My trip to SCJP

SCJP(Sun Certified Java Programmer) is a foundation exam for those who are interested in showing their proficiency in java.

SCJP as of now has 2 versions of certification i.e.

• Sun Certified Programmer for the Java Platform, Standard Edition 5.0 (CX-310-055)
• Sun Certified Programmer for the Java Platform, Standard Edition 6.0 (CX-310-065)

There are as such no prerequisites for the exam.The exam is a Multiple choice and drag and drop type exam.The exam has some 60 questions out of which for clearing the exam you need to get 35 questions correct which get you a 58.33% .Time limitfor the exam is some 180 minutes.

Talking about SCJP, I cleared SCJP5.0 in June 2008 and the experience for the exam was mind -blowing. I took almost a year to prepare for the exam.

I started my studies from the recommended book for SCJP5.0 i.e.

Sun Certified Programmer For Java 5 Scjp (310-055) By Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates

I took some 2 readings of this book, and also went through all the exercise questions given at the end of each chapter.

The two minute drill given at the end of each chapter helped me to do my last minute revisions.

Talking about the question format:

• Question format is multiple choice, including some drag-and-drop questions.
• The number of correct answers is given in case of multiple choice questions with multiple answers.
• There are hardly any questions with true/false answers.
• There are a lot of questions with three (or sometimes two) correct answers.
• Question with radio button answers means that only one answer is correct.
• Questions vary from very easy to very difficult, but mostly difficult.
• No credit is given for partially correct answers in case of questions with multiple answers.
• No Negative markings are there.

The objectives for the exams include:
1. Declarations and Access Control
2.Flow Control
3.API Contents
4.Concurrency
5.OO Concepts
6.Collections / Generics
7.Fundamentals

Talking about some Do's and Dont's for the exam:

• In the Drag and Drop type questions, the answer gets reset if you try to review it. So, always complete and double check your answer before moving away from a Drag and Drop question.
• It would be helpful to solve Drag and Drop questions on a sheet of paper before actually attempting them in the test.
• The revised exam has more performance-based questions than knowledge-based questions requiring memorization of API details. So spend more time on hands-on practice, especially of commonly used methods, and avoid trying to memorize each and every API detail simply by reading.
• Read the choices properly; don't get confused between 'import' statements and 'import static' statements.
• Remember that immutable string objects are returned by the String class. String Builder and String Buffer both return mutable strings; the only difference between them is that String Buffer is thread-safe, while the other is not.
• Be clear about the classes implementing the Collection types like List, Set, and Map. Be aware of which of these types support sorting, which allow duplicates, which give the best performance, and so on.
• When you see the usage of var-args in a method, ensure that the ellipsis is appearing as the last argument to the method.
• Remember that the super type of generic Collection objects is Collection and not Collection.
• Remember that since the wildcard (?) stands for an unknown type, you cannot add to generic types using wildcards.
• Know the distinction between Comparable and Comparator and the methods defined by these interfaces.

Finally talking about some important references:

A Site that gives you a very good forum wherein you can ask any of your queries about java.
http://www.javaranch.com

A Site that answers all the frequently asked questions about SCJP

http://faq.javaranch.com/java/ScjpFaq

A Tutorial on java

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/

A site providing you with good number of mock tests on java

http://www.javabeat.net/javabeat/scjp5/

A site that would help you to test your knowledge on java as well as allows you to even provide some good questions on java

http://www.javablackbelt.com

Finally if you require the Kathy Sierra ebook write me to koshaa.d@gmail.com