Hi Tom,
Congratulations
Can someone suggest which examination (SCWCD, SCBCD, SCDJWS, SCEA, SCMAD)should I take next?
Where do you want to go today, and more importantly, where do you want to go tomorrow?
If you love working on back end systems, then you might want to look at SCBCD and/or SCDJWS.
Conversely, if you prefer doing the user interfaces, you have SCWCD for web interfaces, and SCMAD for mobile.
If your real goal is to get out of development and into architecture, then SCEA is more suited to that. However it is a different stream than the programmer / developer certifications (which is why Sun have no prerequisites for it). You might want to consider why you are going for all the the developer certifications if you are also going for the architect certification (there are good reasons, but you will have to consider that for yourself).
I cannot find suitable books for the above named examinations, either because there are not any books for the subject or because the book is for an older version (e.g. 1.3). Can someone suggest any books, websites, or other materials that I can use to study for the above examinations?
Most of our certification forums have an associated FAQ. Go into the forum and search on the page for the
word FAQ - they are mostly in the same area on each forum, but sometimes people miss them. These FAQ usually contain information on books / websites / resources, as this is something that is frequently asked for
.
Have you looked at O'Reilly's "Head First" series of books by JavaRanch's own Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates (there are other authors on the individual books, but Kathy & Bert are the two constants). These books contain the correct information for the latest exams, are written by people who
really know the exams
and are written in a very user friendly format. You need to read a chapter of one of their books to make sure that you can handle the format (it is definately not your average "dry" technical book), but I can think of few books that would be better.
SCWCD: Head First Servlets & JSPSCBCD: Head First EJBSCEA: Head First Design PatternsSun Certified Enterprise Architect for J2EE Technology Study Guide by Mark Cade, Simon Roberts OK - that last one had nothing to do with Kathy & Bert
But it is correct for the current version of the SCEA exam. As the name suggests, it is a study guide (something to use as revision for the exam) - it is not something that you can use to learn how to be an architect. There are other books that
attempt to do that, but it really depends on your current level of experience. One thing that is important in SCEA is good knowledge of patterns, which is where Head First Design Patterns comes in.
Regards, Andrew