Just Passed SCJP

danclarke

Score was 77%.

The primary material I used was the Kathy Sierra / Bert Bates book and the practice tests from uCertify. However, I did also use the Sun CBT material during the last stages.

The uCertify tests, whilst having plenty of errors, were good preparation for the exam, I feel.

JDMurray

Congratz!

I guess if you can find and fix the errors in the uCerify material then you know you are ready to take the exam.

danclarke

Thanks.

I think the thing about uCertify's practice tests is that they post feedback from their users - so often when reviewing your answers, you think "I'm sure I got that right" and then scroll down to find chapter and verse from others about why you are right and uCertify are wrong.

I like that feature.

mikej412

Congratulations!!

varelg

Congradulations danclarke well done! Scoring 77% on SCJP is not a small feat.
Would you generally characterize questions on the exam to be unecessarily complex, real subjects of questioning burried in piles of obtruse code, or to be challenges from the real world that Java developers encounter?

danclarke

varelg wrote: »

Would you generally characterize questions on the exam to be unecessarily complex, real subjects of questioning burried in piles of obtruse code, or to be challenges from the real world that Java developers encounter?

Thanks.

Are you suggesting that some certification exams deal with problems from another planet? Heaven forbid!

Without challenging the NDA with Sun, I would say that the uCertify tests which I used were a good preparation.

I would also say that there must be a Venn diagram somewhere which shows "real-world" code and "abstruse" code - and if so, there is a significant overlap between the two.

TravR1

I think what varelg was trying to ask was if there were questions that didn't have much relevance to actual programming like sometimes in IT exams they get hit with weird questions that don't have much relevance to actual IT work.

To me all code seems obtuse.

danclarke

Fair comment.

I think the exam involved more "realistic" code than I saw in the uCertify tests or the Sierra / Bates book. For that reason I think that each resource is a good preparation: if you can wrap your head around their examples, the exam will present no surprises.

I think it is inevitable - as the Sierra / Bates book states - that an exam question presenting a few lines snatched from a .java file will not be representative of a real life scenario.

In languages like Java especially, where you have to understand relationships between many different classes including APIs to other people's libraries, the complexity of a real life case study is hard to capture in a 3 hour exam of 70 or so questions.

I suppose that is where SCJD comes in - but I think that Sun are absolutely right to identify SCJP as a pre-requisite to SCJD.