OCP Java SE Programmer Exam

Just How Hard Is the OCP Java SE Programmer Exam?

Since you’ve decided to pick this book up, we’re guessing that you’re considering

taking the OCP Java SE 6 Programmer exam.

The OCP Java SE Programmer exam is considered one of the hardest in the

IT industry, and we can tell you from experience that a large percentage of exam

candidates go in to the test unprepared. As programmers, we tend to learn only what

we need to complete our current project, given the insane deadlines we’re usually

under. But this exam attempts to prove your complete understanding of the Java

language, not just the parts of it you’ve become familiar with in your work.

Experience alone will rarely get you through this exam with a passing mark,

because even the things you think you know might work just a little different than

you imagined. It isn’t enough to be able to get your code to work correctly; you must

understand the core fundamentals in a deep way, and with enough breadth to cover

virtually anything that could crop up in the course of using the language.

What this Book Is (and Is Not)

As we’ll discuss again in Chapter 4, most successful candidates do three things:

n Study with a good study guide

n Take a lot of mock exams

n Write a lot of code

This book focuses on the last two items of the preceding list. It is NOT a study

guide. If you haven’t worked with a good study guide, and you find that you’re scoring

well on the practice exams in this book, count yourself unusual. Our experience,

working with thousands of candidates, is that taking mock exams alone isn’t enough

to pass this exam. (Our main goal with this book is to supplement our study guide.)

The basic study plan we recommend is that you do a lot of reading and coding

before taking the four full mock exams in this book.

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