I was contacted to make a review for the software provided by
uCertify to prepare many IT certifications. I've got a full version for the Sun certification CX310-065 SCJP 6.0.
First of all, you have to know that this software is a support for people who already know something about Java. If you are a complete novice, start studying the basics, and then prepare for the certification.
For me, the most helpful feature I've found have been the teorical content assoccated to the exam objectives. It wasn't easy to get to it, but when I did, I saw the light. This is perfect because you have all the notes in a printable interface and they are associated with concret exam objectives. To get to this feature, you have to click "Exam objectives", where you'll find the official list of them; there, click the top-right button "Go to objectives with notes" to expand all the notes by objective. I would add the feature of remarking important parts of the notes with a highligther.
If you don't like to study the notes because it is boring and not so practical, you can go through the tests in "Learn Mode" that allows you to make visible the question theorical note as feedbak while you are making the test. The program allows you to create custom test, feature I would add the option to create tests based on the dificulty of the questions. Perhaps this can be supplied by the adaptative tests, but I feel I would like to have a bit more control in the level of the questions I go through, to manage my study pace.
You can keep track of all your progress in the tests. I would add tracking on the time you spend studying the notes, with an estimation of the effort they needs depending on the difficulty, to evaluate my dedication to that subject.
The sofware is pretty intuitive. You will get used to it quickly. The only feature I couldn't find easily and I couldn't evaluate was the option "Discuss It". This feature must allow us to leave comments on test questions or on notes, share them with other users and read what other users had typed. I haven't found any comment from others, so I suppose this functionality is not used very much. As proposal, I would make an study of the real use of this feature; if it us widely used, I leave it as it is now, else, I would remove it and I would replace it by a standard centralized forum, instead of linking comments to specific contents. Please, if anybody finds a comment and finds it useful, please, share with us.
So, download the trial version an evaluate it by yourself. I think it could provide you with useful content and an way to auto-evaluate your progress to your certificacion. If you have interest in any specific point I could help with, don't hesitate to leave a comment.
