This Book is *Not* a Study Guide

Well, technically it is. But what I really mean is our new OCP 11 Java Programmer II Book is so much more than that. In fact, it’s my favorite book we’ve written (don’t tell my other books!) because it dives deep into some really interesting topics like streams, concurrency, I/O and NIO.2, method references, etc that people often only have passing familiarity with.

It’s not written solely for you to pass the exam (although it contains plenty of strategies/tips/tricks for that too!). For example, maybe you’ve used annotations but been too scared to write you own? This book will teach you everything you need to know about writing custom annotations like a pro. Or maybe you’ve heard about lambdas and streams but don’t really understand them well enough to use them. Completely understandable! I was once terrified to use them too, for fear of looking unintelligent (aka dumb). Now, I use lambdas, streams, and method references to accomplish in a handful of lines what used to take me pages of boiler plate code.

Whether you take and pass the exam or not (and I sincerely wish you do), I hope that by reading this book you’ll gain a greater understanding and appreciation of Java. Oh, and if you’re more just starting out, I recommend reading our OCP 11 Java Programmer I Book first. That provides a solid foundation for Java classes, methods, and polymorphism.

If I sound excited, it’s because I am really proud of this book and all of the hard work that went into making it interesting, easy-to-understand, and perhaps… a bit of fun! Purchase now on Amazon while supplies last!

Happy Book Birthday! New OCP 11 Book Now Shipping!

Update (11/05/2020): Read The 1Z0-819 Exam page to learn how you can easily our Java 11 Study Guides to prepare for Oracle’s 1Z0-819 Exam, as well as the 1Z0-817 Upgrade Exam.

Jeanne and I are thrilled to announce the release of our new Java 11 OCP Programmer II Book! It’s been a challenging road, writing and editing a book in the middle of a global pandemic, and we’re excited the print book is available for sale and finally shipping! The Kindle/digital version is available too!

Whether you’re studying for the 1Z0-816 Programmer II Exam or the 1Z0-817 Upgrade Exam, or just enjoy finding out about new Java topics, this book contains it all. We pride ourselves in presenting lambda expressions, streams, concurrency, custom annotations, I/O and NIO.2, JDBC, security, and more in fun and refreshing ways. We want our readers to enjoy learning about a topic just as much as we enjoyed writing about it. Finally, we believe that becoming certified makes you a more well-rounded developer and helps to grow your career with potential employers.

Our last book sold out pretty quickly, so get your copy today!

Assembling a mock exam

I like assembling the mock exams. I find it relaxing. I got a question yesterday about my process so writing it down

Question generation

  • Scott and I meet and decide how many mock questions will cover the material for each chapter. For example, we have an 80 question mock exam in our practice exams book. There are 12 chapters. This means some chapters have 6 questions and some have 7.
  • As we write each chapter, we both write mock exam questions for that chapter in a separate file.

Determining the order

  • I create a spreadsheet including the source chapter #, source question # and difficulty.
  • Create a column for mock exam question #
  • Fill it with =RAND().
  • Sort by the random number column.
  • Replace the random numbers by actual question numbers for the mock chapters
  • Fiddle with the list by trading question numbers so that there aren’t more than two questions in a row from the same chapter or same difficulty. (ideally not more than one from the same chapter in a row)

Assemble the questions

  • Copy/paste the questions from each chapter into a new file using the new order generated above. I find it fastest to copy all the questions that go with chapter 1, then 2, etc.
  • Proofread.
  • Run the program we wrote to check styles to make sure I didn’t mess them up on copy/paste.