Efforts i took: -
1) I referred three different books and several sources.
a. The Complete Reference, Third edition.
b. Khalid Mughal and Ralph Rasmussien’s Programmer’s guide to certification, Second edition.
c. Head First Java, Kathy and Sierra Bates.
d. Javaranch community … my personal thanks to this community.
e. GOOGLE, used it heavily.
2) I tracked my own efforts in the form of time and score, in excel sheets.
3) I wrote my own programs to understand a particular concept. I just cannot by heart a particular thing…blindly at least!
4) Made my own notes (and wrote a blog on collections so far).
5) The programs and notes structure was designed by me.
6) I bought a good Dell Laptop for myself, since my PC was too slow for eclipse 3.1, and I could not compromise on time.
7) Regularly, discussed some java topics with my office colleagues. I am thankful to them.
Mistakes i made:-
1) Did not take the exam seriously since start.
2) Was intermittently, over ambitious and energetic about exam. Most of the time, I was lazy. Did not maintain my energy levels throughout the exam preparation.
3) I should have given the exam before getting a job…why? Simple! I was not able to work and study and maintain good progress in both the things. Result, was many times I compromised on my study schedule to perform well at my job.
4) I wasted a lot of time, chatting and social networking, which I should not have done!
5) Missed hanging out with family and friends for exam reasons.
6) Made illogical plans.
My Advice: -
You must be wondering, if you should follow my advice, especially when I have scored so less! Well, it’s up to you. I just want you, not to make the mistakes I made. For these reasons, I am listing some points on which you can at least think.
Firstly, you must know why you are giving exam:-
1) Just to have a Certificate on your name.
2) To have “on paper” edge over others in Java.
3) To really have an edge over others in Java.
4) To strengthen your fundamentals of Java technology.
1) and 2) mean that all you care is about one certificate from Sun. You really don’t care about if you really understand the concepts of Java well. If this is your aim, then there is different method of studying. On the other hand, if 3) and 4) is what all you care for, then the method of studying is different.
Method A: -
This is you can follow if your aim is 1) and 2) shown above.
1) Find out the sections of the syllabus for exams.
2) You need a fairly introductory knowledge of basic Java at least.
3) You need a huge collection of mock exams.
4) Attempt as many mock exams as you can, since most mock exams also give an explanation for the answers. So in a way, you study Java the faster way.
5) Give the exam
Advantages of this method:-
1) Fast
2) Short and sweet. Less preparation time.
3) You get certified with good score most of the time. Imagine … you study a million questions through mock exam and in the actual exam you attempt ONLY 61! There is a good chance of getting the same question in the exam as you had in mock exam. At least, a similar question! And you had studied the explanation of the answers in the mock exam, so you CAN attempt SIMILAR questions.
4) You have a good feel of what exam will be like, as you have studied through mock exams only.
Disadvantages of this method:-
1) Fundamentals might not be strong
2) Again a need to study the Java concepts when you give another exam or appear for interview.
3) You tend to forget the concepts with time.
4) A STRONG memory is required … now I assume the worst condition and say that only few people have got good memory! J I hope u agree with me!
Proof: -
You must have seen the table of marks I had included in my earlier list of my friends who scored in their Microsoft certification exam. These friends just went through mock exams and dumps for a week or two and came out with almost 100% result. See??!! Well, may be the Microsoft exams are just piece of cake! After all it’s Microsoft! Yuck!!! There is definitely a big difference between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems exam. Let me give you other examples, one of my best friends, Saurabh Sawant who had fairly good knowledge of basic java within a week’s time of study gave the SCJP exam and scored 85%. Another friend, Nikhil Bhojwani just took 12 days to prepare for the exam, and scored 80%.
Time taken for Method A: -
1) On an average of 2-3 hours per day.
2) One week to two months. It depends on how many mock exams you give.
Method B: -
This is for those people who have 3) and 4) as the aim we discussed before starting with this section.
1) Assuming you have little knowledge of java, first study books like The Complete Reference.
2) After, you get a feel that you know Java much better, go for Head First Java, to strengthen your concepts.
3) In both these books, first filter out only those chapters that are relevant to the sections in the syllabus, and save your time by not studying irrelevant chapters.
4) Lastly, go for Khalid Mughal Book. This book explores many possibilities in a single program. When you attempt the questions from this book, your aim must be to get maximum answers right, as your fundamentals and concepts have been strengthen before when you studied Java from books like, Head first and The Complete Reference. This is because, it is said, that if you get x% by attempting questions from Khalid Mughal, in actual exam, you generally score x+ %. For e.g. if you score 85% from Khalid Mughal, 85% is guaranteed for you. There is a good chance that you score more than 85% in the actual exam.
5) Do not just attempt the questions using the guessing power. If stuck, try out a program of your own to test the question. This helps a lot to strengthen your fundamentals even more.
6) If possible make your own notes, which at least you can understand.
7) After you take so many efforts, give some mock exams, to test your preparation. At least 5-10 mock exams are sufficient.
8) Now, by reading a particular question, you must be able to identify to which section of the syllabus this question belongs. It will be a bit difficult to achieve this level of confidence.
9) Once you are confident and comfortable with the syllabus and Java itself, plot a strategy
10) A strategy that comprises what kind of questions you can attempt first with 100% confidence. You must try to attempt those questions first.
11) Lastly attempt those questions which require some pondering, which also means, that you are not much confident about such questions.
12) This kind of strategy should work, because, roughly you have 2 minutes per question. And it will take you hardly few seconds to answer those questions about which you are 100% confident. That means, you not only attempt maximum questions, but you also save a good amount of time for your self to attempt those questions about which you are not so confident.
Advantages of this method: -
1) Strengthens your fundamentals and concepts.
2) You need not prepare for any other exam or interview again.
3) Helps you think twice, when you start coding while on job.
4) A better score.
5) You will gain a level of confidence so much, that, you can guide or help others also.
Disadvantages of this method: -
1) Very Very Slow.
2) Study material (books required).
3) No shortcuts, programming is must!
4) Score may or may not be good.
Time taken for Method B: -
1) On an average 4-8 hours per day, this is required, since continuity in learning a particular section is necessary.
2) It can take you almost 6 months to year also.
Now, it’s up to you to decide, which method to follow or follow the best of both the world policy. My Best wishes are with you, dear reader. Do not make the mistakes I did. Thank you !!!
