Exam Preparation Leads

Plan your Study Routine

Use your calendar and make your schedule. By having your schedule at the top of your mind, your calendar acts as a filter against distractions.

Learning Mode will take you 'by the hand'. Select amount of questions for your daily routine.

Disruptions in the study plan should be avoid, as this can result in revising the material already covered when you pick up the thread.

The exam should be scheduled immediately after the study period, when the momentum from the preparation is at its maximum.

Acquire enough knowledge on the certification paths

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he best way to prepare for Java Certification is to write lots and lots of small programs for each exam objective and learn from your mistakes. You may try developing small apps using all exam objectives. This is especially important for Java beginners who does not have enough coding experience.

Collect Recommended Books

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pplicants ought to use the right and latest books on certification for revision purposes to prepare for the hard question paper. The authors of these books also distribute their skills and acquaintances on this subject which is a perfect guide to exam preparations. There are plenty of useful guides that aid aspirants to acquire knowledge on different fields of this subject. The best advice for applicants is that they should ensure that their study is relevant to the exam pattern and expectation instead of rushing to spend a lot of money on irrelevant books.

Keep in Touch With Java Communities and Forums

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roup work is always necessary for such studies. As an applicant, one can join approved forums where they can pose questions and share their knowledge on Java. This helps Java programmers to deal with any doubts with their counterparts. More so, candidates who participate in such forums get to come across practical explanations alongside with innovative solutions which not only help them tackle their mock tests, but also the certification exam. Online articles and blog posts on this topic can also help you as a candidate during your certification exams and also practically like when applying for an online job.

Best way to prepare for this exam

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enerally, candidates use a combination of resources, such as books, online study materials, articles on the exam, free and paid mock exams, and training to prepare for the exam. Different combinations work best for different people, and there's no one perfect formula for preparation. Depending on whether training or self-study works best for you, you can select the method that's most appropriate for you. Combine it with a lot of code practice and mock exams.

Do you know when you're ready for the OCA exam?

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ou can be sure about your exam readiness by consistently getting a good score in the mock exams. Generally, a score of 80% and above in approximately three to five mock exams (the more the better) attempted consecutively will assure you of a similar score in the real exam.

Attempt at least five mock exams

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deally, you should attempt at least five mock exams before you attempt the real exam. The more the better!

You have two years' experience working with java. Do you still need to prepare for OCA certification?

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t's important to understand that there's a difference between the practical knowledge of having worked with Java and the knowledge required to pass this certification exam. The authors of the Java certification exams employ multiple tricks to test your knowledge. Hence, you need a structured preparation and approach to succeed in the certification exam.

The ideal time required to prepare for the exam

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he preparation time frame mainly depends on your experience with Java and the amount of time that you can spend to prepare yourself. On average, you will require approximately 150 hours of study over two or three months to prepare for this exam. Again, the number of study hours required depends on individual learning curves and backgrounds. It's important to be consistent with your exam preparation. You can't study for a month and then restart after, say, a gap of a month or more.

Should you really bother getting OCA certified?

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es, you should, for the simple reason that employers care about the certification of employees. Organizations prefer a certified Java developer over a non-certified Java developer with similar IT skills and experience. The certification can also get you a higher paycheck than uncertified peers with comparable skills.

Books Recommendation

OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Certification Guide by Mala Gupta

Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer I Study Guide: Exam 1Z0-808

OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Exam Guide (Exams 1Z0-808)

OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Certification Guide by Mala Gupta

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his book was given to me as a study manual on the Java course I attended. The full-time class lasted for half a year. The course was completed with an exam for OCA SE8 certification.

In the practical part of the course we were assigned to teams, where we developed small programs. The Auto Teller Machine system and car park payment system.

For an individual project I developed a "Battleship Game" with artificial intelligence.

This book enabled me to program in Java, which at first seemed to be very daunting.

The book was easy to understand, even though that English is not my first language.
The book demystify java concepts and structure of the java language with clarity.

"I have definitely become a better programmer reading this!!!! (Mala Gupta 'OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Certification Guide') Great reference book as well!!!!"

We read in one of the comments on the Amazon

Example of Java rules:

Each topic is summarized with the example of exam questions. It helped me to examine my understanding.

"I recommend this book to everyone who prepares to get an Oracle Certified Associate Programmer I Standard Edition 8 certificate. As a valuable guide lead for the exam. As well as a great, extended introduction to Java."

Please take a look at this comment from Amazon:

"After the reading Mala's extremely popular previous Certification Guide for OCA Java SE 7 exam, I did not expect to see more of an improvement this time, but it seems Mala found the way how to raise the bar once again.
Mala starts her certification guide with an extensive introduction about the OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Exam as quite often for the students arise such questions as: "Will it be on the exam?", "Do I need to know this?", "Are the questions going to be in the form of...?", "How deep I need to understand...?" and similar.
I think Mala perfectly clears these doubts right at the beginning of the book in FAQ form and general explanation, so students reading the book could fully concentrate on the exam's actual content without distracting themselves.
As an extra, for the readers who'll be willing to go for further Java certifications, can find a nice roadmap chart, which clearly illustrates a further certification road and its prerequisites.
Going further through each of the chapter, I was pleasantly surprised and liked book author's idea about the content of tiny NOTE sections. We all know that certification isn't always about good programming practices, so those NOTE sections let you be aware which coding style should be avoided in real world, and at the same time give some good advices instead.
Across the book Mala uses quite a lot nice illustrations to visualise concepts which are crucial to understand and some ideas even wraps to a small stories, so it would be easier to remember.
Having said that, content in the book is well in details explained, where each chapter at the end contains important points summary and the exam type questions followed by the answers with explanation of each (wrong and correct ones).
From time to time author does some extra steps forward and explains concepts more widely in terms of content, even though it is not going to be on exam, but it is equally useful to understand as for a Java programmer.
Finally, as befits for a good certification guide, Mala constructed and provided a whole mock exam, which is close to a real one, so you can practice and be ready when the day comes."

Get the book on Amazon