Common Questions and Complaints, and Some Answers

Over the years, we’ve heard a lot of questions and complaints from candidates. Here are some of the most common concerns we hear, and (we hope) some decent answers.

Why Is the Code Formatting so Terrible?

Remember, when you go to a test center to take the official test, you’re going to a center that more or less has to be replicated on a world-wide basis. In other words, the hardware and test engine you use is more or less the same as you would discover in any test center in the world. That means your computer monitor probably won’t be a high-resolution monitor, and you may have to scroll up and down to see all the code you need to review for a given question. That’s life. In order to minimize the pain associated with low-res monitors, the exam creators often jam a LOT of code into small spaces. So when you see code like this

         3. public class VLA implements Comparator<VLA> {
         4.   int dishSize;
         5.   public static void main(String[] args) {
         6.     VLA[] va = {new VLA(40), new VLA(200), new VLA(60)};
         7.     for(VLA v: va) System.out.print(v.dishSize + " ");
         8. } }

understand that the exam team knew this was horrible formatting (and not an example of “best practices coding”). They were trying to help you do less scrolling.

Why Is There so Much Memorization?

Let’s break this question down into two parts: the API and the language.

API Memorization

We often hear programmers say, “In the real world, when I have to use something from the API, I’m going to look it up anyway, rather than just trust my memory. So why do I have to memorize API stuff for the exam?”

A couple of reasons. First, an OCP Java SE 6 Programmer should know how to use the API in general. Second, if you’ve studied the commonly used packages in the API, you’ll remember their basic capabilities even if you don’t remember the exact details. This knowledge will make you a much better programmer. For instance, when we wrote this book, we had forgotten some of the API details that we needed to write the questions. However, we remembered where the “gotchas” were, and we knew what basic capabilities existed, so we were able to use the APIs quickly. That’s part of being an OCP Java SE 6 Programmer and part of being a good programmer.

Language Memorization

We hear similar complaints about having to memorize language details. You should know that in the current version(s) of the exam, great care was taken to remove questions that focused on seldom-used “corner cases” in the language. The exam team’s strategy was to write questions that test the kinds of constructs you’re likely to encounter in the real world when looking at someone else’s code. The second reason is similar to the API discussion. You might not, for instance, remember the exact syntax for using a switch statement, but you will remember its capabilities—and when it’s the right tool to use, you’ll be able to use it quickly and correctly. The bottom line is this: after studying for this exam, you will be a better Java programmer, and you will use the language more like it was intended.