CertPal

Once again Sun has managed to miss the dead line for the SCJP Pus Beta certification. Last year Sun made an attempt to launch SCJP Plus but decided to delay it until JDK7 was launched. The SCJP plus BETA page has hence been changed to reflect the new BETA dates.

The new certification was supposed to change the way candidates took the exam by allowing them to code their way into earning their certificate. No more would the exam be served as one that has 100% multiple choice questions. Had the launch been a success candidates would have been confronted with coding problems, drag and drop questions and a reduced number of multiple choice questions.

The dead line to pick the candidates was February the 15th. That has been missed since none of the candidates were sent an email telling them about the status of their BETA exam. The exam was supposed to be launched by March 1st. This date has also been missed.

The BETA page was updated since last year to include more details. The BETA exam contains 9 coding problems and several drag and drop questions sprinkled with some multiple choice questions. The time allocated to finish the entire thing is 6 hours Of course the real exam would not have 9 problems and allocate each candidate 6 hours. BETA exams try to drill candidates and then decide how easy / tough the exam is based on how much everyone scores. The pass % is also decided based on the BETA test.

Given that BETA exams are underway for some Oracle certifications it is unclear why Sun is lagging behind. Previous BETAs held by Sun have not dragged on for this long and the dates were always honored.

Whatever the reasons for the delay, I hope Sun / Oracle manage to launch the updated training / certification agenda successfully next time.