Here is my story on OCA and OCP:
Background: I started learning
Java in 1998 where I used to code with jdk 1.1 and 1.3 compilers. I worked on smaller projects in java from 2005 to 2006 and later moved to .NET stack. I again started working with Java in 2018 and thought that let me refresh the course again! I am currently living in Germany. Below is my journey on OCA and OCP certification exams: ( Certifications are always good and my employer is very kind! )
OCA: I did not refer any particular book for this exam; referred some youtube videos from durgasoft solutions to revise few topics. I took around 2 months to complete their videos and that's it, I decided to take the exam. This happened around three months back. OCA exam tests very basic java skills including java syntax and semantics. I scored 97%, I am sure that I might have a done a mistake while reviewing answers
OCP: The first book I referred was Jeanne Boyarsky & Scott Selikoff's "OCP oracle certified professional Java SE 8 Programmer II study guide". I took almost 25 days to complete this book; everyday I used to read atleast 50 pages from this book. I am a "mindful" reader, enough for me If i read only once any topic! God gift right? I tried each and every program given in this book; enjoyed a lot with lambdas and stream concepts. Then I purchased few courses from udemy for practicing mock tests for the exam. I also took 2 tests from enthuware and scored 70% and 81% respectively. Overall, I almost answered 3000+ questions and I tried each and every question with my IntelliJ. I also referred Ganesh and Hari kiran book on 1z0-809 and scored 85% in the mock
test given.
I took OCP exam today & scored 92%. I did the same mistake again i.e., while reviewing answers, made few correct answers wrong. The questions were tough compare to OCA. You must know the corners of streams, lambdas, I/O and so on to attend this exam. I took almost 2 hrs to finish the exam and scored 92%.
Anyhow, for me marks or percentage doesn't matter much. To me, my life experience with new learnings and how I enjoy my time being mindful, being aware, being concious matters the most.
Note: In one of my previous
thread I mentioned my OCA score as 98%, it was typo, my OCA score is 97%.
My thanks to all of you.
Best,
Purushotham C K
