Tag Archives: certification

Jeanne’s experiences taking the 1Z0-817 exam

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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.

I took the Java 11 upgrade exam today. If you aren’t taking the updgrade exam, you can read my blog posts for part 1 of the OCP 11 certification (1Z0-815) and part 2 (1Z0-816).

Also see Should I take 1Z0-816 or 1Z0-817 and What Does it Mean to be Java SEE 11 Developer Certified.

I passed with 79%. Which is one point lower than my Part 2 score. You might be thinking this is low for a cert book author. Do keep in mind that I had to take the exam without a study guide :). I also got home late every night this week and was tired taking the exam. Since I was already OCP 11 certified form the 1Z0-816, I didn’t study any extra but instead went for the experience.

How I studied

  • Things I did when studying for the 1Z0-816 last week that are relevant for the upgrade exam:
    • read the relevant chapters from our OCP 8 book. (If you are studying, note this is chapters 3, 4, 6, 9)
    • did the official practice questions. (It would have been better if these were split between part 1 and part 2). There are only a few.
    • read chapters 9 and 10 from Manning’s Java Module System book (I was the Technical Development Editor on this book)
    • read the java.boot.by guide for the 1Z0–817 exam. (Different exam, but it was a perspective on the new topics)
    • I did some of the practice questions from our practice questions book
  • This week, I read Chapter 11 of our 1Z0-815 book. (It hasn’t published yet, but as the author of the book, I have early access)

My take on the exam

I found this exam to be easier than 1Z0-816. I think that was because it covered less topics. It took me about 75 minutes to get through all the questions on the first pass which was about the same as the other Java 11 exams.

How I would recommend studying

I still recommend waiting for a study guide to be out. It’s faster to study when you have more easily digestible material. That said, if you need to take this exam before our study guide is out, I recommend:

  1. Buy our OCP 8 book and read chapters 3, 4, 6 and 9.
  2. Read the java.boot.by guide for the 1Z0–817 exam.)
  3. Read chapters 1-5 and 9-10 from Manning’s Java Module System book. Note that Manning allows you to read 5 minutes a day for free. They also have micropurchases so you can just buy the one chapter. You start on the book page and click on the chapter you want to read. After 5 minutes, you are prompted to pay if you want to continue. You get 500 tokens for free.
  4. Do the official practice questions. There are only a few.
  5. Do the Enthuware tests fo more practice questions.

Oracle now offers online proctored exams

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When signing up for a cert exam from Oracle (via PearsonVUE), you now get asked whether you want to take it “at a local test center” or “at my home or office.”

The online option sounded interesting so I clicked on it and went to the Online Proctored exam page. The gist is that if you can meet certain requirements, you can take the exam from home.

Computer requirements

Computer requirements are pretty standard. Any modern computer with Mac/Windows/Linux should be fine. Don’t take it over the corporate network though; it doesn’t play well with corporate firewalls.

Room requirements

The room requirements are where this falls apart for me. You have to be a walled room with a door. I live in New York City.; apartments are small. My apartment has two doors – one to get into the apartment and one for the bathroom. Everything else is one big room.

You also have to use your webcam to show that you aren’t in arm’s reach of books/notepads/post-its/papers/pens/pencils/etc. Additional monitors must be unplugged. Looking around, I have *a lot* of stuff within arms length. It would take a while to move things even if I had a room with a door.

Privacy

You have to be alone in the room. So prepare your family/roommates.

No Breaks

Ou are not allowed to take a bathroom break. I’ve never needed one during the exam. But it is three hours and some people do. In an exam center, you are allowed to go to the bathroom. It counts against your time, but you can go.

No writing

You aren’t allowed to write anything down. At the exam center, you can trace variables, write down questions to go back to etc. You have to return the paper at the end. Since this can’t be done at home, I understand why they can’t let you write anything down. However, I think it would be really hard to take a Java cert without writing anything down.

My thoughts

While I can’t do this, I think it is a good option for folks who have more space and/or live further away from a testing center. The not writing things down limitation would be hard though!

Announcing new Java 11 OCP Books!

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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 that we are releasing Java 11 OCP books early next year. Yes, you heard that right, books plural, as in more than one! In fact, we’ll be releasing two new books, along with a complete set edition.

We’ll post links where you can preorder the books as soon as they are available!

These books have been carefully written and include the most important information you need to know for the Java 11 OCP exams. While we are quite proud of our Java 8 books, there’s a lot of new material required for the exams including modules, var, and custom annotations just to name a few.

If you’re thinking of taking the new exams prior to the books’ release, we recommend reading our posts detailing our experiences taking the exams:

In short, if you’re comparing the first exam (1Z0-815) to the older OCA 8 (1Z0-808) exam, don’t. They are quite different and the difficulty level has definitely been increased. We expect both books to be available in early 2020. In fact, we’re nearly done writing the first book already!