If you want to pass Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer exam this short post may help you a lot.
Step one: refresh your knowledge
On the OCA exam, you will find questions only about standard Java classes and methods. Sounds easy, huh? Unfortunately, it isn’t obvious. Even if you are a developer with some experience, you probably don’t know every Date class methods and you often use the documentation, and nothing wrong with that, I would like to say more, it’s a normal way… but not on the OCA exam.
So, first of all, I recommend you refreshing your knowledge, then you will know what you should improve. The best and quickest way to do that is reading a book which treats about OCA.
I can recommend you a really great book OCA Java SE Programmer I Certification Guide written by Mala Gupta.
How to read this book?
This book covers every topic from the OCA exam, so read the entire book, every single line. Even if you know the topic very well, read the whole chapter, this allows you to refresh your knowledge and speed up the learning process, I guarantee! At the end of every single chapter, you can find a quick test, I highly recommend you take it, then you can be sure that you understand every topic.
704 pages look scary… but it isn’t! The book is easy to read and it doesn’t take you a lot of time.
Step two: practice
Even if you read the nicest book in the world you won’t be properly prepared. As people say: practice makes perfect.
I recommend you buy sample exams from enthuware.com. The desktop license isn’t very expensive and for sure it’s worth! You can find there questions from the real exam (or really similar) with an explanation. You can take a quick test every day e.g. 20-30 questions and one mock exam per week, that’s good enough in my opinion. As I remember I needed circa two months to prepare myself to the exam.
Step three: be sure of your knowledge
Before you take the exam you should be really confident! I mean, you should get a minimum 80% from every single test from enthuware.com that gives you a guarantee that you will pass the exam. Frankly speaking, the exam is quite easy, but you have to spend time and fill in the gaps in your knowledge, that’s it.
Summary
If you follow the steps above you have a 100% warranty for passing the exam! Don’t stress and be confident, remember that you have a lot of time! Good luck! 🙂
P.S. My score is 96%
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