EVERYTHING I expected, thanks to the INVALUABLE input from fellow Ranchers.
My preparation went as follows:
Marcus (before JQ+, test#2:57%,60%; after JQ+, test#1: 77%)
JQ+ (after 14 standard tests, last three random tests, in order: 70%,65%,71%)
RulesRoundup: 100% (every day for past 5 days)
Books: RHE
Looking at my above scores, I'm not surprised with my final score.
I have been toying with
Java for the past year or so (been desiring to get into it for some 4 years now).
Over the summer, I ripped apart a
JSP project from "Web Development with Java Server Pages", Fields/Kolb, and put it back together, customizing it for a personal project. Put it on the shelf and kind of went dry for a couple of months.
I seriously starting preparing for the exam exactly one month ago, using RHE and other fine resources from this site.
I obtained JQ+ two weeks ago. Looking back, I wish I could have obtained this product several months ago, maybe my score would be higher - but, hey, they lived up to their guarantee - I passed! It revealed my weak areas and allowed me to zero in.
The company I work for will be undertaking a huge project in the coming months: Converting major sections of a Lotus Notes/Domino application to a relational back-end database (possible Websphere/Oracle combination). Looking forward to that.
About the content of the exam: Check out this
link. Shivaji breaks it down well.
Shivaji describes my exam precisely. Yeah, I/O and threads all over the place. I got the ONE GridBagLayout too. All things considered, No walk in the park for me this time around.
Tips:
You'll hear this one all the time - Write and compile code (at least small snippets) - it works! Cut and paste is your friend. It clears the fog. Mocks - do 'em. As many as you can. I wish I could have ... trains the eye. Get a good grasp of each objective before jumping into the mocks. I hadn't finished RHE before I started taking the mocks - a LOT backwards. I was attempting a parallel effort. I crammed hard for this. My goal with any certification is to open my eyes to various facets of the topic at hand. Allow me to see what the possibilities are, instead of focusing solely on one aspect - and then proceed in an informed manner.
Looking forward to enhancing what I've learned thus far and SCWCD ... thanks, again, folks.
ciao,
Congratulation !
