Amazon.com: Customer reviews: OCA: Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer I Study Guide: Exam 1Z0-808

Top positive review

Passed Exam with 90%

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2017

This book helped me pass the 1Z0-808 test with a 90% grade. I am an experienced C++/C# software engineer, with a limited Java background. My goal in taking the test was to improve my understanding of core Java. I set the goal of taking the exam before the end of 2016 (two months after purchasing this book). This kept me motivated to study and I learned a lot more than I expected to. Most developers having a OO background in another language will easily pick up Java, but there are quiet a few details to the language that are easy to gloss over and separate a good Java developer from an average one in my opinion. The exam and in particular this book help very much in that regard. Thanks to the authors!

After passing the exam, I immediately purchased the book for the next exam 1Z0-809. The material in this one is a lot more interesting working with lambdas, streams, threads etc.., although I hear the exam is much more difficult (I will find out soon enough).

Highly recommended for studying for the exam or just learning core java.

12 people found this helpful

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B-Dub

Don't use this book as your only reference for the real test

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2019

OK. The Java SE 8 Prog. 1 study guide is a decent book but not 4 stars worthy. Please do yourself a favor and get "Java - The Complete Reference Ninth Edition" by Herbert Schildt to help you study for the cert test. The reason for this is because the OCA book does not completely explain certain concepts that the end of the chapter review quiz will ask you. For example in Chap. 6, on exceptions page 307, the book talks about Try Catch Finally code blocks and tells you that a try block cannot be declared by itself and needs a clause after it but fails to mention what clause is required if there is no clause listed. But in the chapter 6 review quiz question 3 asks you explicitly when are you required to use a Finally block and the section on this topic never says explicitly when. I found that issues like this are present throughout almost the entire book and because of this you cannot rely on this book alone get a passing score on the cert test. As a disclaimer, I do not claim to be an expert programmer however I do have both a degree in Computer Science and Information Systems and started coding in Java back in Java 2 in 2004, so I feel that my opinion on this matter has some credence. If you're serious about passing the Java cert test using only this book won't get you there.

19 people found this helpful

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B-Dub

Don't use this book as your only reference for the real test

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

19 people found this helpful

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Daniel J Mobley

Passed Exam with 90%

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

12 people found this helpful

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Philip G Koshy

Passed with an 85% using only this book.

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2015

Verified Purchase

I passed the exam this morning with an 85% using only this book (and its online practice questions/exams). Despite having a few years of Java development under my belt, I still had to read the book twice to capture all the material. I highly recommend it. I will be purchasing the OCP study guide from the same authors as soon as it becomes available in the next few weeks.

It might also be worth mentioning that I purchased the Kindle version of the book. I had an issue on my Kindle Paperwhite where one of the tables was cut off (due to a lack of screen real estate) - not a huge deal honestly.

Good luck with the exam.

6 people found this helpful

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C dub

Head to Oracle and Enthuware for better study/learning tools

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

I read about 75% of this book and felt that it focused too much on gotchas and edge cases - the 77 question exam is tricky but Oracle also needs to know you can do regular Java, too. Also as of today, the list of errata on the book's website [...] is over 130 (not very confidence inspiring nor professional).

I think Oracle's Java trails lessons [...] will give you enough foundational Java knowledge to pass this exam, and you'll get more out of it as a programmer than reading this. I put down the book and addressed my weakest sections (classes, interfaces, and inheritance) on the trails, and in the course of going through them, found I was able to reason through the tricky scenarios just fine.

A quick Google search for "OCA 8 topics" takes you to Oracle's site so that you can focus your studying. Just skimming the Java trails sections, I'd recommend these:
* Getting Started => all of it
* Learning the Java Language => all of it
* Essential Java Classes => Exceptions
* Collections => Introduction, Interfaces/List interfaces, Implementations/List implementations
* Date Time API's

I supplemented my studying with Enthuware's mock exams[...]. The questions are pretty tough, but the explanations are great, and you get a feel for the areas you need to brush up on. They're only $10, and you get 8 full length exams plus a myriad of other exam options (most missed questions, questions by topic, etc.). And, folks seem to score much higher on the real OCA than these mock exams [...], which is a good confidence booster going into exam day. (I did, too.)

