• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • paul wheaton
  • Rob Spoor
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Tim Holloway
  • Carey Brown
  • Frits Walraven
  • Tim Moores
Bartenders:
  • Mikalai Zaikin

passed 486

 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 578
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi ranchers,
passed 486 with 70% yesterday !!! Not a great score but More than happy to pass.
I had prepared for the exam using craig larmans and martin fowlers book. I had also used whizlabs software. Of course, knew abt teh resources and other hints for taking the exam from fellow ranchers

Lack of experience was a big hindrance for the exam . But It has been a wonderful experience learning more abt Object Oriented Analysis and Design.
Came to know a lot of topics including the rational Unified process.
Looking back at the messy code I had developed (what I had done in my academics ), I realised how efficient I could have made the same code !!!
going to take SCJD, to apply the skills I have learnt
I am sure that it will help me once I get a job !!!
Good luck for anyone taking teh exam .. Excellent Exam
Hari
[ March 10, 2004: Message edited by: Hari Vignesh Padmanaban ]
[ March 10, 2004: Message edited by: Hari Vignesh Padmanaban ]
[ March 10, 2004: Message edited by: Hari Vignesh Padmanaban ]
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 350
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Originally posted by Hari Vignesh Padmanaban:
Hi ranchers,
passed 486 with 70% yesterday !!! Not a great score but More than happy to pass.
I had prepared for the exam using craig larmans and martin fowlers book. I had also used whizlabs software. Of course, knew abt teh resources and other hints for taking the exam from fellow ranchers

Lack of experience was a big hindrance for the exam . But It has been a wonderful experience learning more abt Object Oriented Analysis and Design.
Came to know a lot of topics including the rational Unified process.
Looking back at the messy code I had developed (what I had done in my academics ), I realised how efficient I could have made the same code !!!
going to take SCJD, to apply the skills I have learnt
I am sure that it will help me once I get a job !!!
Good luck for anyone taking teh exam .. Excellent Exam
Hari


Congradulations.
Have you given anyother exams ?

v
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 498
Eclipse IDE Firefox Browser Fedora
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Congrats Hari
 
Hari Vignesh Padmanaban
Ranch Hand
Posts: 578
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Originally posted by Vivek Viswanathan:

Congradulations.
Have you given anyother exams ?

v


you mean certifications ?
In that case --> SCJP, SCWCD, SCBCD and XML
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 4982
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi Hari,
I think Vivek wanna ask you whether you take IBM 287 and 484.
Congrad!!!
Nick.
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 2166
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
congrats Hari
I liked that exam most too from the ibm enterprise dev certification.
Axel
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 697
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi Hari, Congrats
I am also planning to take the two IBM exams which you took -- 141, 486. Can you answer a couple of questions, please.
1. How long does it take to prepare for a.141 b.486? (Approximate number of hours/day for each one please)
2. Which books did you follow for each one as the main course?
I really appreciate your input. Thanks.
Good Luck on your next one
 
Hari Vignesh Padmanaban
Ranch Hand
Posts: 578
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Thank everyone :-)
Vivek,
I have not taken 287 or 486. Will mostly take them after scjd.
Satish,
I have given in detail the way I had prepared for teh exams
------------------------------------------------------------------
IBM 141 - XML and Related Technologies
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Preparation Time
----------------
The total time taken was 2 months.
Time for finding resources, hanging out with friends, movies - 1 month
EFFECIENT TIME - One month
2-3 hrs Everyday for 24 days
4-5 hrs for the last 6 days
BOOKS
-----
Three Books
1. Professional XML (MAIN BOOK)
Almost covers all parts of exam other than security.
Chapters 2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10, 11, 12, 16, 20, 24
2. Essential XML Quick Reference - Aaron Skonnard (Author), Martin Gudgin Covers all topics except security, XSL-FO, XQUERY
3. Processing XML with Java - Elliotte Rusty Harold
Chapters 6,7,8,9,10,11,12
Covers SAX, DOM - You dont need anyotehr book, tutorial if you go thro this book on these topics!!!
GET THIS BOOK!!!. It is the best book that I have read !!. The book is so interesting and informative. Apart from the certification it is an awsome book to add to your collection!!!
These were the only 3 books that I looked upon.
ONLINE CONTENT
--------------
Other than the books, the online tutorials and sites I referred to were
1. w3schools.org
An introduction to XML concepts including basic syntax, DTD, Schema, Xpath
THIS IS teh best site for XML Schema that I have come upon. In fact I found this equivalent (and more clearer) than XML schema explained in XML Professional and Esential XML
2. IBM Developer works
I refered to these sites for XML Security (teh very basics) and XSL-FO
If you do a search on teh developer web site in IBM, you will come up with these articles
Other good sites for articles and other related contents that I refered to were
Namespaces - http://www.rpbourret.com/xml/NamespacesFAQ.htm
Entities - http://tech.irt.org/articles/js212/#intro
Schema - http://vbxml.com/xml/articles/xsd/default.asp
XSLT - http://perfectxml.com/TipsXSLT.asp
Quizzes and Exams
-----------------
XSLT - perfectxml.com/Quiz/XSLTQuiz.ASP
XML - http://perfectxml.com/Quiz/XMLQuiz.ASP
XML - http://www.witscale.com/test141.html
XML - http://sys-con.com/xml/article.cfm?id=634
This site Gives a NICE explannation of what to really expect in the various sections in the exam and also has some example questions :-)
WHIZLAB
----------
I Had purchased Whizlabs exam simulator. It REALLY helped a lot in making me ready for what to except in teh real exams!!!.
BUt the mock exams were quite hard (The software gives you only 1 hr instead of 90 mins ). It really helped in getting myself prepared for teh exams. I didnt score very high on teh exams though I manged to clear them comfortably :-)
THE EXAM
--------
Well teh main exam was not as tougher as I had precieved it to be :-), Bou most of teh questions had ambigous answers(as far as I thought;-)) and during these times I used my common sense and elimination of wrong answers to come up with the right ones
there were no questions about security. 2 questions on SOAP, 2 on UDDI, lots on XSLT (u have to know the exact syntax of teh elemnts for cerating questions ..For Ex. what are teh attributes of teh xsl:variable elemnt ..
Questions on SAX and DOM (5-7) were takeaways :-)
2-4 Questions based on XSL - FO
5-6 questions based on SCHEMA
2 questions on DTD
Otehr questions were on chooosing one technology over teh other !!!
I did have 20 mins to go through my answers (Courtesy of whizlabs ;-))

