Hi there!
First of all: I passed this exam.
Here a feedback about my experience with online certification and Pearson VUE/Oracle.
Two months ago, I had an appointment for OCAJ SE certification by local
test center. But because of covid19 pandemic it was cancelled.
I waited more than one month, that local test center will open, because in my opinion it is better option than online examination.
In April it became clear, that no one really knows when offline examination will be possible here in Europe.
Because I am a student and want to become a student job as a programmer, I decided to take certification as soon as possible and reserved an appointment for an evening, some days later. There were no free time slots at morning for next 2 weeks.
It was my first experience with online examination, and I was worried about a lot of restrictions: cant trink, cant take notice, cant use calculator or dictionary, cant take a pause and go to the toilet, if there are troubles with internet connection, you probably will fail your exam, you are all the time recorded by video and audio and somebody at the other side of earth is looking at you, because if your face will disappear or somebody will appear at your camera or somebody in your closeness or even you will say something, you will also fail the exam, I can continue this enumeration I think you understand. Surely, all the first time always went wrong, also the next try was not successful. First, I live in a student hostel and shared internet is not stable, so I went to my office at work, became help from many people, they prepared a conference room with a big TV and a camera on the wall and bluetooth mouse and keyboard, system admin permitted me to start test software from Pearson VUE and entered admin password, I was sure I am good prepared and went to drink a
coffee (remember, it is evening and it is no permitted to drink at the exam) and a little bit
water. I remained alone at the office and wanted to start the exam. No, I cant. Because I need to start again Pearson VUE software (Which has not to be installed, but still it is .exe file) with new access code and sure, I cant, because I have not admin rights. For luck, I have had my laptop with me, and I found some free wifi provided by the city outdoors.
I connected, started exam after many photos which they need from you, your ID card, your room, etc. and did first 30 questions fastly, after which I understood that I need... as fast as possible to the toilet because of fluid I drunk! It was not permitted to disappear from the camera, but because of not usual pain in the stomach and understanding, that I need at least one hour if I will be fast, despite the lack of concentration and needing just an one-minute break, I consulted with chat assistant and they cancelled my exam after just a half-hour working and said that they will open case about the problem and Oracle will decide if I can do this examination again. I went home and called two days later Pearson VUE hotline, because I became no email and have no information about what will happen and when. At this moment, unfortunately, I have to compline about pearson hotline stuff... I am not sure, where does the call center located, I imagined it was in Philipinos. The staff has such a terrible pronunciation (imho), that I have to ask 10 times to repeat what they say, because it is extremely hard to understand. Sure, I agree that my English is terrible too, since I started to use it when I started to prepare for OCAJ certification and in my life I usually use 3 other languages, but I have no problems when I call apple, oracle, my bank hotline and some other, everything just perfect, also if not original english speaking person. Also waiting at pearson hotline is terrible, because while you wait for an assistant, first 30 seconds you hear very quiet male voice, after which come very loud female voice. After I called 2-3 times and waited a week for the case solution, I have had still no information and called again. This time, the assistant was a man, and I understood his voice even harder than a female one. After I don't understand some of his questions, he got nervous, scheduled a new appointment for Monday, next week and just hung up. I was lucky for new appointment and started to do some mock exams. Next day (today) I decided to take a
Java Foundations exam due to try online examination at home (price just €85 without tax) and to have a certificate if certification for OCA will fail one more time. I reserved an appointment 2.5 hours before start, because there were no other available and started to learn differenced between OCA and Foundation exam at Selikoff website with explanations and test questions (thank you very much Jeanne and Scott!). Short before appointment I became an email from pearson, they "want to sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have faced during your Oracle OnVUE appointment" and! They cancelled my new appointment at Monday (don't understand why), but they restored the voucher and I can use it again. At the end, I did my best to take Java Foundation exam, but tried to finish as fast as possible because all the time I hoped, that nothing will go wrong, I even have not checked my answers though I have had more than one hour for this. After a half-hour, I received an email and after 100+ clicks I could look at my result, 85% and some mistakes in basic things (I cant see which questions exactly were wrong, but the topic). Now I try to understand, when (and if) I will become a digital certificate, which I can also present for my boss and put on LinkedIn.
How was this exam? Much easier than mock tests from Enthuware. But also some strange things, which I have not seen or heard about before, though I learned for OCA with 2 books (from Boyarsky and other from Finegan), Udemy course by Soudakevich and many other things. Things which are at all not about code. But I think it is not permitted to public any of them. At the end I was sure that I will pass. It was one of the reasons, why I didn't check my answers. I have had just one trouble at the start of the exam: the assistant has not received a photo of my ID card, and I have had to resent it. I am happy that I finally have some Java certification, because I learned a half-year for it and have any experience, that is why it is even harder. Now I will reserve a new appointment for next week and finish with my journey to become oracle certified associate java programmer I.
85 is a good mark.
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