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Passed SCJD 356/400

 
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I passed the exam with the following scores:

This report shows the total number of points awarded for each section. The maximum number of points is 400, to pass you need a score of 320. Section Summary: Section Max Actual Points Points General Con: 100 87 Documentation: 70 65 OOD: 30 30 GUI: 40 33 Locking: 80 71 Data Store: 40 40 Network Server: 40 30 Total: 400 356

I'd like to thank Andrew Monkhouse, Peter Wooster, and everyone who has taken the time to answer my questions; and everyone who has posted and posts to the forum - everything I read on the forum was really useful.
[ November 15, 2004: Message edited by: Anton Golovin ]
 
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Congrats Anton.
 
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Congrats Anton! Time to sigh a breath of relief!

Could you please share some of your locking implementation details since you didn't get the feared 44/80.
 
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Originally posted by Anton Golovin:
I passed the exam ...!!!



Congratulations And good luck on your future endeavours.
 
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congradulations!!
finally the wait is over...
 
Anton Golovin
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Originally posted by Paul Bourdeaux:
Congrats Anton! Time to sigh a breath of relief!

Could you please share some of your locking implementation details since you didn't get the feared 44/80.



Hi, Paul. I was asked by someone close to the certification process not to expound in detail upon the locking issues before (because I could be wrong), and I was also asked not to share complete solutions by someone else (so I apologize for not being more detailed), but I think I can say this much, given the score I got for locking: the complete locking mechanism involves not only the lock-unlock construct working properly, but also the create method which must be written with data integrity in mind because in some special circumstances, depending on how you write your class, two different threads could potentially first create a new record and then overwrite it. Again, this situation depends on your choice for the implementation of the create method; however, it also shows that the create method could in some instances break the data integrity concept for which the locking mechanism exists in the first place... So, if lock-unlock and create work ok, I do think this should take care of the locking score...

However: My Data class was made thread-safe by making every public method of the DB implementation synchronized; this way, I really did not have to worry about other things which might break the locking mechanism... however, if one chooses not to make the Data class thread-safe, there may be other issues as well.

The reason I lost points in the locking score is probably due to the error I made of not checking if a record was deleted after - in the lock method - waiting for a locked record to be unlocked by another thread. The reason I did not do so was because I did not think it through, which was probably facilitated by the fact that the delete method was never really used in the implemented business code... A good test case to catch this omission would be calling a lock-delete-unlock and lock-update-unlock in the code by different threads; this way, if the lock method mishandles deleted records, it will be shown.
[ November 08, 2004: Message edited by: Anton Golovin ]
 
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Well done Anton. I'm happy that for you the waiting and worrying is over.

Where next? SCWCD or some time off from the certifications?

Steven
[ November 09, 2004: Message edited by: Steven Hoodless ]
 
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Congratulations Anton! What's next?

Thanks for your thoughts on locking. These should prove useful for a lot of fellow ranchers.

Wim

-----------

SCJP, SCJD (submitted), SCWCD (inprogress)
 
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Congratulations Anton

I am sitting my essay exam in a couple of hours' time.

Raj.
 
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Congratulations Anton!

How long did it take from upload until they graded your assignment?

My Data class was made thread-safe by making every public method of the DB implementation synchronized.



In a real world application the performance of this approach wont be that good. My Data class is also thread safe but i have choosen to only synchronize the code that really needs to be synchronized instead of all.
 
Anton Golovin
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Originally posted by Mike Vess:
Congratulations Anton!

How long did it take from upload until they graded your assignment?



In a real world application the performance of this approach wont be that good. My Data class is also thread safe but i have choosen to only synchronize the code that really needs to be synchronized instead of all.



Hi, Mike. It took about 5 weeks between submission and grading; usually it seems to go faster, but then, I did not use the logging feature, so I have no right to complain it took this time. On your second point, I agree with you 100%. Locking only the portions of the code which really need to be locked is better than choosing the easy way and making the whole class thread-safe; however, the testing seems to be about correctness, and performance is not an issue - so this simplification, while not a real life one, I would argue still works for this assignment, and saves some time.
[ November 09, 2004: Message edited by: Anton Golovin ]
 
Anton Golovin
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Originally posted by Steven Hoodless:
Well done Anton. I'm happy that for you the waiting and worrying is over.

Where next? SCWCD or some time off from the certifications?

Steven

[ November 09, 2004: Message edited by: Steven Hoodless ]



Hi, Steven. I thought - although I do not have the ability to spare the means right now (it's more than 500 dollars, I think) - to eventually go for the SCEA Certification. But this may sound too presumptuous, so I don't really know. Developer Exam was pretty hard, and SCEA should be harder, although in a different way. I will try to get the SCEA book and see what the material has; I also have the GoF book and the Java Patterns book.
 
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Congratulations Anton

I have moved this topic to the Sun Certification Results forum. You can now find this here.

Regards, Andrew
 
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Congrats Anton
 
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Congrats, Anton!

About whether to go for SCEA, I would question how likely I would be getting a position as an architect in the near future. If that goal is reachable, then go for it. Otherwise, getting SCBCD and SCWCD might be more realistic. Once you get a postion as a java developer, it becomes much easier to gain the needed experience and build up the background to eventually become an architect. Also, most companies reimburse the expenses on job related professional certifications. By then, you won't need to worry about paying for SCEA out of your own pocket.
 
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Hi Anton,
Congratulations to you...

daniel
 
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Congrats Anton !!
 
Anton Golovin
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Thanks, All!
 
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Congratulations ....



What NeXt ??
 
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Originally posted by Dilip Gamage:
Congratulations ....



What NeXt ??



Hi, Dilip. I am not sure what is next. On a remote chance, I will try to apply to different Java jobs. However, even with SCJD, it will be very difficult, even though I have proven I know Java very well, to get a job without actual experience. I will try to get certified as SCEA, since doing SCJD has made me aware of the use of patterns; but that requires a lot of study and its utility is as of yet unclear (who would really hire someone off the street who comes in and says I am a SCEA but I never wrote a line of paid Java code.)

So I am still considering my options. Currently I work in the title insurance business (licensed title agent) and perhaps I am thinking of going for a BS in Computer Science in the future. One thing is for certain: I have grossly misjudged my preference of a career when I went to study Economics...

So unfortunately I do not know what comes next exactly as of yet
 
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