passed 141

[lydia westland]

Dear Ranchers,
I just passed the 141, with 65. it's not a decent score, but I am glad that I make it. on the way home, I was thinking how lucky I am. I made changes even in the last minute. Here are my experience:
I don't have XML experience before. and I prepared it from scratch, in about two months, usually studying at night and weekend. my preparation is not very efficient, since this topic is so broad and dry and I didn't do the hands-on XML projects. I should have written some code and test it. That'll give me a better idea.
studying material:
1. XML professional (not easy-reading )
2. XSLT (really good book)
3. Roger's Schema tutorial
4. XML@whiz (good)
5. some web articles
My architecture part gets 44%, reall low. But I did good on Processing and testing parts. I suggest to read more on web services. there are many ambiguous (ofcoz only to me ) questions in the exam and I don't know what it's asking about. Thank god, I finally make it.
I really appreciate the great help from friends here like Mapraputa Is, Danl Thompson and other nice gurus, and appreciate the valuable experience posted in this forum, which give me a lot of guide. For those who are preparing this exam, I'd like to answer questions and share experience with you. Good luck on your guys, and Add Oil!

[Shashank Tanksali]

Congratulations !!!
Good luck with your future endeavours.
-Shashank

[Rakesh Gudur]

Hi Lydia,
Congrats on clearing the exam! Could you let me know the exact title of the XSLT book you have prescribed. Is it from O'reilly. Let me know the publisher too.
Thanks in advance.
Rakesh.

Winners don't do different things. They do things differently - Shiv Khera

[Danl Thompson]

You go girl!

[lydia westland]

thank you for your congrats!
Rakesh, yes. it's from O'Reilly. It's enough for XSLT part. The biggest thing in exam is Schema. you also need pay attention to that.
Good luck

[Syed AliRaza Zaidi]

Congrats Lida

[ZEESHAN AZIZ]

Lida, Can you tell us a bit more about XSLT Questions. I was wondering are we supposed to be thouroughly familiar with XSLT elements, of the sort of xsl therwise and xsl:sort.
Kind Regards, Zeeshan

[Vibha Verma]

Hello,
Congratulations.
I am also planning to appear for the exam soon. I have a few questions:
1) What exactly are the nature of the questions from the section - Tuning and performance.
2) I think I have read the Prof. XML quite thoroughly, do you think that is sufficient for the exam?
3) Do we need to know HTML and CSS also?
4) How many case-study type of questions are there?
5) Can you enlist the scenarios where
a) SAX is preferable over DOM and vice-versa.
b) DTD is preferable over Schema and vice-versa.
6) Could you please enlist the topics in the order of maximum questions asked.
It would be really helpful if you could answer these questions.
Thanks.
Vibha.

[lydia westland]

zee, I think you should know all those stuff like sort and group.
Vibha,
1) they will ask you which will the causes of an error. I didn't read speical things about this,just use common sense
2) I don't think it's enough. but it depends on your experience on XML.
3) basic is enough. know their concepts and logic
4) It's hard to define what's case-based question. in the broad sense,I have 15 around
5) there are much discussion here. you can refer to them
6) you need know Schema, XSLT, DTD, DOM, SAX well. it has all other minor stuff like XLink, XPointer, etc. you need a basic idea about those topics.
hope that'll help
best wishes

[Jim Baker]

Lydia:
How close are the monk tests from XML@whizlab
to the real one? Thanks.

[Rakesh Gudur]

Vibha,
I can answer this question:
5) Can you enlist the scenarios where
a) SAX is preferable over DOM and vice-versa.
b) DTD is preferable over Schema and vice-versa.
a) SAX is preferable: In case of DOM, the parser creates and loads the DOM tree into it's memory space. Hence it consumes some of the system performance. If the XML file is too huge and consumes lot of memory, it's not advisable to use DOM. Use SAX instead because it doesn't load a tree and is event based, in that it reads the XML file and based on the events, does the processing.
DOM is preferable: Often when you are parsing the XML file, you need to move up and down the DOM tree. This is possible with DOM since the tree is available with the parser. This is not possible with SAX.
b)Schema is preferable: Schemas allow you to define the datatypes and constraints which replicate your database. This is a powerful feature through which you can define the datatypes your XML file should have. This is not supported by DTDs. Also DTDs are not heirarchical in nature. That is they are not readable and this feature is available in Schemas.
I didn't find a scenario where DTD is preferable over Schemas. If I find any, I'll let you know.
Thanks,
Rakesh.

[lydia westland]

I think XML@whiz is good. it's not very like the real one, but it helps you to find out your grey points. then you can focus on those weak areas.

[Vibha Verma]

Lydia and Rakesh,
Thanks for your input.
Vibha.

[Jim Baker]

Does XML@whiz cover the right areas? Is
XML@whiz harder or easier than the real
one? Thanks.

[lydia westland]

XML@whiz is easier than the real one. but I think it goes in the right direction. It almost covers the whole material, probably with different weights.