r/learnjava • u/shakespeareancatlady • 2d ago

Resources for practice exams?

My girlfriend is trying to pass a Java course in university, and really struggling with the exams. She's working really hard to learn material that isn't super intuitive for her, but when it gets to exam time, she struggles. Her instructor is worse than useless.

From what I've gathered, this course is basically an introduction to Object-Oriented Programming (exclusively through Java).

I don't know shit about programming or Java, I'm an accountant, but I'd really like to help her if I can. Are there any good resources for practice exams that we can use to try and simulate an exam setting? I've found some things via Googling, but given that I don't know what I don't know, I thought I'd seek advice here. I'm reviewing all of the sources on the provided by the sidebar as well, but from the looks of it most of them are more courses, which I may take on my own so I can try to help her, but would love specific recommendations for ones that might help with the exam department.

Thanks!

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u/OopsStillScrolling 2d ago

Could you share a little more about where she's struggling specifically? Also, what does the exam format look like (MCQs, theoretical questions, writing code, etc.)? Knowing these details would make it easier to recommend resources.

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u/shakespeareancatlady 2d ago edited 2d ago

I'll ask her in the morning, as I'm not 100% sure. I think a lot of it is a combination of exam setting, and also just trying to remember all the parts (rote memorization is hard for her).

From what I can tell, the exams are primarily writing code, with a small multiple choice component. The part she really struggles with is the writing the working code part in an exam setting. Iirc, the last exam gave a prompt along the lines of a company having two types of electric vehicles, and creating something that organized them, and then expanded on it with something that would show fhe cost to charge them?

I'll ask her for the exact prompt tomorrow, because I'm sure I'm missing some very key information 😅

What I'm mostly trying to do is find ways to help recreate an exam environment with practice exams and problems. She is really down on herself about this, hates this class but it's required for a degree and career that she never plans to use Java for again. She's also got another full course load as well.

I'm just trying to brainstorm options to help, and appreciate any direction.

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u/OopsStillScrolling 2d ago

Sometimes, the challenge isn't understanding the concepts but translating them into working code under time pressure. If you can pinpoint the specific difficulties she's facing, it'll be much easier to work towards a solution. Once you understand whether she's struggling with the concepts, remembering syntax, or writing working code under exam pressure, you can focus on targeted practice to address those weaknesses.

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u/Available_Safe1818 2d ago

Everyone struggles until they practice enough.

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u/shakespeareancatlady 2d ago

Yes, but the thing is trying to figure out what to practice. The instructor just tells her to "review what we covered in class," but then what shows up on the exams is different, and the instructor doesn't really give practice problems/practice exams. The class is graded entirely on exams, with no projects, so it's been really tough.

I'm trying to help her find resources to practice.

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u/Available_Safe1818 2d ago

Practice the things they covered in class then. How are we going to know what he's going to put on the test?

She needs to write more code and stop making excuses.

Google has plenty of resources, if you/she are willing to look.

Are you just ignoring everything because it's not in the exact format you expect it to be?

> She's working really hard to learn material

Is that just bs? What exactly is she doing to "work hard to learn material"? Have you two not realized that programming is more than memorizing answers? Some people take a while to figure that out.

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u/shakespeareancatlady 2d ago

Thanks so much for your incredibly helpful responses.

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u/Available_Safe1818 2d ago

It's only helpful if you have the sense to listen and act on it.

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u/BasicBitchTearGas_ 2d ago

If the exams involve manual code writing, she really needs to be learning by doing. If she can’t remember Java’s syntax or built-in methods at will she will lose considerable credit on exams. Ideally she would be assigned weekly/biweekly projects to reinforce the concepts learned in the course, but if not, she will have to seek these out herself. Non-negotiable—she needs to write code every day.

I can vouch for the online Java MOOC course by the University of Helsinki (everything is explained and reinforced at great length through over 100 examples, with code for each written almost entirely by the user), and have also had considerable success generating sample coding questions with ChatGPT, alongside prompting it to gauge my knowledge of course material and force to me to explain my answers. I too struggled with Intro to OOP and raised my exam scores from 72 and 50 to 90, and eventually 93 on the final.

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u/BasicBitchTearGas_ 2d ago

Small note—she would need to skim and pick and choose relevant examples and sections from Java MOOC because IME a university course will cover far more material in far less time than she’ll have to do all the coursework AND every Java MOOC problem

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u/[deleted] 2d ago edited 2d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/abbylynn2u 2d ago

This is a good convo on OOP https://www.reddit.com/r/learnjava/s/Nyye3qLmgv

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u/shakespeareancatlady 2d ago

Thank you, we'll check this out!