Failed on the Part 1 ...

[rania ferrag]

Dear Members,

I want to share my experience even at the end didn�t end with a success but it may help those are preparing for the exam also want to have your help ( those that succeed ) on the exam and can advice me on how to review again and be prepared
I was preparing for the exam almost 4 moth ago, I spent almost half of this period just working on EJB, as never use them on my previews experience ..specially all said that the exam focus more on EJB than other objectives ... half of the period left spent it on the objectives besides EJB ...my Books were (Mark Cade, ED Roman, HF Design Pattern, Martin Fowler and many tutorial on the Web )
I had answer 28 questions correctly(33 the minimum to pass ). I was surprised on the questions, they were tooooooo long , specially those for EJB and EJB container Model, legacy Connectivity and Security, even that I finish the exam 15 minute before the end, and had a lot of Marked questions that I left, and I don�t understand why there in no button where you can get from there the global view of all your questions so that you will go directly to the Marked question ??? I had to click as crazy to go back to my previews Marked questions...
The Question on Design Pattern ( had 80 % ), protocols (100 %) Internationalization (100 %)Security (54%) Applications of J2EE 66 %, Common Architectures 66 %
And thes bad score on EJB 44 %, EJB Container Model 25 %, Legacy Connectivity 20 %
Yesterday I had took the last exam from Whizlab and had scored 80 %
I�m really disappointed, as I give a lot of work for this exam, I have other sun certifications, where I spent maximum maximum 2 months and just use one book to prepare for the exam and succeed with good score, but this one it�s only exam that I spent and give all my free time (whole weekend just for the study ), read every where I can, even yesterday I staid late to review and review again ..I really understand very well when we have to use session bean or Entity bean and all life cycle management of each kind of EJB.. I�m not disappointed for the score that I got for legacy Connectivity as it�s only section that during my review didn�t work and read that much on it (just links given here in this web site by ranchers, and like IBM document and others ) but for EJB, what happened ??
Now don�t know what to do, I�m a bit afraid to take it and want to have your advices, do I have to study again on the same book, please your help will be much appreciated,
What I have to do now ?

Thanks in advance for all your reply and advices,

Best regards,
Rania

[dinesh pande]

This exam is slightly different from all other sun exams. This is no longer about method names or the syntax of a particular technology such as ejb/servlet etc.,

This is more to do with application of all the J2EE concepts in the context of a good architecuture (and hence the lengthy questions). Most people pass this exam by studying hard. Which is good. But some of them who passed wont be able to apply the concepts in real life because they are not architects yet.

So it is your call, you can study hard and try to pass it just for the sake of the exam. (OR) you can practice J2EE architecture over the next one year or so and see where you are in the context of the exam.

[rania ferrag]

Hi dinesh and thank you for the reply,

I know that this certification is more focusing about Architecture of J2EE app and it�s difference from the others paths... and also don�t mean that those had the exam at first time mean that have a long years experience ...
I have over 6 year experiences as Senior developer and since 3 years working as Architect Analyst, the only issue is in my work experience all the firm that I worked, including this place where we are more than 200 Architect, they don�t want to use EJB for some raison,.. never had a chance to use them, Also if you don�t know EJB don�t mean that you are not a good Architect.... we design a huge web application where they are used around the word for financials company and we never implemented EJB in our design ....all the Gurus Architect that I work with them said EJB are heavy objects and other issue (specially the Old version of EJB); for big applications as we develop and are spread over the world that�s not the good solution for our kind of projects, so we choose others components, Frameworks like ( SPING, Hibernate and a lots of other Components ...) and the applications work perfectly.
In our Company we are SUN environment mean we develop with Java/J2EE in Unix, and many servers run on Solaris, many others Sun framework that we daily use them ...
If the Question on EJB on the exam, for example which method we need to do this, which class we need to create blabla in this case I can list by hard all methods of each class used for Entity Bean or Session Bean, Enterprise Java Bean in general, but the questions were more a scenario where your work experience with EJB could really help, and that I don�t have...
For Design Pattern I use them in all projects and didn�t find a pb for the questions in the exam to identify the right one as soon as read the scenario ....
I tried to pass the test even I knew that EJB is biggest part in the exam, I said maybe just the Theory will be enough after read a good book .. but wasn�t the case...
I want to give it a second try for the test, but before want to see if someone has a link or an other book where small applications, scenario or example are listed there (for EJB) ...

Above was my reply, Thanks and Regards,

Rania

[Maris Orbidans]

If I were you I would wait updated version of SCEA certification. It will include EJB 3.0. I passed first part of SCEA two years ago and I had no choice but to finish two other parts a month ago. Don't know the result yet.

Nobody uses EJB 2.x anymore so current SCEA version is not as relevant as it was, let's say, 4 years ago.

[jay roy]

hi rania

sorry to hear that. when did you buy your SCEA voucher? Do you know that if you have bought your voucher between march21 and june23 of this year, you can retake the exam once again for free.

take a look
http://www.sun.com/training/savings/retake.xml
[ May 21, 2007: Message edited by: jay roy ]

[Deepak Bala]

Originally posted by Maris Orbidans:
If I were you I would wait updated version of SCEA certification. It will include EJB 3.0. I passed first part of SCEA two years ago and I had no choice but to finish two other parts a month ago. Don't know the result yet.

