Passed SCEA Part 1 with 100%

[thangvu]

Hi all,
I have just passed part 1 of SCEA exam today, with 100% scores! I would like to share my experience in preparation, and some information about the contents of the test itself.
Actually, the test was easier than I expected. One thing that helped me a lot is my experience in architecting real-world enterprise applications using J2EE. Most of the questions checked whether you understand the core concepts, best practices and ideas of the Java 2 platform, especially EJB. Broad (not deep) knowledge of all exam objectives is required in order to analyze scenarios and come up with the right choices. There was no question about J2EE API.
Below is the list of resources that I used:
1) Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for J2EE Technology Study Guide, Cade-Roberts
2) Mastering EJB 2, Ed Roman
3) Applied Java Patterns, Stelting-Maassen
4) Leo Crawford's notes (http://www.leocrawford.org.uk/work/jcea/part1/index.html)
5) SCEA Nutshell (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scea_j2ee/files/SCEA-Nutshell/)
6) Chris Broecker's notes (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scea_j2ee/files/)
7) WhizLabs SCEA
I started preparation by using WhizLabs [7] to identify my weaknesses, then studied related topics with [2,3,4,5,6]. I used Cade's book to summarize knowledge gained, and practiced scenario-based questions with WhizLabs. I would say that WhizLabs's questions are more difficult than the exam's questions, especially the scenarios. However, make sure that you understand the topics, understand how to analyze situations, not just remember answers provided by WhizLabs. A day before taking test, I reviewed the objectives going through the notes [4,5,6] once again. Of course, follow this forum and study from your discussions here was a big advantage (though this is just my first post ).
Overall, I have spent about 2 months with 2-3hours/day to prepare for the test.
I believe the part II & III are much harder and do hope to receive your help. BTW, what is the good starting point for part II?
Good luck to you all.
Thanks

[yang guo]

thanks for your tips

[Billy Tsai]

Congratulation
I plan to do the exam in about 1 or 1.5 weeks time

[Yogesh Deshpande]

Originally posted by Thang Vu:
Hi all,
I have just passed part 1 of SCEA exam today, with 100% scores! I would like to share my experience in preparation, and some information about the contents of the test itself.
Actually, the test was easier than I expected. One thing that helped me a lot is my experience in architecting real-world enterprise applications using J2EE. Most of the questions checked whether you understand the core concepts, best practices and ideas of the Java 2 platform, especially EJB. Broad (not deep) knowledge of all exam objectives is required in order to analyze scenarios and come up with the right choices. There was no question about J2EE API.
Below is the list of resources that I used:
1) Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for J2EE Technology Study Guide, Cade-Roberts
2) Mastering EJB 2, Ed Roman
3) Applied Java Patterns, Stelting-Maassen
4) Leo Crawford's notes (http://www.leocrawford.org.uk/work/jcea/part1/index.html)
5) SCEA Nutshell (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scea_j2ee/files/SCEA-Nutshell/)
6) Chris Broecker's notes (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scea_j2ee/files/)
7) WhizLabs SCEA
I started preparation by using WhizLabs [7] to identify my weaknesses, then studied related topics with [2,3,4,5,6]. I used Cade's book to summarize knowledge gained, and practiced scenario-based questions with WhizLabs. I would say that WhizLabs's questions are more difficult than the exam's questions, especially the scenarios. However, make sure that you understand the topics, understand how to analyze situations, not just remember answers provided by WhizLabs. A day before taking test, I reviewed the objectives going through the notes [4,5,6] once again. Of course, follow this forum and study from your discussions here was a big advantage (though this is just my first post ).
Overall, I have spent about 2 months with 2-3hours/day to prepare for the test.
I believe the part II & III are much harder and do hope to receive your help. BTW, what is the good starting point for part II?
Good luck to you all.
Thanks

Hey Thang,
That's awesome! Amazing score man. Thanks for your tips.
Great show!!
Cheers
Yogesh

[Pradeep Chopra]

Many congratulations thangvu for the PERFECT score! And thanks for your appreciation of our product!!
I would request you to please mail us your detailed feedback about our product at [email protected].
Best wishes,
Pradeep

[Vikas Sood]

Congrats! Thats an awsome score.
VikasSood
SCJP,SCJD

[morten Jensen-Hole]

Hi, I passd the SCEA today with 87% and just want to put some of the notes I remember about the exam.
Questions about B2B hub/spoke/exhange.
benefits of Stateless statefull and entity beans
Transaction (What does Required mean)
Protocols: IIOP, HTTPS
Nothing about encryption.
Applet permissions.
How to scale systems, only horisontal questions.
Activity and sequence diagrams
Pattern for EJBHome and EJBObject

Some questions were tricky in that they would give you a scenario where the question seem to be related to speed but the question dealt with flexibility.
One question from the back pages of Cade's book.
Resources I used
Cade
Whizlab
Enterprise Java Beans 2nd edition
UML distilled.
Cryptography Decrypted
Osborne J2EE SCEA exam book

[Pradeep Chopra]

Congratulations thangvu for your wonderful success!
I am glad that Whizlabs SCEA exam simulator contributed to your success!
To help us improvise on our product, I would request you to please mail us your valuable inputs at [email protected]. Although our product is matured over 18 months and contributed to the success of thousands of SCEA aspirants, your expert comments would be really useful for uus.
Look forward to continuously contributing to your career!
Best wishes,
Pradeep

[Bhupath Mehra]

Congratulations!
Regards,
Bhupath.

[Ajith Kallambella]

Congratulations Thangavu!! Great score indeed.
A good starting point for Part II is going through the J2EE blueprints on Sun's website. Focus on the documentation and how they evolve a set of requirements into formal design and architecture. That's exactly what you are required to do in Part II. Many people focus on coding, but it is not required. Rather, you should spend your time focussing on design and architectural phases - such as deciphering non-functional requirements from usecases, evolving a domain object model into a design model, principles of refactoring, applying design patterns, selecting appropriate set of J2EE technologies to solve your problem and being able to justify each selection, documenting system behavior in terms of standard UML diagrams and so on. These are the activities typically performed by an architect.
Once you feel comfortable, I suggest that you go ahead and download the assignment. This will give you some time to read and understand the problem.
Good luck!

[Michael Wiezik]

Flawless Victory

[Eoin Li]

Congratulations!!! You are our hero!!!.

[Munteanu Victoria]

Congrats! Thats the best score.

Just a question : what exam did you took 310-052 or 310-051 ?

Thanks !

[Chaminda Amarasinghe]

congratulation to both

[Erik Nyhavn]

"posted 1. august 2003 08:42"

..look at the date the original message was posted, and you'll probably realize it's the old exam...

[Chaminda Amarasinghe]

Hi Michal Wiezik,

What did you do...

You are really funny man...

[Joe San]

Great score. Congrats!

[Bert Bates]

Great score thangvu and please update your display name to meet the JavaRanch policy.

Thanks,

Bert

[Jesper de Jong]

People, please don't wake the zombies. The original post is more than 5 years old; it's unlikely that the original poster is still reading your replies.

[Bert Bates]

good catch Jesper

Let's just lock this one down...