This document provides tips for studying for and taking the Java 9 certification exam at a discounted rate as a beta exam. It outlines both pros and cons of taking the beta exam, including that it costs $50 instead of $245 but has a longer exam with more questions and potential errors. The document recommends creating a study plan by listing topics to learn and identifying tricky concepts, and optionally generating your own practice questions. It also provides examples of tricky topics in Java 8 streams and constructor references, and discusses using the new JShell tool included in Java 9 as part of the exam preparation.