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passed today with 70%...

 
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Even though 70% is not what I expected to receive for this exam, I have to thank all who post to this group because without it I would never have realized what I was up against...
I thought I knew this topic inside out. I have heard everyone on this board say how difficult it was and they are not wrong. The difficulty of the exam seemed to be harder than any of the sample exams I have seen.
That said, it has been the most rewarding to pass..

For those interested, here is what I learned from:
Inside XML - Got the basics from this book but it was not good enough for this exam.
Professional XML (2nd ed.) - You MUST have this book. I read chapters 1 -> 5, 10, 11, 20, 24, 27
Professional XML Schemas - Highly recommended. I read chapters 1 -> 9
Inside XSLT - Excellent book for XSLT, good easy to understand examples throughout.
SAX2 - Java based SAX book.

Other stuff...
XML@Whiz - Could not have done it without these.
http://www.whizlabs.com/
ICE exam reference:
http://viktor99.virtualave.net/IBM141a.html
IBM article on security:
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/s-xmlsec.html
Some useful links:
http://www.javaranch.com/xml/XMLexamList.jsp
I didn't look much at this but it seems like it has some good stuff:
http://www.perfectxml.com/Certify/

Good luck to you all

Darren Kingham
MCSD, SCJP2, SCWCD,
IBM Certified Developer - XML & related technologies.
[ April 22, 2002: Message edited by: Darren Kingham ]
 
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Congratulations on a job well done! Hope to join the ranks soon.
 
Rancher
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Congrats!
How would you compare the difficulty of the real exam vs the sample exam out on ICE?
Thanks,
John
[ April 22, 2002: Message edited by: John Wetherbie ]
 
Darren Kingham
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Thanks for the replies.
I found the ICE exam to be quite a bit easier than the real thing.
I prepared a fair amount on DOM levels 1 & 2, but found that the exam expected DOM level 1 in detail while DOM level 2 was barely touched on. Also, they want good SAX2 knowledge (there was a question on the ParserAdapter class).
The architecture questions too were more difficult than ICE's questions.
And no questions from the ICE sample in my exam.
Hope that helps...

Darren Kingham
MCSD, SCJP2, SCWCD,
IBM Certified Developer - XML & related technologies.
 
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I dont know how long it took for you to cover all the books and get a real grip on XML - but would like you to let me know how much approx time is needed for prep ?
Many Thanks in advance.
Praveen
 
John Wetherbie
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Darren,
Thanks for the info. I was a little suspicious because I took the sample exam and missed passing by 1 question. Since I hadn't done any heavy studying yet this was a bit of a surprise based on the other certs I have obtained.
John
 
Darren Kingham
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Praveen,
To answer your question, I have no real world programming experience (any London based employers can get in touch ) and I studied this subject for about 2 months.
Regards,

Darren Kingham
MCSD, SCJP2, SCWCD,
IBM Certified Developer - XML & related technologies.
 
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Congrats Darren. Do you mostly develop with microsoft technologies or a little bit of java here and there? I'm looking into the .net cert for mcsd, as soon as i clear the xml cert, and wondering if you have any thoughts on that.
-Marlon
scjp,sjcd,scwcd
 
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Congrats !!!
wellll, any other exams in mind now ???
 
Darren Kingham
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Thanks Marlon, Senthil,
and to answer both at once, I am actually just starting to look for a devloper's job and up till now have just been studying. I have taken the qualifications listed so that I am not tied down to a particular technology before I start.
With reference to which exams I will do now, I am going to concentrate on the other Sun Java exams and jCert, with the IBM 486 (UML) exam the next one I will go for.
With reference to .net, I am choosing to go the Java route as it is so well established and seems a natural fit with XML. By the time I have finished these qualifications, .net will have more or less found it's place and I would rather judge then whether it's worth it rather than possibly waste alot of effort learning something in the hope it succeeds (even though it's hard to see it not doing so!!)
Regards,

Darren Kingham
MCSD, SCJP2, SCWCD,
IBM Certified Developer - XML & related technologies.
[ April 24, 2002: Message edited by: Darren Kingham ]
 
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Hi Darren
I have a question.I am preparing using Whizlab tool.
What do you think about the toughness of the actual exam questions as compared to that of the whizlab tool.Were the real exam questions tougher as compared to xml@whiz questions?
also I am preparing for the exam but feel quite scared as everybody says it is very tough.where as you said it wasn't as much felt little better to read that.
I will appreciate your answer for my question.Congratulation for being successful and I wish you the same for the future.
Dip
 
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While I think the WhizLabs XML practice exams are useful, they only cover part of the material on the exam, and I don't think the questions are as difficult as the ones on the real exam. For example, you need to know some details of the SAX and DOM APIs. These details are not really emphasized in the WhizLabs tests.
 
Darren Kingham
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Thanks Dip,
Regarding the Whizlab tool, I found it to greatly enhance my understanding of XML and it made up for my lack of programming experience, but I have to say the actual exam is a lot tougher than this. The type of question in the exam is from a less programmatic point of view than XML@Whiz and more about architecture... Unfortunately, this exam is as tough as everyone makes out!!
As Cleland says in his reply, SAX and DOM are important to know.
I would also recommend using the ICE sample test found on the IBM site:
http://www-1.ibm.com/certify/tests/sam141.shtml
And you may benefit with this (answers to the ICE test):
http://viktor99.virtualave.net/IBM141a.html
Good luck in your quest...

Darren Kingham
MCSD, SCJP2, SCWCD,
IBM Certified Developer - XML & related technologies.
 
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Congrats!
-Anitha
 
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