Five Point Someone

Well I kind of started being passionate towards reading now. I finished reading this book in few hours spent over two days. It really feels great to finish a book in two days. While I was reading this book I felt that probably I should have read it during my college times, but alas this book was published in 2004 the year of my graduation. I myself being an under performer in my college days felt that the story resembled my college life to some extent. A quick outline about the story, below.

The life story of three friends Ryan Obroi, Alok Gupta & Hari Kumar in the IIT Delhi which happened around 2000 - 2004.

Ryan Obroi - He is always the dictator who decides whats to be done next. He loved his friends more than his family.
Hari Kumar - The narrator of this story, he always wants to be Ryan. Here he just agrees what ever Ryan says without much thinking. Hari also narrates the way he falls in love with Neha.
Alok Gupta - This boy will be left with no option but to agree with them after some sort of argument with Ryan each time. He always had too much responsibilities of taking care of his family which he loved too much.
Neha Cherian - One other important character, Hari's girl friend.

This story indicates that the education system in the IITs is similar to the system in any other Engineering college. With all the assignments, minors & the majors. All the way through their career they just keep trying to beat the system which just meant a crap to them. They keep trying to find different ways to escape the system. At one stage they realize that they will have to live with this system to come out of the IIT with the graduation, but by that time too much of damage has already been done to them. They were even about to be kicked out of the IIT once. But finally with a bit of luck, and their hard work towards the end and with the help of Prof. Veera they were able to make it. Hari's love with Neha has also been given an equal importance throughout the story but finally the Author didn't want to reveal what actually happened to it.

This is a cool story with no much twists & turns, I loved the way it was presented. A very easy reading. And now I am waiting to read my next book One night @ the call center by the same Author. Hope I carry on this habit of reading throughout my life.

Who Moved My Cheese

This is the first book which I have read after deciding to cultivate the habit of reading.

"Excellent !!!" That is the word which I will use to explain this book. This book motivated and inspired me a lot in various fronts. The author has put the message which he wanted to convey in a very simple and straight forward manner. At the same time he has taken care that the message will definitely reach the readers. This style of writing suited my taste well. I am happy to have started my reading habit with this book.

I have started to feel its effect on me the very moment I finished reading. I will classify this book as a must read for every individual. Find more details about this book, here.

SCJP Cleared

Well, it feels good to have cleared the SCJP after 15 days of preparation. These 15 days were really one of the strangest patch of days I have experienced. I stayed in the office not going home. Did not meet any of my friends. Just talked to couple of my friends over phone. I haven't been like this before.

The work in office during this period was also very high than ever before. So working till 9.30/10.30 pm and then preparing for the exam till mid night was the schedule which I was following. The days passed stressfully. I didn't get the confidence of clearing the exam at any point of time because the I knew 15 days of preparation will definitely not be sufficient. But I wanted to clear the exam at any cost so kept working hard in the available period of time leaving back all other worries.

As a final part of the preparation I just wanted to write some mock tests, which were available in my friends place. So I went there the day before the exam and wrote some three exams all of which I failed, this totally brought down my morale. I was almost sure that I am never going to clear the exam that moment. But, on the day of exam I went to the testing center keeping in mind to do the fundamentals correctly and not to worry about the tough ones. I sticked to this which helped me to get through.

Thanks to all my friends who backed me when ever I was feeling the pressure.

Few Tips (From my experience):

1. Prepare for the exam for a minimum of 3 month with good concentration.
2. Revise all the portions at least twice.
3. Take up mock tests 10 days before appearing for the exam, so that you will be able to find the sections where you are week and you will have time to revising it once more.
4. Use the study material for the SCJP 5.0 by Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates. Also study the important APIs from Java docs.
5. Take the test cool head, don't panic.

All the best - for all who take up the exam.