• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • paul wheaton
  • Rob Spoor
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Tim Holloway
  • Carey Brown
  • Frits Walraven
  • Tim Moores
Bartenders:
  • Mikalai Zaikin

OCPJP6 - 98% - Upgrade exam 1Z0-852

 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 36
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi guys,

Finally, I passed this exam with the score I was looking for (90% to 100%). I am going to share my experience because maybe it will be useful to someone in the same situation.

In November 2007 I gave up my job. I was working in a European project and I realized that my English was terrible, actually it was worse. Yes, English is not my best subject . So I went to Australia to improve it. In that moment I had almost 3 years of experience in J2EE and I had passed Sun Certified Programmer for the Java Platform 1.4 with 73% (2006).

With this scenario, I was in Australia for 2 years and a half. The global financial crisis was there too, and with my visa it was impossible to get a job in IT. So I came back to London in September 2010 and tried to get a job in IT as a Java Developer but it was quite difficult too, my knowledge about Java platform was not clear. For this reason I decided to pass this exam to have my Java Core knowledge up-to-date.

Last year I have been working, not in IT, and preparing this certification. I have studied quite hard to get this score. I am not a genius, this score is the result of a lot of effort. Frankly, I was obsessive about getting this mark. I used two books:

- SCPJ6 - Study Guide (310-065) - Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates
- SCPJ 6 - Programmer Practice Exams - Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates

Also, I used two simulators:

- ExamLab
- Whizlabs

I wrote a lot of small programs without any IDE.

This upgrade 1Z0-852 exam has 46 questions and 150 minutes (August 2011). You need 58% to pass. I always thought that this exam would be more difficult than the 1Z0-851 because it is for certified Java programmers. Honestly, I would not say that the exam is easy, but for me it was. I finished all the questions in 80 minutes and I had doubts in two (about cohesion, coupling and encapsulation). I used the rest of the time to review, review and review and try to answer these two questions. I did not change any of my answers and I answered those questions. Probably, I could get this score few months ago, but in June I found the ExamLab exams and I got in the first exam 71%. I was really upset with myself. I could not believe it. I thought that I had everything under control and that score shocked me. So I started to repeat all questions in the K&S Study Guide, Whizlabs and ExamLab simulators. The problem was that I had memorized many of the questions. So I got K&S Programmer Practice Exam book and when I started to get around 90% to 100% in all these mocks exams (that happened the second time I did the exams), I went to pass the certification. It sounds crazy I know, but I learnt a lot, much more than someone needs to pass this exam. Now I have a solid knowledge about the Java language and the core API’s. I have to say that the ExamLab and K&S Programmer Practice exams are much more difficult than the real exam.

And this has been my experience. Now, I would like to find a job and at the same time I prepare the Oracle Certified Expert, EE 6, JSP and Servlet developer.

I would like to thank everyone in these forums who spends their time to help us. Also to K&S, they wrote a good books for passing this certification, and also to the ExamLab team, they have a good simulator, quite hard, but really good.

Good luck on your exams!!!
 
Enthuware Software Support
Posts: 4803
52
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Congratulations!!!
 
Consider Paul's rocket mass heater.
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic