Oracle certifications have traditionally followed a 14 day retake policy on failed certification attempts. With the transition from Sun to Oracle, all Oracle-branded Sun exams now follow Oracle’s retake policy which requires a 14-day wait before retaking a failed exam.
This retake policy of Oracle applies to the exams delivered at Pearson VUE, Prometric, and Oracle Testing Centers. However, there are some exceptions to this rule. Exams that do not follow this policy are exams 1Z0-007, 1Z0-051, 1Z0-200, 1Z0-204, 310-252 and 310-301. These non-proctored exams may be retaken at any time with no minimum wait period. Beta exams may not be taken more than once, and passed exams may not be taken more than once.
There is a major benefit to the policy adoption for Sun exams. In the past, Sun certification candidates were limited to three attempts per calendar year for a single Sun based certification. With Oracle’s policy, candidates are no longer limited to three attempts for Java, Oracle Solaris (Cluster), MySQL, NetBeans and OpenOffice.org exams.
A note about vouchers. According to the voucher policy, If you have a voucher tha allows a retake, schedule your first attempt well before 15 days prior to the voucher expiration. This will allow you sufficient time for another retake before the voucher expires.
Note: The voucher expiration date that was communicated in your voucher email supercedes the Registration Expiration Date communicated by Prometric in your exam registration confirmation email.
No exceptions will be made to the retake policy, and no replacement vouchers will be provided for candidates who do not allow enough time for the retake waiting period.
Click Oracle Retake Policy for more details.
Well, it’s nice that one needn’t wait a year if he/she fails a test more than three times. However, I’m still frustrated about the rate hike on Java tests. Under Sun, if you failed the first time, the retake exams only cost you $150 rather than $300. Giving you more attempts somehow doesn’t seem to make up for that.
On the other hand, if Oracle simply views this as another revenue stream (ridiculous, I know) then it makes perfect sense, at least from their point of view.
Andy, just in case anyone is curious, I did take the SCJP test once already and fail. I’m a bit miffed about having to shell out twice as much as I was expecting.
Cheers,
-Frustrated