I wrote about my first attempt last Year and gave it a another try today, after preparing a lot throughout the last weeks, but not as much as I actually planned to. I made the decision in February and wanted to prepare 4 till 6 months on a daily basis.
That sounded comfortable to work through the whole Study Guide and get enough practice. But then life happened, things didn't worked out as planned and got delayed, so my training schedule for the OCP 11 went down to just a few weeks with ~2 till 3 hours a day.
My Score was 63%, which means 5% below the passing Score of 68%, so unfortunately the second attempt failed as well, but I scored 8% higher as last time.
I have to admit, first I was a little disappointed but then I realized how much I learned and improved my Java Skills since last year in areas like:
- JDBC API, Interfaces, Functional Interfaces, Sub- and Super-Classes, Abstract Classes, NIO2 File API, Streams, Collections, Comparator and Comparable Interfaces, Variable Scopes, Encapsulation
So my main goal, to getting better in Java, was actually achieved, even though without some icing on the cake by passing the Exam ;)
Based on the pure numbers, it doesn't seem like a huge step, but taking into account the massive amount of Exam Objectives and the mostly very complex Questions, I count it as huge step forward, especially under the circumstances that I'm not a full time Developer, it's one of my passions but just a small portion of my day-to-day job.
I started programming more than 20 years ago, classic with HTML, CSS and PHP4. Throughout the years I also got experience in Java and Python, I also played around with JavaScript and Golang, learned much about tools around development in general and the ecosystem of those languages. I'm able to understand Code and troubleshoot issues independent of the language, also implement fixes and modifications. I just get things done.
But I have the feeling that I never made it beyond mid-level Skills when it comes to pure Software Development. Also I never learned a programming language A to Z, always just what I needed, when I needed it. That's probably also one of the reasons why I jumped so deep into Java now, I wanted to learn some fundamental concepts in detail instead just scratching the surface.
In my opinion the best way to prepare for the Exam are the Mock Tests from enthuWare and the Java OCP 11 Developer Complete Study Guide, which I mentioned already last year but actually used myself this time. It's a massive Guide and at the beginning it feels overwhelming, but it's worth it to work through it.
Besides that I started using Hyperskill (Referral Link) a few months ago. If you already completed Java Programming - Mooc.fi, that could be a good next step to learn more but also stay motivated by working regularly at some of the projects. For sure you can do the same on your own, but I found it useful that I can just pick a Project and work on it instead making something up on my own. Hyperskill also provides guidance and hints, but leaves the actual implementation fully up to you, so it's about real programming and not blindely following a guide or ending up in the tutorial hell.
Most likely I will not try again to become a Oracle Certified Professional Java Developer very soon, getting certified would've been nice, but I have other things to focus on within the next months and even without passing the Exam, it was a valuable experience and I can definitely use knowledge I gained during the Preparation.