To start with, since my last year project was in java, I had fairly good knowledge of java. At that point of time I knew only one book for Java, which was easily available, “The Complete Reference – Java 2”. This is a good book for starters. But as a review the book becomes boring by the time u reach the advance part of java that is the ending part of this book. After that, I got a copy of Khalid Mughal’s “Java 2 A Programmer’s guide for certification”. Although the material in the book is very useful, it is very boring to read this too serious book. In the mean time I got another book, Kathy and Sierra Bate’s “Head First Java”. Now this book is a treat to read. This book is very interactive and useful. But not good just from exam point of view. So I switched back to Khalid Mughal’s book which is actually meant for the certification.
I use to go through each chapter of Khalid Mughal’s book and after each sub-section there are questions related to that, sub section. I took each question seriously as if I am attempting the exam and would jot down the score in an excel sheet. I have uploaded this excel sheet on this site.
For preview reasons take a look at these screen shots of the excel sheet.
The graph gave me a apprehensible view of how nicely understood a particular section. There were several programs to be done at the end of all the chapters, but I did not attempt any. Instead I wrote my own programs to understand what the author wants to explain about a particular topic. After I went through almost all the chapters, I thought it was a high time that I start attempting mock exams. I got a bunch of mock exam pdfs from my friends, Basker Nadar, Jitesh Haridas and Saurabh Sawant. I am grateful to my friends for their help. Now, I started attempting, each question from these pdfs, but with time restriction. What I mean to say is, I use to log time I take to attempt each question and note them down in an excel sheet with the score. But not all the mocks were correct, the typos mislead me on many occasions, and gradually I kept those materials on one side and thought now is the time for me to revise.
Later on I got busy with my project in the office, and had to skip the revision. But I just can’t give this as an excuse. Frankly speaking, I also wasted a lot of time chatting, social networking (orkuting etc.,) etc., For these reasons, I even closed my orkut account! I was missing all my friends! L
I realized I am wasting my own time and energy. I got serious, and thought I need a focused plan. Therefore, I made a chart, with a timeline set, so that when I start revising I have some deadlines that I have to stick to … as time was running out of my hand.
Planned Schedule: -
When I was planning the chart, for a moment I felt like I am a project manager estimating the schedule. However, I was making a mistake, in assuming the time I will dedicate for revision on each day. For e.g. with the kind of schedule I planned, I was assuming almost 10 hrs per day I will dedicate for revision and according to this assumption, I will complete my revision in a months time…which was a bull shit ! I forgot while making this plan that I actually spend more than 8 hours out of my home working 5 days in a week in office. And hence, when I actually started studying for revision, I was able to dedicate only 2 or 3 hrs at the max most of the time. For these reasons, my schedule was out of track.
The countdown was started! … The last date of my voucher that is 30th November 2007 was nearing. I some how managed to revise maximum sections, and left some sections like threads for e.g. Meanwhile, I had a dinner party along with the office team on 23rd November 2007. And on this day I actually booked the slot for exam in prometric center for 27th November 2007. However, the food was not good, and I fell sick. I was suffering with severe cold and high fever. All my last minute revision plans were in vain. I was bed ridden, taking the heavy medication from our family doctor.
