OCA 808

[Sanjela garg]

Hello,

I really need help. I am preparing for OCA 808 for the past 3 months. I am folloing study guide byJeanne Boyarsky n Selikoff. After reading the book two to three times and practicing lot of codes. I am able to score 80% in every end of chapter exam(when attempted for the second time).Now that i am taking the bonus exams, i could only score 60% in all 3 bonus practice test and that too i took really long time to finish the exam. I am very disappointed with my self . Kindly advise what should i do to prepare better. I was planning to take Enthware mock very soon but since i could not score well in bonus practise
test, i am not sure if i am ready to take enthuware mock yet. I have no programming experience . But ihave coded a lot in past four months of preparation. Now i am questioning my self,that should i even take this exam as i have no experience as a java programmer. Kindly advise how should i prepare my self .

[Campbell Ritchie]

Don't sit the exam now. Write lots of ordinary Java® code. Oracle suggest you need 1½ years's experience before you should sit an exam. Obviously that is only a suggestion. Try the mock exams again in six months. It is no good scoring 80% on the second run through a practice exam; that suggests you are memorising the answers, which doesn't help.

Other people will have different opinions.

[Darren Short]

Sanjela garg wrote:Hello,

I really need help. I am preparing for OCA 808 for the past 3 months. I am folloing study guide byJeanne Boyarsky n Selikoff. After reading the book two to three times and practicing lot of codes. I am able to score 80% in every end of chapter exam(when attempted for the second time).Now that i am taking the bonus exams, i could only score 60% in all 3 bonus practice test and that too i took really long time to finish the exam. I am very disappointed with my self . Kindly advise what should i do to prepare better. I was planning to take Enthware mock very soon but since i could not score well in bonus practise
test, i am not sure if i am ready to take enthuware mock yet. I have no programming experience . But ihave coded a lot in past four months of preparation. Now i am questioning my self,that should i even take this exam as i have no experience as a java programmer. Kindly advise how should i prepare my self .

Hi Sanjela,

I'm sorry to hear you are not making as much progress as you'd like to after spending lots of time working on this.   First thing is to take a deep breath and regroup.   The last thing you want to do is stress yourself.
Look at exam blueprint and your practice exam scores on how you did in each exam and where your weak areas are.    Run through more practice on those weak areas.

For testing java concepts, I use repl.it (there are similar alternatives as well), which helps me without having to use a full-blown IDE.    I find that using this type of tool removes all the tips and tricks provided with some IDEs.    You'll have to modify your code and "run" it each and every time to see the results of your code.   I believe this type of repetition helps solidify concepts in your brain (vs. pop-ups automatically telling you to change some code because it won't compile, etc).    I've read from others that using paper and pencil helps as well, in this regard.

As Campbell mentioned, write lots of snippets of code for each blueprint objective to fully get a grasp of the concept(s).    There is no substitution for sitting down and just coding concepts out over and over; this is invaluable.     Write code to understand the concept, then refactor it to see what breaks.   Break things and then fix things to really understand how java is working.    Any curiosities that pop up in your head about the code, type it in and see what happens.     This type of work takes more time and energy, but break/fix with coding really helps.    Keep things simple.   Write a simple class.   Extend that class and see how things behave.  Do the same for abstract class and see what happens.   What's different?  What's similar?

Without knowing what areas you need to put more effort in, do make certain you have the "basics" down.     Things like auto-promotion with data types, operator precedence, etc.   Types a bunch of snippets in and editor and see if you guessed correctly on what the answer should be.    These types of "basic" things should feel like second nature.    With a good grasp on the basics, you can spend more needed time on the fancy stuff like inheritance, interfaces, etc.

Remember, you can do it!   Take your time with the code.    Try not to rush the process.

[Liutauras Vilda]

Sanjela garg wrote:I have no programming experience

You obviously are desperate about the exam. If I were you, I'd start with programming, actually computer science basics, and not the Java. Java comes into picture later. When I started studying computing, the first year we were just going through basics, data structures and all that, without touching any programming language and even computer - I think that's a crucial part and not the certificate if you want to start in this field.

If you have some of the knowledge about the Java language as such now that you read the book - it is more than enough for now so you could work on some personal projects and get some actual programming experience.

I feel that many people with these certificates go wrong way round. I do have myself OCA, but I took it after maybe 3 years in the field and after hanging here for few years and reading forums, and to be honest I didn't even spend much time preparing for it explicitly - all just came naturally when I felt it is time, so I gave it a try.

If the final picture in all that is the successfully passed job interview... if the interview goes in the sort of fashion as OCA exam, you probably don't want to work in such company, at least I wouldn't want.

So my personal advise is - relax and don't get lost in your mind about the need of certificate. Just enjoy programming for now. When you get enough maturity in programming, you'll understand yourself when the right time is (if you still want certificate).

[Liutauras Vilda]

Just to be clear, I'm not against getting certified, I'm just not up for doing things just for the sake of doing.

[Paul Anilprem]

Sanjela, A similar situation was discussed here recently and I would give you the same suggestion that I mentioned there:

Here is what I suggest:

Try doing the end of chapter exercises given in this book. Start with the ones at the end of chapter 2. Do not take any help (i.e. don't google) and do not using any IDE. Use command line and Notepad/Notepad++.  If you are able to do all the questions, then move to the exercises at the end of the next chapter. Otherwise, read the chapter thoroughly and then attempt the exercises again.

Once you are done with all the chapters, take a mock test and share your result.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Paul Anilprem wrote:. . . A similar situation . . .

Yes, it is slightly unusual for us to have two threads about exam difficulties so close together.

Notepad/Notepad++.  . . .

I don't like MS NotePad myself, but I very much like NotePad++.

[Sanjela garg]

Thank you so much every one for your valuable suggestions.

[Campbell Ritchie]

That's a pleasure