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IBM 486 - OOA/D using UML
------------------------------------------------------------------------
preparation Time : 2 months

EFFECIENT TIME - One month
3-4 hrs Everyday for 24 days (these were not continous )
5-6 hrs for the last 6 days
BOOKS
-----
Three Books
1. Applying UML and patterns - Craig larman
Wonderful book !!! thi should be made as the mandatory text book for all OOAD classes taught in universities. Too bad I dint know abt it when I took OOAD
2. UMl Distilled - Martin Fowler
This book gives you a nice view abt UMl and is useful in interpreting UMl and knowing teh different UML diagrams
3. Design Patterns - Elemnts of reusable OO Software - GoF (Optional, but a good book to read !!!)
well I figured that, this is one book that is very essential if you want to know in detail about patterns. I was not able to go through teh entire book. Just went through the highlights of all the patterns (intent, applicability and structure)
would go through the implementation of teh patterns in teh forthcomming days
ONLINE CONTENT
--------------
Downloaded a lot of materials, from the yahoo group --> ooad_meda
They have a huge collection of notes for this exam. The notes for the larman book is especially useful for last minute Revision.

WhizLabs
--------
As mentioned by other people, I feel I would have been totally lost without whizlab. It really gives you a very good understanding about what to expect from the exam. The 5 exams (1 diagnostic, 3 practice, 1 final) really prepare you for the exam.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope this helps
Good luck
hari
 
Satish Avadhanam
Ranch Hand
Posts: 697
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Many Thanks Hari, that was a very detailed answer. Really appreciate it.
Thanks. BTW, saw your website, looks good.
Still looking for job? Me too Good Luck.
 
Hari Vignesh Padmanaban
Ranch Hand
Posts: 578
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Thanks !!!
yup still looking !!!
good luck to you also
 
Nicholas Cheung
Ranch Hand
Posts: 4982
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi Hari,


I have not taken 287 or 486. Will mostly take them after scjd


But the promotion is going to be ended by the end of March. You do not take the 2 exams?
Nick.
 
Hari Vignesh Padmanaban
Ranch Hand
Posts: 578
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
hi nicolas,
I am paying for all these exams .
I dont have any experince in any of the exams I take and so its taking me some time to absorb teh new concepts and technologies :roll: ..and moreover I thought that I would try to learn them in depth as much as possible ..which does place an infinite timeline
of course, would have loved to takem them @10 dollars each !!! but that would have placed a time constraint and I would not have been able to cover all teh topics in Depth !!!
I could have taken the promotional exam for XML ..but I had already purchased the vexam before teh promotion came out
hope IBm comes out with a promotional offer like this next year ..looking forward to that
good luck with your exams u have a long list !!!
hari
 
Greenhorn
Posts: 20
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Congrats Hari. I have roughly 3 yrs of design experience using j2ee technologies. How much time will i be reqired to pass test 486?
-Shalbha
 
Hari Vignesh Padmanaban
Ranch Hand
Posts: 578
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hi Shalbha,
2-3 weeks or 2 weeks !!!
Experience rocks as far as this exam is concerned !!!
As long as you have good design experience, especially in projects involving the Unified Process, You would just have to go for the drilling part (taking teh exams and revising topics learnt long time back !!! ).
I am not usre if you have read larmans book (I bet you have :roll: )
That is ABSOLUTELY necessary for the exam !!! If you are familiar with the concepts in the book, it will be a cake walk
Good luck !!!
 
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic