Hello, world!
In December/2007, I've just started to study to take my - very late - Java Programmer certification as the version 6.0 of the exam was early released. Although I knew it wasn't the latest version of the exam (and of Java itself), I've started studying for the 5.0 exam, which, alone, has too many new things to be learned for a mobile programmer. This time, I'm going to talk about the Sun Certified Programmer for Java Platform, Standard Edition 6.0 Exam and my experience of doing the test.
[Offtopic] As you might have noticed, I awoke with the spirit of making things different and, thus, decided to do my first English post here, at MicroKode. I'll probably keep writing my articles this way and I really hope that the few out there who read my daydreams don't bother about it. I also hope this help to transform this "few" in a "little greater few". Now, back to the topic...
As I've said, the 5.0 version of Java has a lot of new things: Generics, Boxing, Enhanced for Loop, Enums, Varargs, Static Imports and Annotations (the last is not required for the exam). So I've just forgot the existence of a newer version - the sixth - and started reading the "SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 6 Study Guide" from Kate Sierra and Bert Bates. This book is just the best. Go for it!
About one month later I finished reading it and bought the voucher. I gotta say a word on it: the Sun service here in Brazil is just a bunch of crap. They are very polite and try to attend your requests for the best, but I had to wait about 1 month and a half to get my voucher numbers. And when they finally sent it to my e-mail the expiring date was wrong. Luckily I received a new mail with the correct date, before I even notice the other was wrong.
While waiting the voucher numbers I started doing some simulated exam from the Whizlabs software and I, gotta admit, I've never passed the exam in the simulator from these guys. The difficult level they apply on their software is far more hard than the test itself. But, at the time I wasn't aware of this and decided to delay my application to a later date, that turned to be 14th this month, about one year later.
If you think I was studying all this time you are completely nut. I only did the test because my voucher was about to expire! So I stepped to the Prometric site and scheduled my test to January 14th. Note: the current day was January 8th. This day I request a friend to help me with the scheduling and he just ask me why I was applying to 5.0 exam. He argued that the differences between the two versions of the exam where very few and that it won't worth to do the "old" test anymore. I did some searching and found several articles saying the same. Look, I was about to loose 330 bucks anyway, what's the problem on adding a bit more of complexicity to the mix? I took the exam version 6.0.
The "new" Java version hasn't any bigger changes. At least none of the new exam topics were a big deal. Only one class and two new Interfaces to know about. Compared with the wave of changes from the 1.4 to the 1.5 versions, this means nothing. Here are my tips to get passed the test with no headaches:
- Read the Kate Sierra and Bert Bates book. The reading is soft and the content is great, after finishing it you sure gonna be ready to take the test. Don't forget to make the exercises and re-read the "Two-Minute Drill" a few days before the test, so you can refresh the things in your mind and identify the parts where you have to study a little more.
- Buy your voucher as soon as you decide to take the test. Don't wait to finish studying to do so. If you do, you may forget all you've studded before Sun deliver your voucher number.
- Don't even think taking the test for the 5.0 version. The differences are few to none. I got just one question about Console and none about NavigableSet and NavigableMap interfaces on my exam. Remember your voucher allows you to do any of the exams.
- Don't even download the Whizlabs exam simulation software. Alright, that's a bit exaggerated. You can download and exercise on it, the software is really good. But keep in mind that the real exam is much easier. When I said "much", I meant MUUUUUUUCH!
- Don't be afraid, Generics aren't a problem at the exam, but double check Collections. Much of the exam will test your knowledge on declarations, initialization and scooping, flow control and fundamentals. In fact I think about 1/4 of the exam questions just don't compile. There were also two questions about OO (coupling and cohesion), one for IO and a few for Collections and Generics.
- On the SCJP 6.0 exam, they raised the passing score, but also the test time. And a lot! So, don't run, you got enough time. I finished the test with about one hour and half left.
Finishing the legend, I surprisingly had passed the test... and with easy. Scored 79% when the passing score was only 65%. Obviously I wish I had gone 100%, but I just don't have enough patience to study that much, and, after all, getting certified, alone, was a great deal for me.
Last, but not least, follows a list of test simulators for you to practice on before taking the real test:
