failed OCA Java 1Z0-808

Hi All,

I am new on this forum and I have used this place to reference ideas and research. Thank you all for good responses on the topic of Java.

I also work with java on a daily bases for my current job.

I decided to go for the Oracle exam and used  the OCA: Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer I Study Guide: Exam 1Z0-808 - Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff as my study guide. I read the guide many times and even did all the examples. I did this for few months.

To my surprise the exam was crazy and I was totally amazed on the questions that was asked. I thought to myself they are intending people to fail since the time is also limited 150mins for 80 questions. Some questions and stuff asked are not relevant to everyday java programming. In a nutshell it was a total nightmare.

I end up getting 47% and I almost cried.

I really don't know what to do since I really studied well for this exam and sacrificed my family time studying.

I really need to know what should I do?

Please can someone advise me and also where can I get free practice exams similar to the OCA exam. I also can not avoid to waste any more money or money on the practice exams.

thank you very much.
regards
Kyle

Maybe you need to try it again. Practice some tests and discover the part of your weakness.

that kind of exams does not check your skill, they test your knowledge with some silly questions which never might be seen in real development processes.

Hi, Thank you for you response.

I also want to know what is enthuware, it this a free practice exam and where can I find it?

I thought I was ready for this OCA exam but I was so wrong.

Of course the very good simulator Entuware, very low cost, (9.99$ or 19.99$), and more than 8 free test with very good explanation.

Without Entuware I would have failed.

With it I obtained 93%.

kyle zefman wrote:Hi, Thank you for you response.

I also want to know what is enthuware, it this a free practice exam and where can I find it?

I thought I was ready for this OCA exam but I was so wrong.

You may check out http://enthuware.com for more details. It is not free but is very reasonably priced at $9.95.

thank you,
Paul.

Hello Paul,

Thank you for this information. Is this very safe to insert credit card information and so forth? I did these type of stuff in the past and I was scammed for my money and never did them before.
I am from South Africa, how much will it be does the exchange rates terms and conditions apply based on the value of the Rand?

Thank you.

I paid 4 products ( = 4 times) oca 7, ocp 7, ocejwcd and ocp 8 with my credit card and I never had problem.

... from France in €uro currency

Hi kyle,

Have a cow for the hard day you had and for posting other experience.

Now, let's start from essentials. First! You are one of the very few who post unsuccessfull story.
That means, there is nothing excotically strange about that - I trust there are tons of people who fail, just don't post those stories here.
However we have seen some stories when people failed and later came back on the track and passed it - that is nothing excotical too.

Look how many times sportsman's, olympic champions training during the days, years, decades and when the day comes - they lose. Similarly to you.

The main thing personally I identify from people as a main reason for hard experience - is uncontrollable urge to become certified.
Don't rush, let certification preparation practice become natural thing you do on daily basis - that could be simply reading 5 posts a day in certification forum here on Ranch.

Have you ever seen "The Shawshank Redemption" movie? The guy (Morgan Freeman) was asking to release him from a jail for a lately good behaviour - he wasn't successfull in that as he really really wanted that.
Then, after few years of asking regularly, he been called to speak with commision again, and he said (rephrasing) - "you know son, leave that thing for yourself, I don't need that anymore..." and he has been released

Similarly here, standard things happen, want that certificate a lot -> start worrying before you sit how is going to be -> what is going to happen if you don't pass -> thinking if you won't run out of time -> thinking how the certification software will look like -> once you identify one of those things "happening", you start thinking "i knew it it is going to happen.." -> and that is it, lost control, lost game.

Just don't worry about it. Steps:
1. Read book, from start to end
2. Do some mock tests
3. Read chapters again where you messed up on mock tests
4. Do some tests again
5. Done

Nothing exotical, right? All people do similarly.

Hi Liutauras Vilda,

You made my day thanks for the motivation and I will never give up!

By the way "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Stand and Deliver" one of my best motivational movies.

I see a lot of of recommended books and the one that I have read is OCA: Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer I Study Guide: Exam 1Z0-808 - Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff.

Which others are excellent books?

I heard of the below are good book, do you think I should purchase them or should I just stick with the current book that I have and master all the concepts?

OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Certification Guide Book by Mala Gupta
A Programmer's Guide to Java SE 8 Oracle Certified Associate (OCA) Book by Khalid Azim Mughal and Rolf W. Rasmussen

Thank you.

Both books are good and popular among candidates.

As I said, don't worry too much, give yourself some time. Exam after all isn't easy, at all - and yes, the code there doesn't look similarly to what you see on daily basis, especially indentation. Only that can confuse enough in order to help you mess up with each and every question. So, in order not to let that happen, you need to work a bit on mock exams, so your eye would get trained on that bad indentation and formatting.

Nothing dramatically bad happened, think along the lines, that you could fail even second time. You know, don't go with a feeling "I hope I'll hold certificate in 3 hours time.." so it could lead you to dissapointment. Just go for a fun challenge.

Good luck. By the way, don't forget to inform us once you pass - don't rush

Thank you very much I will take your words of wisdom. I will study at a slow and steady pace.
I also want to know, does anyone know is OCA a prerequisite to the OCP exam?
In few interviews they ask for OCP and WebServices.

Thank you.

kyle zefman wrote:I end up getting 47% and I almost cried.

Sorry to hear you have failed the OCAJP7 exam.

kyle zefman wrote:I really don't know what to do since I really studied well for this exam and sacrificed my family time studying.

I really need to know what should I do?

Please can someone advise me and also where can I get free practice exams similar to the OCA exam. I also can not avoid to waste any more money or money on the practice exams.

In the OcajpFaq (besides other very useful information) and this thread you'll find an overview of all available (free and commercial) resources (study guides, mock exams, video courses,...) to thorougly prepare yourself for the certification exam. And on the OcajpWallOfFame you'll find plenty of (links to) experiences from other ranchers (including resources they have used). So it can be useful to determine which resources are useful (and which are not).

If you use the search function, you'll find plenty of topics with advice to prepare (and ace) the OCA exam. Here are a few:

Studying so hard just to fail(1z0-808)

Failing Java SE 8 Programmer I

Bad Experience with OCA 7 exams

Any tricks about how to manage the 120 min for so many question?

second failed OCAJP

Need some advice after failing the exam

Hope it helps!
Kind regards,
Roel

Sucks to hear.  I guess just memorize that whole book and then maybe you can pass.  Are those tests really that hard or are you a real beginner?

kyle zefman wrote:I also want to know, does anyone know is OCA a prerequisite to the OCP exam?

Yes it is. And sorry to be discouraging, but the OCP is harder than the OCA.

You'll get there. Just be prepared that it isn't easy!

Why it seems as OCA exam goes far beyond the OCA prep books will ever teach you?
I have to juggle so many books just prepare far beyond the scope of the exam. Not to mention psychological mind-bending tactics in hidden in the mock tests.