Beep Beep: Sun certification has changed

Hi Java Programmers and Enthusiasts,

Namaste from Sunit from India!

Effective September 1, 2010, all Java and other Sun related technologies' certifications have been re-published and re-branded under the Oracle Certification Program(OCP). At this time, only the titles of the certifications are changing. The exam formats and objectives will remain the same as they were under Sun. Certified folks remain unaffected and newbies will get Oracle certificates. Let us dig deep into this topic.

All Java and other Sun related technologies' certifications will continue to be available via Oracle's Certification Delivery Partner, Prometric. Visit

One great news!! Certification candidates no longer need to purchase vouchers to register for an exam. The process has been streamlined so you can simply register for an exam and pay for it with a credit card at prometric.com/oracle on September 1, 2010.

What Oracle website says:

Former Sun Certification Title	New Oracle Certification Title	Former Exam No.	Oracle Exam No.
Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) SE 6	Oracle Certified Professional, Java SE 6 Programmer	CX-310-065	1Z0-851
Sun Certified Java Developer (SCJD)	Oracle Certified Master, Java SE6 Developer	CX-310-027, CX-310-252A	1Z0-856, 1Z0-855

For more information on further certification and structure changes, click here or for a pdf download, click here.

Benefits of the Oracle Certification Program are Added Credibility, Great Job Opportunities, Open Line of Communication with Oracle and Access to the OCP Member Only Website.

Prometric experience

I visited the Prometric site(prometric.com/oracle) and found out the following:

1. One needs to register in order to book an appointment. Also if you have given any other Prometric organized exam like CAT, you can use the Prometric Testing ID from that exam in the course of the registration. Be careful while filing the security question and answer as there is no choice of questions available.
2. On Tuesdays from 4:00 – 5:00 PM at most test sites, Prometric offers candidates of some programs the opportunity to experience the test centre and to go through all of the testing procedures prior to test day. One will also be able to sit at a test work station and go through a 15 minute fake test allowing you to use the hardware and become familiar with the equipment and question types. For more information, click here.
3. The Sun Academic Initiative,212 exams are no longer available. This voucher is now valid for all 310 exams (Oracle).
4. I opted for the Oracle Certified Professional, Java SE 6 Programmer (SCJP) course. There is no option for U.K English so had to chose U.S English instead.
5. There is no option for payment in local currency. The cost amounts to $125 for this course.
6. 190 test sites are available in India. One more pain is that there is no test location search option so you need to parse all the 190 test sites to get to yours. What a waste of time. I was lucky and got mine in the fourth page. In Hyderabad, there are 7 locations in total (Banjara Hills, RTC X Roads, Ameerpet, Paradise, Gandhi Medical college, Ram kote and Gachibowli).

All the folks out there planning for a certification, all the very best.

Sunit Ronnie Ghosh,
India.