EJB 2.0 Spec - Which Key Pieces Should Be Focused On?

[Jason Mowat]

Greetings,

I am now preparing for the SCBCD, using Head First EJB as my guide. After going through the session bean section mock exam, I realize that the authors rely on the reader having read (parts of) the EJB 2.0 spec.

Being that the spec is almost 600 pages long, are there any key areas I should be focusing on in preparing for the exam? Should I bite the bullet and read the whole thing, or is that overkill?

In the target audience section of the spec, it states:

The target audiences for this specification are the vendors of transaction processing platforms, vendors of enterprise application tools, and other vendors who want to support the Enterprise JavaBeans� (EJB) technology in their products.

Many concepts described in this document are system-level issues that are transparent to the Enterprise JavaBeans application programmer.

Being that the exam is for a business component developer, it sounds like the spec is geared more towards the vendors. With that implication, a quick and dirty road-map to the spec would probably save me lots of time, keep the focus of the SCBCD and reduce some exam preparation anxiety!

Cheers,
Jason
[ July 25, 2004: Message edited by: Jason Mowat ]

[alzamabar]

Originally posted by Jason Mowat:
Greetings,

I am now preparing for the SCBCD, using Head First EJB as my guide. After going through the session bean section mock exam, I realize that the authors rely on the reader having read (parts of) the EJB 2.0 spec.

Personally I don't think that the authors relies on us reading the specs (although in the introduction it is said that in case of doubt, we should have a look at it). I think I got your point: sometimes the Mock exams at the end of each chapter have got questions not explained in the chapter. We can think here at different reasons:

1) The authors want to challenge us, by inviting us to look also at other references to find out the answers;

2) A mistake from the authors;

3) Sometimes, as in the case of Exceptions and Responsibilities, the answers will come later, still on the same book.

We also don't have to forget that the HF, following the authors, point to an 80/20 score for the exam, and it doesn't pretend to be the definite reference for someone who wants to pass with 100/100.

I am personally quite satisfied with what I have learnt from the book and the questions made at the end of each chapter, although at the beginning I was a bit disorientated. But whenever I have got a doubt that the book doesn't seem to satisfy, I look around for other resources and on the internet, and I try to take also other Mock exams.

HTH,

Marco

[Valentin Crettaz]

You can check out my spec-objective mapping

[Jason Mowat]

Valentin,

That's EXACTLY what I was looking for :-)

Cheers!

Jason

[Severin Stoeckli]

Hi,

I'm preparing too with the same book. I make now some mock-exams, cunsulting the spec where I have doubts. Reading the spec would be too much and I would forget everything by reading it "brute-force"

Severin