I think my friends had a lot of good things to say about the Sierra and Bates OCA 7 book. I could see going through that guide and then hitting Oracle's tutorials for the new features in Java 8, e.g. lambda's/functional interfaces, the Date Time API, default and static methods in interfaces.

A little context on the reviewer: I'm not new to programming Java - I've been coding enterprise Java for a few years, and my idea of quality Java/tech books are Effective Java (by Joshua Bloch), Spring in Action (by Craig Walls), and Programming Groovy 2 (by Venkat Subramaniam).

20 people found this helpful

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Martin Cortez

A very useful guide for a cornerstone certification

Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

The last time I took the Java Programmer's Certification was for Java 1.4. Autoboxing didn't exist yet, everybody was still using StringBuffers, and the certification was administered by Sun, not Oracle. 12 years later, I have a ton of practical Java experience, but I felt like it was time for a refresher course. Libraries and APIs are easy to look up on the fly (thanks Google!) and therefore not as important to memorize. However language fundamentals absolutely must be ingrained into the professional Java developer's mind.

This study guide reminded me very much of the guide I used for the 1.4 test (a guide that I was very happy with, but forget the name of.) This Java SE 8 guide focuses on the language fundamentals required by the certification, providing well-reasoned examples and very useful sample questions. The writing is very straight-forward and easy to understand.

I believe all Java developers should take this certification--not because the Programmer 1 certification itself is critical, but because:

1) the higher level certifications _are_ useful and this one is a prerequisite, and
2) knowing the basics of the Java language is what separates the so-so developers from the great developers.

37 people found this helpful

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Micheal

Honestly it's not a bad book, but be forewarned that there are examples ...

Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

Honestly it's not a bad book, but be forewarned that there are examples and information that are incorrect. I would normally have given it four stars, but I expected higher quality from a book that is here to help you have a certain baseline of training.

If you purchase the book you should bookmark/print out the errata sheet:
http://www.selikoff.net/java-oca-8-programmer-i-study-guide/

30 people found this helpful

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J. West

Passed 1Z0-808 with 92%

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2016

Verified Purchase

This book and EnthuWare mock exams are necessary for passing the exam.

The book is clearly written and uses effective code samples. It is direct without being dry. The chapter tests and online tests are necessary for learning and exam preparation. The chapter tests are in the book and online; however, the three practice exams are on the website and the website is a royal pain to use (blink too long and it times out--time out during a review of your answers and you cannot return to it). A PDF version of the book is NOT included.

I like this book enough to buy the OCP study guide from the same authors.

2 people found this helpful

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Oleg Klimenko

Absolutely clear study guide. No more reading is required ...

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2017

Verified Purchase

Absolutely clear study guide. No more reading is required. Contain test questions in the test and 3 mock exams on their site.

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Excellent study guide. Very well written!

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2015

Verified Purchase

Yes, there are some errata, but honestly the quality of the writing and explanations far outweighs the negatives of a few proof reading mistakes. The author has really thought creatively about how to structure the topics in the most easily accessible and understandable way, without cutting corners. I read the book about 4-5 times over a period of 12 weeks along with using the Sybex tests and Enthuware software. I have a busy life with two small children and very little spare time so really appreciated the quality and economical approach of the book. These were my only resources. Passed exam with 80% (I have about 4 years Java coding experience, with 8-9 years overall experience in Java based technologies within an IT consultancy role).

7 people found this helpful

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Dave

which I loved it. But later I decided to take Java ...

Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2017

Verified Purchase

Initially, I thought I will take OCA/OCP certification for java 7. So, I bought the book from Kathy Sierra, which I loved it. But later I decided to take Java 8 instead, but I couldn't find the book from Kathy Sierra, so, I end up buying this book. While I love this book as well, I find few errors already and I'm just in the 2nd chapter. Also, I find sometimes Author jumps around a lot explaining a stuff. For the person who is new to Java, this book is hard to follow. If you already know java then this is a good book to read for the test. I gave this book a 4 star even though there are errors and sometimes I felt the lack of clarity because this book is designed for certification purpose only and I feel that Author has done their job.

One person found this helpful

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