Including an inline review of two SCJP study guides.
Disclaimer: This is not a guide to passing the test with zero experience and no preparation. The SCJP exam will quickly expose lack of working knowledge. I have roughly 15 years of experience with programming in C and derivative languages, including about 1 year of Java 1.1 through 1.5 and about 2 years of experience with C++.
Studying:
Note: Book links are paid Amazon associate links.
Week 1:
- Took class that walked through the J2SE 5 book, SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 5 Study Guide (Exam 310-055) (Certification Press)
. Took the “self-tests” at the back of each chapter and reviewed the “Two Minute Drills” as part of the class.
Week 2:
- Downloaded the jPrep app for my iPhone, which helped review some concepts in flash card format, but other than that, did limited studying until Friday of that week.
- Downloaded SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 6 Exam 310-065
[SCJP 6]. This is the Java 6 version of the book I used in the class. The self test questions are tough, and hard to get correct a second time through if you don’t know the material itself.
- Downloaded A Programmer’s Guide to Java SCJP Certification: A Comprehensive Primer (3rd Edition)
[Programmer’s Guide] through my Safari Books Online account. I do not recommend this book. See Week 3.
- Read roughly the first chapter of the version 6 book while traveling.
Week 3:
- Took the “self test” questions at the end of every section of the SCJP 6 book. Got only 51% correct.
- Hand wrote the answers or a fuller explanation of the answers for every question I got wrong.
- Took the Programmer’s Guide mock exam. When I checked the answers, I noticed that the questions would say something like “select the 2 correct answers” and the answers would give 3 answers, or vice versa. Once I realized how bad the editing was on this book, I stopped using it.
- Re-took the “self test” questions at the end of every section of the SCJP 6 book. Got only 88% correct. This time, I read through the answer explanations for the incorrect answers, and then re-read the “Two Minute Drill” sections for my two worst sections.
I believe that the SCJP 6 helped me because the format of the questions [choose all that apply] was ultimately harder than the format of the actual certification test questions. The Programmer’s Guide “mock test” format was closer to the actual test format, but I spent way too much time reconciling the test answers and test questions for it to be useful.
Other factors and more detail that you may not care about:
I had the opportunity through to take a class [June 7-June 11 2010] to become certified as a Sun Certified Java Programmer for Version 5. The book used in the class was [SCJP 5 study guide]. At the end of the class, we were presented with the option of registering for either the SCJP version 5 or SCJP version 6 exam by the end of June 2010. I took the risk that I could study the gaps between the Java 5 and Java 6 and pass the SCJP version 6 exam. Little did I realize that the studying effort would be a little more challenging than I first thought.
I had originally read through the Java 1.5 Tiger: A Developer’s Notebook (Java 5,Version 1.5)