Passed IBM 486 with 86%

Greenhorn

Posts: 12

posted 21 years ago

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Here are my opinions about this exam.
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Exam difficulty: medium
Preparation time: 1 month
Time Required for test: 1 hour 30 minutes
My scores:
Section % of Test Score
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Development Process 13% 100%
Requirements Modeling 18% 90%
Architecture 13% 86%
Static Modeling 21% 83%
Dynamic Modeling 22% 100%
Design and Implementation Tech. 13% 43%
I know... I should review my knowledge about last section

But in my testing center there was such a lot noise I couldn't think clearly ....

Preparation Materials:
- Fowler, "UML Distilled" 2/e
- Gamma, "Design patterns - Elements of reusable Object-Oriented Software"
- Larman "Applying UML and Patterns" 2/e
- Notes on Larman by Ezequiel Cuellar (ObjectsByDesign)
Mock Exams:
- IBM's ICE site
- Whizlabs OOAD
- Tests of BParanj and CFV (ObjectsByDesign)

Some hints:
- Fowler's book is the Bible for this exam ( read at least two times the book and give a deep look at the Ezequiel Cuellar's notes to reach almost all you need to know for the exam ).
- Larman book contains really more details than necessary (on real exam I've not found any question about GRASP patterns or explicit reference to some concept like SSD or contracts, but maybe I was lucky :-) ). This book doesn't seem to be a must for this exam if you have not enough money to buy it, since all the information that can be useful has been reported on "Ezequiel Cuellar's notes"
- Design pattern are barely requested on real exam; you need only a basic knowledge on fundamental patterns (Gamma's book is not necessary but useful to reach a deeper understanding on the subject)
- I agree with Pawel Bobrow in saying exhibits are rarely useful since the solutions can be extracted directly from the text of questions
- I agree also with Theodore Casser in saying Whizlabs and ObjectByDesign tests are more difficult than the real exam.
Hope this helps.
Thanks you all to contribute to make really great and useful javaranch.
Sorry for my english