Brenda,
I am a Software Developer by trade for about 5 years now. As far as strategy is concerned,i just focused on
Patterns, Legacy Connectivity, Security and Internationalization. This is because I had pretty much good concept of
J2EE architecture. And also, since, I already passed my OOA/D and SCBCD plus based on my work experiences, I didn't have to work too much on EJB areas and UML related aspects, just some revision. So, overal, i spent about a month or so, about 120 hrs. The materials I used are:
1. This forum and SCEA resources provided in this forum
2. Study Guide - Mark Cade and Simon Roberts
3. UML Distilled 2nd Edition - Martin Fowler
4. OOA/D and SBCD Certifications Experiences + Work Experiences
So the amount of time may vary depending on how much of these areas you already know and so are the materials for preperation. Hope, this will aid you figure out your strategy and time towards SCEA (I). Good Luck!
[ March 09, 2005: Message edited by: Tulsi Rai ]