Cleared SCEA part 1 - 97%

[Mythili Subharam]

Took the exam today and got 47/48 right. The one question I missed was in "Concepts" (not sure which question). Just thought I would post my experience since a lot of other people's experiences posted here helped me a lot.

I have about 10 years industry experience and have used Java since 1998. However, no practical experience with EJBs (which is an important part of the exam). I focussed on learning EJBs (the 1.1 version and the 2.0 version though the exam is supposed to be on 1.1) and also covered the other objectives (mostly from Mark Cade's book).

Resources used:
1. Mark Cade's book for the SCEA. (The UML covered in this was good enough and Security and Protocols was also covered well).
2. Mastering EJB by Ed Roman and also the EJB 1.1 spec.
3. Head First design patterns
4. Many online articles and links found on this forum and elsewhere for misc. topics (like B2B, Clustering, Load balancing, Legacy connectivity etc.)
I also read the J2EE design patterns book and the J2EE blueprints just for my knowledge and also to help with the scenario questions that appear in the test (as these cover best practices). No actual J2EE patterns (by name) are covered in the exam but learning them helps you learn the best practices which is really useful to answer scenario questions.
I also used the Whizlabs mock tests and it was good practice for the actual test. Another good resource are the two yahoo groups - scea_j2ee and scea-architect. I found the scea-architect group only yesterday but it has a vast collection of questions that are really useful (I did not have time to cover them all). Most of these don't have answers included but if you can find the answers yourself, they are a very good rehearsal for the real test (in fact I even saw a few of the questions from these on the real test).

Hope this helps someone.

[Aleena Rehman]

Congrats !!!

Best of luck for future!

[Deepak Bala]

Congrats !

Thanks for the tips

[EDIT]

J2EE design patterns book and the J2EE blueprints

Are you referring to the online blueprints book from sun and the "Core J2EE Patterns" book ?
[ February 03, 2007: Message edited by: John Meyers ]

[Peter Cook]

Originally posted by Mythili Subharam:
Took the exam today and got 47/48 right.

Not bad. Room for improvement though

Seriously, congratulations.

Currently, I'm trying to compile a list of bare minimum resources needed to get a good score on SCEA Part 1. Once I have a definitive list, I will be running an experiment to see if I can pass the exam with just a week's preparation. Therefore, I need to minimize the amount of reading required to just the essentials.

Given your superb score, I'd like to ask a couple of questions:

1) With hindsight, despite your additional reading, did the Cade book actually cover enough of EJB to answer the questions/cover the objectives?

2) Are you sure the Cade book covered enough UML to cover the exam objectives? If so, I will omit reading through Fowler's book for exam preparation.

3) With hindsight, did the Cade book cover enough on design patterns and therefore, the Head First Design Patterns book isn't necessary to get a good score on the exam?

4) My current understanding is that the Cade book doesn't cover the following objectives:
- Common Architecture
- Legacy Connectivity
- Messaging

Are you able to recall which resources you used that were the most concise and accurate for exam preparation?

Thank you for your time and congratulations once again.

Peter.

[Peter Cook]

Originally posted by Mythili Subharam:
...Another good resource are the two yahoo groups - scea_j2ee and scea-architect. I found the scea-architect group only yesterday...

I can see scea_j2ee but can't find scea-architect. Do you mean the java-architect group? If so, which files in particular did you find useful? There are about a gazillion in there.

[Karan Shah]

congrats!!! Awe some result!!

[Mythili Subharam]

Originally posted by John Meyers:
Congrats !

Thanks for the tips

[EDIT]



Are you referring to the online blueprints book from sun and the "Core J2EE Patterns" book ?

[ February 03, 2007: Message edited by: John Meyers ]

Yes, the online J2EE blueprints book mostly. I actually have a Safari bookshelf account through work which I used to refer to the other books (Mark Cade's, The Core J2EE patterns etc.)

Mythili.

[Mythili Subharam]

Originally posted by Peter Cook:


I can see scea_j2ee but can't find scea-architect. Do you mean the java-architect group? If so, which files in particular did you find useful? There are about a gazillion in there.

Yes, the java-architect group which deals mainly with SCEA. Look in the practice questions section for mock questions. I agree there are a whole bunch of sample questions and I did not have time to go over the whole list (since I only found them a day before the exam) but if you can cover them all, you should be all set for the real test.

As for your previous question about the sufficiency of Mark Cade's book, it is definitely sufficient for the UML part (at least for the questions I got) but for EJB you are better off reading other books as well. And for design patterns, you may be able to get away with just Cade's stuff on the GoF patterns as long as you really understand and internalize what each pattern is about. One way to test if you have understood what each pattern stands for is to see if you can identify how the GoF patterns are used in J2EE.

[Mrudul Palvankar]

Congratualations !!!
Could you please share the articles and links for misc. topics (like B2B, Clustering, Load balancing, Legacy connectivity etc.)

Thanks
Mrudul