OCA: Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer I Study Guide: Exam 1Z0-808 (Sybex Study Guide)

The study guide for OCA was very well written and made digesting the information and preparing for the exam quite easy. And the online material supports it very well. If you read the book, do the exercises provided with each chapter, do the practice exams you should have a great foundation for taking the exam. I used the online tests and resources and thought it was tremendously helpful in making certain that I had a firm grasp of the material. The exam is very nitpicky and detail oriented, by doing the exercises and exams I felt confident taking the exam. And passed with no issue.

This was a great book which I used as the basis of study for my Oracle Java SE 8 Associate Certification which I passed with 90%. It’s easy to read, and has good code examples to demonstrate the various concepts. I read the book three times over the course of a couple of months in preparation. One important piece of advice : reading this book alone will not prepare you for the questions in the exam. It’s absolutely vital to take lots and lots of practice tests which can be found online at various sources. The questions are very tricky and the only way you will get good at answering them is by practicing lots of them. Also do some mock exams online which give you the same number of questions and time as the real exam as that will teach you to guage and manage your time well. So studying this book along with lots of exam practise and you will be all set to get your certification.

Having passed my OCA 8 exam at my first attempt I thought it appropriate that I should review this book briefly. This book did its job and primed me well for the exam. I Read it 3 times but skipped the test and review questions for each chapter due to the numerous errors. I also purchased the Kaplan self test suite. I feel the large number of errors stops this publication for being worthy of 5 stars they should put this right with further editions. The code examples would be better if they were layed out on one page, having to flick back and forth between pages was not helpful. All in all still a good book worth getting if you intend to do the certification just the errors let it down. I think the explanations throughout are concise and read well.

I'd read two Java books prior to buying this one (Java in easy steps, Java in 24 hours) and so far i'm halfway through. I'd definitely recommend reading an introductory book or two before this one. I found that knowing how a program is laid out and a lot of the features of the code was really useful for understanding this book and that where the previous books taught me how to build a specific program and useful bits of code, this book taught me about the rules and intricacies of the code I'd been using so that I could start creating my own programs from scratch and avoid or identify errors. The book is very well written and the questions do their very best to catch you out which really helps build your understanding of how the code actually works. Definitely recommended. And hopefully I'll be doing the exam soon.

First of first. It is true that this book is your one stop guide for the OCA exam. It is well written and teaches all you need to get the certificate. The practice exams that come with the book are also very good and accurate with the exam. (I would say the practice exams are slightly harder than the actual exam). The book is very well structured. But what I really like about this book is that it also teaches you about good programming practices.

Thus far I have read a good chunk of this book (up to chapter 4, plus skipped ahead to some later chapters for a look over) to get a good overview. The book is very well written, structured and as someone with programming experience, I feel like I am able to pick up the Java 8 terminology and it's quirks quickly enough. Having said that, I have noticed a few things that would stop me from giving this book a glorious recommendation to anyone who is just starting with Java in general, let alone Java 8. First issue that I have is that some subject areas don't feel very well explained. I was a bit confused with the section on immutability and didn't really understand why Strings were immutable. Luckily we have the internet and I could just Google it, but I feel it needed more explanation within the book that tries to teach you the fundamentals. It might be a bit picky, but it is a personal preference so take it with a pinch of salt. Also I do feel that some end of chapter questions feel like they have been plucked out of thin air to be purposefully difficult, so that you would have to read the explanation at the back of the book. The book does state that its questions and mock exams are more difficult than the ones found on the actual exam, but there are some questions that I have encountered which had no prior explanation. For example, one question on do-while loops had a "gotcha" that I had not been told about and made me feel a bit cheated. Again, it's a personal preference. But the biggest problem with this book is the sheer amount of typos and mistakes. I'm fortunate enough to notice a few inconsistencies in the code and text presented to spot them and account for them, but someone who is new to Java could easily overlook these mistakes and can take them to be fact. For instance, the book describes the method signature for toLowerCase() to be "String toLowerCase(String str)" when in actual fact the code example below it does not use the string parameter. I could go on an on with all the errors I have seen thus far, but I'll just say that this page [selikoff.net/java-oca-8-programmer-i-study-guide] so far highlights all the reported bugs and there are a fair few, some in the mock exams themselves. I read this book most of the time at my desk where I can keep the page open and double check if what I had spotted is an error or not. It is a bit of a bad experience reading and always being suspicious about what I am reading, but I already bought this book, so I might as well make the most of it. After finishing with this book, I will purchase the Enthuware software which has lots of mock exams to practice for the exam. I would recommend you do the same. So why have I given it 3 stars? Surely the typos alone shouldn't be worth the price of admission and I would say yes that is true. If you are new to programming and very very new to Java in general, I would not recommend this book. Having said that if you do come from another high level language, then this book in it's second or revised edition will be ideal for you. I personally cannot recommend other books because I had not come across any others myself, but a quick search on the internet does show other options. If you are still unsure, I would just go elsewhere.

