final int a ;

Then you access this variable somewhere in other method and try to
initialize it, it will give you a error, because at the point where
it is declared, it should be initialized also.. or at maximum you
can initailize it at the constructor level, so its initalization will
be done before the constructor will be completed. I hope it clarifies
your doubt. Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Ben

[Meena R. Krishnan]

Here is an eg:

Option A:

class FinalTest {
 final int i=7;  //can be initialized here
 public FinalTest(){
 }
 public static void main(String args[]) {}
}

or
Option B:

class FinalTest {
 final int i;  
 public FinalTest(){
i =200;  //can be initialized here in the constructor
 }
 public static void main(String args[]) {}
}

In the case of static final variable, only Option A is allowed.

[Meena R. Krishnan]

In the same context..
In the case of 'final reference variable', you cannot change the ref. variable to point to a different object but you can change the object it is pointing to.
eg:

class Ball{
String name;
Ball(String s){this.name = s;}
public String get(){return(this.name);}
public void set(String s){this.name = s;}
}
 
class FinalTest {
 final Ball b;
 
 public FinalTest(){ b = new Ball("FootBall");}
 public void change(){
// b = new Ball("Basketball");  //this is not allowed
 b.set("BasketBall");  //this is allowed.  You can modify the object 
 //but not the reference.
 System.out.println(b.get());
 }
 
 
public static void main(String args[]) {
new FinalTest().change(); //this will print 'BasketBall'
}}

[ April 11, 2007: Message edited by: M Krishnan ]

[bala ganesh]

Hi Frnds,
I would like to join the study group for SCJP as I am planning to give the exam in June.
Thank you all in advance.

[raj malhotra]

Thanks benz and Krisnnan I think it is clear now.Well as we have already discussed apart from scjp we should have good oop concept also.But there is always confusion about Abstraction word.What are your views guys?

[Raghav Aggarwala]

Hi,

I would also like to join study group of SCJP 1.5 as Im planning to give cert. exam in May end.

Thanks

Raghav

[Gaurav Pavan Kumar Jain]

HI Folks

I want to join the group. Earlier I was preparing for SCJP1.4 but many of ranchers suggest me to go for 1.5 what you think. I want to apper in May for exams

[Chandra Bhatt]

Hi Raj,

But there is always confusion about Abstraction word.What are your views guys?

Abstraction: Hiding unnecessary details.

Abstraction is sometimes required to give you pleasing environment to work hiding the non needed details. How operating system works is abstraction for general users of Windows. A visual friendly environment is all for the user.
He feels that when I click the start button on menu appears but details like what even generated and what went inside when he pressed the button is abstraction for him.

In a very sophisticated office or room for instance, things are very cool, inwall cable wiring, wireless access, automatic door with finger print recognition system (door opens when you touch the pad(it recognizes you whether you are authenticated or not)), split AC., but in reality when you unwrap the things, layer by layer you will find a lot of things are working behind to give you the environment the pleases you. That is called Abstraction. Because the real things may not be of your use, they are kept hidden from your eyes.

While problem solving:
High level abstraction what we see the overall problem. Abstraction helps, making things visible wrap by wrap to understand it better instead of going bang bang. This layer by layer opening scheme helps us to understand the problem well before start working on it.

You encapsulate your class well, making member variables private, strongly recommended standard JavaBeans, because you dont want to allow the world to see inside your class. You give the world the API, the interface through which they can talk to your class, its methods, could access the members, could get some computation etc. You don't want, the world could see in what method you are computing the temperature in the method, are you taking it from some other party, or you have any instrument that gives you the value,
but the main objective is to provide correct temperature to the world which has called your method for that reason. The outside world need not to know what exactly the way you compute the things. It needs result. So the inner details are abstraction.

Didn't I maintain abstraction to give you the detail?


Regards,
cmbhatt
[ April 12, 2007: Message edited by: Chandra Bhatt ]

[anuradha chekuri]

Hi guyz,

As i started my preparation with head first java ..i just want to quickly complete that and start k&b for this weekend.I will catch you soon with k&b.

[Ben Zaidi]

hi people.
sorry for not being in touch for two days almost, hehe Bhatt
must be thinking i mentioned the word "today" hehe and dissappeared
like a ghost..kidding bhatt, but thats the problem with people
on Job, an employee is leaving the company and i am taking over
him, hardly getting anytime to start. So don't forget i am away,
i am daily in touch with the Group ofcourse and yes from Sunday
things will gonna kick off and take-off immediately because today
the hand-over is gonna be complete. I am behind but i will pull up
everything. So guys keep the fingers crossed, i am coming right behind
you people..

Mission: SCJP
"The men of character in peace are the men of courage in war"


Best of Luck