Oracle Certified JAVA Associate Exam Preparation

The search for a Russian guide for surrender to OCAJP 7 did not succeed, so I decided to write my own.

What kind of certificate is told in this video. Whether or not everyone decides to pass on for himself, but this certificate is basic in the Oracle hierarchy for those interested in Java.

For myself, I decided to take on OCP to firstly systematize knowledge, and secondly, to raise the attractiveness for employers.
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It began as usual with reading CodeRanch . When I started to prepare books on OCA 7 was not yet in nature. The official guide has already appeared. But given the price tag ($ 30), I would still refrain from buying. I'll tell you why.

First of all, most of the information needed for delivery is covered with SJCP 6 preparation materials, most of which are freely available. The forums scare that a lot of JLS by JAVA 7 was added to the exam. In fact, not so much, at the exam itself I was faced only with the ability to use String objects as arguments in a switch expression. In any case, it is possible to learn some new features added in the new version of JVM in one evening, since there are not many of them for the exam, but there is a general understanding.

I started my journey to JAVA from this wonderful book, but it will not work at all for the exam.

I passed on 91%, used the following material:

• K & B SCJP 6 study guide . Repeatedly mentioned here. The book is really wonderful: easy to read, well structured, after each chapter there are exercises to fix the material
• Tests for passing the SCJP 6 from here . But I will not advise them, because The questions there are quite outdated.
• Mock exams by Enthuware ($ 10)

The preparation plan was:

• Read chapters 1-5 and 10 of K & B. Chapters 6 and 7 selectively read in accordance with the topics of the real exam
• Pass tests on SCJP 6 on the same topics (as I said, not very useful)
• Tests from Enthuware (6 tickets, 500+ questions)

The result was:

• I tried to read the chapter from the book a day, it turned out to be 2 days per chapter along with resolution of tasks and small practical tasks.
• In the beginning, mock tests seemed too easy, but as it turned out, each ticket turned out to be focused on several specific topics. The full picture was formed only after all the tickets were solicited.
• Tests for $ 10 I originally planned to click for a week, but in the end it turned out only for two. The plan was the same as with the tickets in the traffic police: the ticket is solicited for the first time, then all made errors are collected and resolved again.
• Compared to questions on the real exam, the questions in the tests are much more complicated. If from the 1st time it was not possible to resolve the ticket by 60-70%, it is better to read the book again. Memorize how the same tickets in the traffic police will not work, the questions in the tests are completely different from the real
• However, the emphasis there is on the same topics as in the real exam. Most of the tricky questions were on "String, StringBuffer, StringBuilder" and "Handling Exceptons". The authors of the tests in the answers often hint that some topics that are not indicated by Oracle as required to prepare are actually present at the exam. It really is. I had a few questions about the Garbage Collector. An annoying “how to shove short into byte” questions on the knowledge of cast and size of Data Types in JAVA with which the test on the real exam was full
• Before the exam, while driving to the subway, I read the Summary to all the chapters from K & B 6. Several times it was very useful to me, there were questions tied to very subtle nuances

On the delivery I took with me closed headphones in order not to listen to the surrounding noise, they were really very useful. Although in the test class there were not very many people, but they constantly entered and left, which did not set up a productive mood. The exam lasts 150 minutes, did not want to be distracted. Headphones perfectly cut off all the noise in the audience.

After answering all the questions, I still had 40 minutes, I managed to double-check. Found one annoying mistake.

After the test, there were only one positive feeling, it's nice to put an end to the end of the preparation. Before that, I passed certification from another vendor, there were always some problems with the software for testing and with the computer on which I passed the test. This time, too, with each fade during the loading of the question, the heart began to beat faster. But everything is OK. The software from PearsonVUE was not buggy, all testing passed without a hitch.

Good luck to all! Next time I will tell about the preparation and delivery of OCPJP 7.