Easy to read, contain all important tips for the test and great coding samples snippet. I really highly recommend this book for who are thinking to take a java certification.

Whether you've done a CS degree or not, this book helps to remind you/ teach you the fundamentals. Some really good questions. I would suggest that you take the examples provided in the book at try them out on your computer yourself. Its definitely the best way to learn programming and allows you to really understand what the authors are trying to teach.

I just passed my Java certification this year. I really used this book a lot. It has some small typo errors, but this is because it's the first edition published. Otherwise, I can see that this was written by developers, the examples are very clear and the errors thatmight arise because of bad code are really well organized and presented. Make the associated exercises in the book and buy also the package from internet and it will be ok. I cannot wait for the professional to appear in December

Excellent book and covers majority of the concepts in all areas through several cases. The best part is that every case has detailed explanation as such why the code behaves the way it does. Even the practice examples have answers which are very nicely explained. Also the exam tips at the end of the book is an additional value add. Thanks a lot Jeanne Boyarsky and Amazon for publishing and hosting this book!! Thanks and Regards, Ahir.

Product is same as description. But missed expected delivery date. I got it after 6 days of expected date.

Ich bin Azubi in Fachrichtung Anwendungsentwicklung im 2. Lehrjahr und habe dieses Buch zur Vorbereitung auf das erste OCA Zertifikat bestellt. Man liest einige Meinungen hier auf Amazon und merkt nur das man es nie allen rechtmachen kann. Manchen scheint das Buch zu knapp geschrieben und unvollständig, kann ja sein, dann lesen Sie doch bitte Java ist auch eine Insel...., manch anderer sagt es wäre zuviel drumrum und nicht kompakt, auch da kann ich nur dieses Inselbuch empfehlen um zu sehen das dem nicht so ist. Wenn man schon eine Programmiersprache kennengelernt hat und keinen 1000 Seiten Wälzer braucht wo noch einmal erklärt wird was der unterschied zwischen einer Variablen und einer Funktion ist, ist mit diesem Werk gut bedient. So ziemlich alles was man (zumindest für die Prüfung) braucht wird kurz, knapp und verständlich erläutert. Die Produkte von enthuware sind mir ebenfalls bekannt und diese wurden von mir auch zur Vorbereitung auf das OCA Examen benutzt und wenn man das Buch wirklich durchliest (nicht durchblättern, lesen) wird man jede Frage Problemlos richtig beantworten können. Das einzige was ich nicht so toll fand waren die Codebeispiele, die gerne am Ende der Seite anfangen sodass man hin und her blättern muss, ansonsten top!

Il libro per la certificazione Java OCA si è rivelato un'ottima risorsa per prepararmi al meglio per l'esame. Questa guida completa fornisce una panoramica dettagliata dei concetti fondamentali di Java e delle competenze richieste per superare con successo l'esame di certificazione. Una delle cose che ho apprezzato di più di questo libro è la sua struttura organizzata e intuitiva. Gli argomenti sono presentati in modo chiaro e progressivo, consentendo una comprensione graduale dei concetti. Ogni capitolo è accompagnato da esempi pratici e da una spiegazione dettagliata, che facilitano l'apprendimento e la memorizzazione delle informazioni chiave. Inoltre, il libro include numerosi esercizi e test di pratica che permettono di mettere in pratica ciò che si è appreso e di valutare il proprio livello di preparazione. Questa componente pratica è estremamente utile per sviluppare le competenze necessarie e acquisire confidenza nel risolvere problemi reali. Un altro punto di forza del libro è l'attenzione che viene data agli argomenti più importanti dell'esame. Gli autori si concentrano sugli argomenti chiave e offrono spiegazioni approfondite, consentendo di focalizzare lo studio sulle aree più rilevanti per l'esame. Infine, il libro è aggiornato alle ultime versioni di Java, garantendo che le informazioni presentate siano attuali e rilevanti per l'esame di certificazione. Questo è particolarmente importante, considerando la natura in continua evoluzione della programmazione Java. In conclusione, il libro per la certificazione Java OCA è una risorsa indispensabile per chiunque desideri ottenere la certificazione. Con la sua struttura ben organizzata, gli esempi pratici e i test di pratica, fornisce una preparazione completa e mirata per affrontare l'esame con successo. Consiglio vivamente questo libro a tutti coloro che desiderano consolidare le proprie competenze in Java e distinguersi come professionisti qualificati.