Nobody uses EJB 2.x anymore so current SCEA version is not as relevant as it was, let's say, 4 years ago.

Actually EJB 2.x is very much around. The exam might not be updated for atleast a year the way things are going. My wild hunch is that a new exam will be available some time in the second half of next year.

[rania ferrag]

Thanks Maris, Joy and John for your reply,


Maris, that�s true many other Architect that I know and also from my research before to start working on preparing for the Part 1 exam, many advice me to wait until the next coming release that will include EJB 3.0, they said EJB3.0 is more enhanced and will be more used that the old release ...
For me I would retake the exam as soon as I�ll be ready ..I�m trying to find other document that I�ll work on ...specially EJB, I�ll have a copy of EJB HF ( before I use to study on ED-Roman book) maybe I need to work on an other book to see different approach ..Also as Jay said, I bought my vouch just 2 days before my exam ( last 14 th of May) so I think I can retake it again ; and I don�t want to wait for too long as I�m afraid to forget all what I learned already.. for the moment I need to work more on EJB and hope next time will be fine ...

Thank you all and My Best Regards,

Rania

[Jay Yan]

Originally posted by rania ferrag:

The Question on Design Pattern ( had 80 % ), protocols (100 %) Internationalization (100 %)Security (54%) Applications of J2EE 66 %, Common Architectures 66 %
And thes bad score on EJB 44 %, EJB Container Model 25 %, Legacy Connectivity 20 %
Yesterday I had took the last exam from Whizlab and had scored 80 %

My own experience for your reference: I just used HF Design Pattern and Wizlabs and got 100% on Design Pattern. I used Cade book and Wizlabs for security, which got me also 100%. I used HF EJB to prepare SCBCD two years ago, so I did not spend much time on EJB topics this time, and got 100%. My Legacy Connectivity part was prepared with Cade book and Wizlabs, and 100%.

And I scored just 73% on the last Wizlabs test one day before my test, which turned out to be 91%.

So, I think that you do have enough books now. I would suggest you to spend more time on the Cade book, which is not too thick. For EJB, just state changes of those 4 kinds of beans, and pooling related topics. And after you take a Wizlabs test, read carefully the explanation of each question, and understand WHY each decision was made regarding what to use questions. And some time Wizlabs' questions are wrong, so read those with doubts please.

[rania ferrag]

Thank you so much Jay for your advice !!

My Legacy Connectivity part was prepared with Cade book

Where is that Chapter at Cade book ?
The only Objective that didn�t find much document to read more is Legacy Connectivity...and I had use too Whizlabs to get some notes there, but they have a lot of questions wrong or tricky ...
Actually your SCBCD had helped you to prepare for the SCEA part 1

During my last exam, didn�t find problem on design Pattern or Protocols, Messaging .... It�s more on EJB section and Legacy Connectivity, the questions were more based on scenario not like which method or class we have to use to create new instance ...
So definitely I�ll rework on Mark Cade book, and reuse the Whizlabs (I had use them all before my exam)....So in your opinion Cade book and Whizlabs will be enough for my review ?

I have a question regarding the Survey we have just before the real exam start, does the survey have any relation with the exam ?


THanks again,

Rania

[Jay Yan]

Originally posted by rania ferrag:
Where is that Chapter at Cade book ?

So definitely I�ll rework on Mark Cade book, and reuse the Whizlabs (I had use them all before my exam)....So in your opinion Cade book and Whizlabs will be enough for my review ?

I have a question regarding the Survey we have just before the real exam start, does the survey have any relation with the exam ?

Cade book has two parts, Overview talks about IDL/JNI/etc., and Protocols talks about JRMP/IIOP/etc. Also did that book talk about Screen Scraper or I learned that from Wizlabs? Learn those parts by heart and you should be OK. You may spend an hour reading that blue book by Paul on this topic, but that book real covers unnecessarily too much.

Besides Cade book and Wizlabs tests, you will also need to read about EJBs more. EJB is not well covered by Cade book.

I believe that the survey is for Sun's own statistics. It is related to your test only in their own reports. It should have nothing to do your score.

[rania ferrag]

Yes true Protocol Chapter from, Cade cover as well JRMP/IIOP ...
I don't have a Paul Book's .. and I'm looking over the net some document for legacy System to read more...
I agree with you, regarding EJB at Cade book, for someone that never use them before, we need an other book, and I had use a good book for that (Mastering EJB byED-Roman ) ..I'll difinetly rework the most important chapters at ED-Roman book or if I can have HF EJB book that could be good too as I'll see an other approch ...
Please if you have any good link or notes, that will really help me too, and thank you so much in advance

My Best Regards,

Rania

[Tyler Lebowski]

The SCEA is to gauge your knowledge level on software architecture, not necessarily how it is implemented.

With that said, the current assignment can be completed using EJB 3.0...and for that matter using .NET, COBOL, SmallTalk, etc., however, we are limited to a J2EE solution.

This does not preclude anyone from EJB 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0.