Six months ago, I was planning to take
OCAJP 7 and studied the prep book by Mala Gupta for a week or so. Then, for some reasons, I stopped preparing. Then again, around six weeks ago, I decided to take OCAJP (the version 8, this time). This is how I did my prep work:
Since I already studied the prep book by Mala Gupta, I read it one more time. Then I went to study the Prep book by Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff which is meant for version 8. This book became the central prep book for the entire time. I went over this book two times. Also, I did go over, especially, the exercises and the two mock exams from the book by K&B. After going over them, I started taking Enthuware mock tests. This software is a blessing. Your best $10 ever spent! These tests take you to the whole new level of your prep work. Of course, after each mock
test, from any of the above sources, I went over the incorrect ones and the ones I felt confusing (for some tests, I used to mark in a piece of paper with the question number) and tried to understand how & why my thought process was incorrect and how exactly the compiler and JRE thinks for the same. You have to mimic how the compiler and JRE thinks (well, sorta!).
After going over the six mock tests in Enthuware, I did also go over the "Most missed test" and the "very tough test". On the day before the actual test I took the Enthuware "Last Day Test" and interestingly, I scored exactly 94% on that test too. Then bam! the test day came! During the test, I did not follow the way K&B has suggested in their book (going through the easy ones and finishing them first and then come back, review and finish the rest). I adapted my own way, as I did on mock tests, meaning I paced myself in such a way that I did not run out of time, neither did I had more than 5 minutes left for the review. I guess, every body has their own way. But, maybe, for most people what K&B suggested should work.
If it will be of anybody's help, here I am listing the test scores of the mock tests I took during my prep work:
From the book by Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff:
Before going over the book:
1)
(Initial) Assessment - 55% (Frustrated by this score, but I thought I did not have any idea about the new updated features of
Java 8 for the exam, at that time)
After going over the book two times (along with doing all the exercises at the end of each chapter):
2) Exam 1: 75%
3) Exam 2: 80%
4) Exam 3: 70%
Mock Exams from K&B book:
1) Exam 1: 76% (on time), but 85% when 8 more minutes added up
2) Exam 2: 80% (with 8 more minutes)
Final Mock Exam from the book by Mala Gupta: 94% (On time)
Enthuware Mock Tests:
1) Foundation Test: 84% (but went 34 minutes over time - trouble in pacing!)
2) Test 1: 79% (went 1 minute over time)
3) Test 2: 84% (went 4 minutes over time)
4) Test 3: 88% (On time)
5) Test 4: 88% (went 2 more minutes)
6) Test 5: 87% (went 5 more minutes)
7) Test 6: 94% (On time)
8) Last Day Test: 94%
I am amazed about how close Enthuware mock tests are to the real test (demonstrated by the score above). I even felt a few of the problems that I encountered in the real exam were very close to the ones that I did in the Enthuware mock test. But, then again, I encountered some very tricky problems in the real test which kept me thinking until the max time I can spend on a particular problem is up - as you can see how poor I am in time management. If only I had 10 more minutes! I hope Enthuware will add such tricky problems in their practice tests in future.
Also, I felt that the Sybex software for the three mock tests accompanied with the prep book by Jeanne and Scott needs some improvements. For example, it cannot store which problems that I missed so that I can review them later. So, what I did was, I took the screenshots of those problems that I missed on those three mock tests.
I hope that my experience will be of some help to few people out there preparing for the test. Have a good prep work!! Ciao!!
-Dinesh Kasti