Dear All,
I have passed the
test on 3rd December. The score is 69.1 but considering the time spent for studying I am happy with the certification. I have never heard of few topics like XML-FO earlier, this certification helped
in knowing the technologies/options available in XML.
Previous experience in XML - I have implemented a messaging application using JAXB framework, there I was involved in creating the xml, schemas (used XML Spy to create schema from an XML)and familiar the xmls available in the
J2EE application.I had a some amount of idea about the structure of xml, schema etc before preparing for the exam.
Idea of writing the exam - I was preparing for the
Java WebServices exam, got J2EE webservices book by Richard Monson-Haefel for the same. Completed first few chapters, relaised that it covers few of the XML stuff,
read some posts in groups and have seen people suggests to do XML certification before the Web Services certification. Thought its worth having one more certification with out much effort
So, started preparing from 21st of November, started with collecting the materials by reading the experience of people who have passed this certification earlier (Berny, Sai, Subbu, Hari Vignesh Padmanaban).I need to complete this and Web Services Certification by Dec ( january I will be travelling to the US to take consultancy/contract job, thought these certifications might help me there
) ) i had only 2 weeks
for preparing XML certification. I could not read all the materials suggested by the people who are passed. I would suggest to read all the materials suggested by them to the people who are preparing this (sure u will get a nice score)
These are the materials I have used
1. Started with the three certification guides written by Pradeep Chopra and Hari Vignesh Padmanaban. Very good material, I think this helped me in understanding the various topics I need to study for the exam and for some topics like Security, Web Services, XLink, XPointer I have used only this material.
Thanks Pradeep and Hari.
2. Professional XML edition.
Must read book. Because of the time constraint I could not read all the chapters suggested. I have studied the following chapters
Chapter1
Chapter2
Chapter3
Chapter5
Chapter6
Chapter8
Chapter9
Chapter20
3. WHIZLABS - These days I buy this software whenever I think of a certification. I think it is worth for the money.
WHIZLAB Results
1) Diagnostic Exam - 21/57 (fail) 25/11/2005
2) Pratice Exam1 - 31/57 (fail) 28/11/2005
3) Practice Exam2 - 32/57 (fail) 29/11/2005
4) Practice Exam3 - 33/57 (pass) 30/11/2005
5) Final Exam - 32/57 (fail) 01/12/2005
I did not even get a passing score in these, I think the level of difficulty is slightly more in these. I have tried to read the answers and explanation given in these to see what went wrong, it was very useful though few answers created some confusion
4) Written all the mock exams given here.
http://www.javaranch.com/xml/XMLexamList.jsp and read few materials on XPATH, DTD from PerfectXML
(Please try reading all of the tutorials)
This was all about my preparation. Lucky me!!!
I did not have any issue with the time. The approach I followed was (courtesy WHIZLAB)Finish all the simple questions first (questions with only 1 line) - I took 20-30 minutes to do this. Then I started answering the questions I had left out earlier. After that I had 15minutes remaining and I have used it for reviewing all the questions.
Related to the questions : Few questions are tricky, please be careful
1) I did not get any question on Security
2)
Patterns 2 questions - Very simple questions
3) DOM and SAX - Must to know the difference and when it is used. I would suggest get the API and study the methods (not necessarily the signature) , DOM events etc.
4) Web Services - Simple Questions -
5) CSS and XML-FO - should know the difference and when it is used.
6) XPath / XSLT - Many questions
7) DTD/Schema - Many questions
8) XLink/ XPointer - 2 questions
9) There are quite number of scenario based questions, read the scenario and question carefully. Sometimes we miss the "NOT" comes in the question
Section wise Score
#Section#Questions#Correct
1. Architecture 10 9
2. Information Modelling 15 11
3. XML Processing 18 12
4. XML Rendering 6 3
5. Testing and Tuning 6 3
All the best for people who are preparing and thanks a lot to all the people who are contributing in this group. Now its for preparing the WebServiices Certification
Thanks
Mathew
Sun Certified Java2 Programmer - (May 2000)
IBM Certified Solution Developer (WAS3.0) - (Dec 2000)
Sun Certified Web Component Developer - (Oct 2004
Sun Certified Business Component Developer - (Jan 2005)
XML Ceritification - (Nov 2005)
