Passed SCJP5

Hobbes

Passed it yesterday morning. Did the whole thing in 40 minutes.

Thought I'd pass on what I did.

Studying.
http://www.amazon.com/Certified-Programmer-310-055-Certification-Guides/dp/0072253606
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/relnotes/features.html

Mock Exams.
I used whizlabs mocks program. If you fail they will pay you back the price of the exam.

However I found the version to be buggy. Text would misformat and in some cases some text doesn't show up. I'd read that whizlabs stuff is harder and is generally -10% of what you get in the main exam, but I got -20% of what I got in the exam with Whizlabs. I suspect due to the messed up questions.

I also used the Sun mock exams. You get three and they are multiple choice only but the score I got in those three were within 5% of what I got in the exam.

The only other thing is you have to do hands on stuff. You can't pass it by question dumping alone. So you need to create code examples to see how they work and memorise certain objects methods.

Comparing it against the Java 1.42 SCJP, the Java 5 is much harder. There are a large number of coding questions. In that you are given what amounts to a jigsaw and you have to put the code together to create something. This prevents people doing question dumps to pass (which is good).

Ginger

Nice one.. well done on the pass.

Static M.e.

Congrats Hobbes!

Whats next for you?

aidan_walsh

Good job, Hobbes.

Hobbes

Static M.e. wrote: »

Congrats Hobbes!

Whats next for you?

Thinking about doing the SCDJWS next, had planned it earlier this year but commitments meant I couldn't get the time and it is a lot more study then Java5.

Hobbes

Seeing as I am linking to this from elsewhere thought I'd add this regarding the questions on the exam.

1. The code exams if you go redo them they erase themselves. Think it gives a warning, but just in case your paging back to the related question.

2. The exam has what can be described as trick questions. So you need to read the FULL QUESTION and ALL THE ANSWERS.

Here is a tip though. If you DO NOT get an option in the answers "does not compile", "error" or "other" then assume the code can compile. If not then you need to look carefully through the code to see if there is anything that can fail.

Tiny example (not on the exam)

int x = 010; 

try { 
   if (x < 10 ) throw new Exception();
   int y = 20; 

   x += y;

} catch (Exception e) { 
   System.out.println("X is too low");
} 
System.out.println(y);

Does this...

A. Print "10"
B. Print "20"
C. Print "28"
D. Print "X is too low"
E. Other

shamrock2004

"X is too low".
010 is octal. Therefore the decimal value of x is 8.
8 is less than 10, so a checked Exception is thrown.
It's caught and "X is too low" is printed.

How did you find the study for the SCJP 5 hobbes?
Also, how did you find the exam itself, for time, difficulty, etc...
Congrats on passing it by the way.

Im currently on page 500 of the 800 page Kathy Sierra SCJP 5 book.
Were there any times that you answered a question incorrectly and found that you had forgotten a rule defined in a previous chapter of the book?
The 2 minute drills are very good. Im thinking of ordering the whizlabs test questions. I also found lots of mock exams on the Java ranch website.
I really want to pass this exam.

Best regards,
Shamrock

shamrock2004

I passed it today Hobbes.
It was as tough as I imagined it would be.
I pretty much used the whole 3 hours.
How in Christ's name did you manage to complete all 72 questions in 40 minutes?!?!

Static

shamrock2004 wrote: »

"X is too low".
010 is octal. Therefore the decimal value of x is 8.
8 is less than 10, so a checked Exception is thrown.
It's caught and "X is too low" is printed.

It would, if the thing even compiled Variable 'y' is undefined as far as that println() call is concerned.

shamrock2004

Partial credit
How about this one (Made this up):

byte b = 10;
final int x = 50;

switch(b) {
   default : System.out.println("Default value");
   case 5 : System.out.println("A value of 5"); break;
   case 128 : System.out.println("A value of 128");
   case 10 : System.out.println("Correct!");
   case x : System.out.println("A value of 50");
}

A. Compilation error
B. "Correct!"
C. "Default Value"
D. Runtime Exception
E. "Default Value"
"A value of 5"

F. "Correct!"
"A value of 50"