Jeanne’s 1Z0-829 experience

I passed the 1Z0-829 today. The exam page still says “coming soon” and Scott didn’t see the 829 in the list of choices when he looked last night. I think the exam “wasn’t quite ready” and they pulled it back. (or accidentally released it too early). I guess I got to take it because I was registered already. I saw 5-6 errata on the exam which I have reported to Oracle.

COVID logistics

When I took the 819, I was asked to remove my mask twice – once for an ID check and once for a photo. This time, those steps were combined, so I only had to remove my mask once.

I hadn’t been to this test center before. It was walking distance and well set up. I was a good distance from any other test takers. The only problem I had was that I was right next to the radiator. It would have been hot even without a mask on. With a mask, I was sweating.

Other logistics

I was given a marker and since sheet to write on. I was not given an eraser. I asked for a second sheet and was given it though. (I write a lot.) The man in front of me asked for a second marker because it had run out once. They were flexible.

Some time ago, you could right click answers to cross them out of consideration. This feature is not yet back.

Time management

My first pass of the exam took 65 minutes. I then spent a good while examining and memorizing the questions that I believe to have errata. I didn’t get a chance to go through and sanity check my answers because I was tracking errata. If I wasn’t a cert book author, I’d have focused on review and gotten a higher score.

Getting the score

I got my score right when I submitted. (68%). I didn’t get a printout. But I didn’t need one since I had seen the score. My details were available on certview as soon as I got home as well.

You might notice the passing score is also 68%. Why so low you ask? A few reasons

  • Some of the errata resulted in having to guess at the answer. For example a question saying to pick two correct answers had three correct answers. So i had to guess what the exam creators meant. (I have reported all of these to Oracle, there were a bunch)
  • I didn’t check my answers because I was dealing with the above.
  • A few questions were things I didn’t expect to be in scope. (They will be covered in the book.) This is one of the disadvantages of being a cert book author – you have to take the exam without a study guide.)

I felt way more confident about this exam than I did the 819 though. I like the question distribution better and I didn’t have a COVID lockdown cloud hanging over me.

Question Distribution

When taking an exam, you have to agree not to share what was on it. So no details about what was covered. Sharing the distribution of questions by objective is fair game though!

Note that this is approximate because of relying on memory. And also because some questions spanned objectives

Objective# Questions
Handing date, time, text, numeric and boolean valuesLots
Controlling Program FlowLots
Utilizing Java Object-Oriented ApproachLots
Handling Exceptions3-5
Working with Arrays and Collections4-6
Working with Streams and Lambda expressions4-6
Package and deploy Java code and use the Java Platform Module System4
Manage concurrent code execution4
Use Java I/O API4
Access databases using JDBC2
Implement Localization2

An important disclaimer about randomness

With only 50 questions, randomness is a bigger factor. This means you could easily not see questions on a topic. Or get more than someone else on another topic. Be careful as you read the experiences of people who have taken the exam. Just because they didn’t get a question on X doesn’t mean that you won’t! So you don’t get to skip studying topics.

9 thoughts on “Jeanne’s 1Z0-829 experience

  1. Dear Jeanne and Scott:
    I know I have asked this before, but I would like to re-ask now that Jeanne has passed the 1Z0-829 exam:
    Can you tell me if there is any consideration for the ones that passed the OCP 1Z0-819 before?
    I remember some benefits for the ones that passed the Java 8 exams when taking the OCP Java 11 (less questions, to be specific).
    It would be nice if Oracle maintains the same policy for this new exam (because, honestly, it took me a long time to review all the subjects and also, as I see it, it simply does not make sense to re-evaluate them).
    In any case, I will wait until your study guide is released in 2022 before taking the exam.
    Thank you in advance and hope you have a happy new year.

    Best regards,
    Nahuel

  2. @Nahuel: I don’t work for Oracle, but I wouldn’t expect an upgrade exam. Now that it is just one test, an upgrade isn’t less tests. (When the Java 11 exam was created it was two tests.)

    Also, there isn’t enough material new to Java 12-17 to warrant an upgrade exam.

  3. Hi Jeanne,

    How many questionsout of the 50 did you get on the new features between Java 11 and 17?

    Sealed Classes and Records
    Switch Expressions
    Pattern Matching
    Text Blocks

  4. Hello Jeanne Boyarsky.

    Why Scott did not take the exam as well?

    OR if he ttok, where Can I find the question distribuition done for scott?

    Thanks

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