Passed SCBCD with 97% - feedback

[Frederic Esnault]

Hi all, I did it this morning, with a nice 97% score

The exam:
I found it surprisingly easy, compared to Whizlabs mock/final exams (i got 91% on whiz final exam), and some questions we have been talking about in this forum. As for the SCWCD exam, it took me less than one hour to finish it, without checking my answers after (I give my best shot at each question, so no need to come back after, I cannot do better).

EJB-QL queries were simple, just a special note on one thing you should be aware of : the available operations (like ABS, SQRT...), and which automatic conversion for comparison is allowed (long/double, ...).

Component & home interface are tested deeply. Be sure to know precisely what differences local/remote interfaces have, and how to recognize a local or remote interface. This is a big exam concept.

Transactions are tested deeply also, but in a quite simple way. I had a doubt on a question because of the way the question was asked, but I made the good choice. This surprised me because Sun exams are usually perfectly written.
They also test tx (CMT/BMT) in hidden ways, so be sure to know which types of bean are allowed to use BMT, and which methods from which interfaces are allowed for a CMT or BMT bean.

Lifecycles are tested, but I had no trick question, only simple questions with straight-forward answers (drag/drop mostly).

That's all I can remember from now, but this means I found no real "BANG" question (reference to HF series BANG notes ).

Preparation :
- HF EJB is a must use (if it fits you of course);
- I recommand doing your own notes, like I did (btw they are available on my website, check my signature), this helps a lot in remembering and understanding clearly.
- Come back here to check questions on the forum and try to answer the maximum, this helps also a lot.
- Go to my website every day, this is a must!! (I'm joking )

Thanks to all people who helped me, and to people who asked questions I could answer.

I'm certified-certified-certified !

[ April 27, 2006: Message edited by: Frederic Esnault ]
[ April 27, 2006: Message edited by: Frederic Esnault ]

[Marcelo Ortega]

Congradulations Frederic.
You didn't take very long to prepare did you? Did you have previous experience with EJBs?
Also, what was your final score on the HFE final mock exam?
So whats next?
[ April 27, 2006: Message edited by: Marcelo Ortega ]

[Frederic Esnault]

Hi Marcelo,

It took me longer than the SCWCD, which took me 3 weeks. This one took me 5 to 6 weeks (not sure exactly).

I had previous experience with EJBs, but very little compared with servlets/jsp where I had big experience.

I must confess that this time I didn't take the HFE final exam :roll:
But the end was quite fast, I ordered my voucher, and received its number by email, then took an appointment for two days after (it was tuesday ) In the meantime, I passed two Whizlabs exams, worked on two or three details, then took yesterday afternoon the final Whizlabs exam, which I passed with 91%.

After that, I prefered to relax for the rest of the afternoon, I went out, had a beer (not too much, as prescribed in HFE book , today I can take huge quantity of alcohol, as said Kathy and Bert ) and then slept.

This morning I had a look at the ten first questions of HFE final exam, which didn't seem too difficult to me, then I left for my appointment.

Next is unsure yet. I'll check if Web services certification is fast or not (I'm very familiar with XML/JAXP/JAXB so it may be easy) and if it is, I'll go for it. If it's too long, I'll go directly on SCEA first part, then after I'll find a job and continue on to part 2 of SCEA during my work.

I'll tell you what is my final decision when I have more information.

[Rahul Mishra]

Great work..Fredric..

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Congratz, Frederic !

[Frederic Esnault]

I ordered the SCEA book from Paul Allen. Web services seem to cover too many areas with no complete book about the exam, so I prefer to take part 1 of SCEA and prepare part 2 during my work.

So next is : SCEA

[Marcelo Ortega]

Well all the best to you.

Warm regards,
Mars.

[Ankit Doshi]

Hi Frederic,

So fast ... you really surprised me

Congratulations!!! Really a good score...


Ankit

[radha mannava]

Congratulations Frederic!! thats a great score!!
Good luck with SCEA Part1!!

Anu

[Balaji Anand]

congrats Frederic Esnault !

will you be having time still to add a little bit in your SCBCD site? If you plan to do so i request you to add one simple example with compound primary key for CMR. :-)

[Frederic Esnault]

My website is not only dedicated to SCBCD, but to SCWCD, SCBCD and SCEA. IT was meant to be about SCDJWS but as i decided to forget about web services (for now, but the future is not written ), it may be a long time before I add WS materials on it.

I ordered my SCEA book from amazon.com (cheaper than france's site) so I'll have a few days free. If you give me a little bit more details, I'll be very happy to do this for all of you. You just want an example of entity bean using a compound primary key, how to create a bean, how to instantiate the primary key, how to declare all this in DD, and run it?

[Balaji Anand]

hi
Yes that is what I wish for.

Your CMR example looks great... please note in CompanyBean
The methods getCompanyName() and addEmployee(..) are throwing RemoteException which is not supported in EJB2.0. It gives me a verify warning.

Evem after correcting it I get a deploy error stating

There was a deployment error
java.rmi.ServerError:Error occurred in server thread;nested exception is:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError:com/sun/tools/javac/Main
Please refer to
<J2EE_HOME>/logs/<machine-name>/j2ee/j2ee/error.log
for more information. Please Verify your application with the Verifier tool.

When i check the error.log... i dont find anything other than the couple of messages which talks about
"Using the Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM and the version number 1.4.2_11 from Sun Microsystems Inc..VM is using the classpath:"

Did you face anything like this when you tried it? i am using
Java 2 SDK, Enterprise Edition Application Deployment Tool Version 1.3.1

Thanks a lot for your time and help
Srividhya
[ April 27, 2006: Message edited by: Srividhya Anand ]

[Frederic Esnault]

I didn't get any error from the verifier tool or at runtime when i did this tutorial. This was unacceptable for me to release a tutorial with errors. I used jdk 1.3 and j2ee 1.3 and all went perfectly, as i say in my doc tutorial (verify and runtime). You speak about a 1.4 version, do you use a jdk 1.4? If not I don't understand, because everything was fine for me.

About the RemoteException I checked you are right, my CompanyBean throws RemoteException, which is definitely bad, sorry for this.

[Shodhan Shah]

Congradulations Frederic

I am planning to take SCBCD exam in June.
Can you pls. tell me what is
1)Whizlabs mock/final exams
2)HFE final exam

Are these mock/Practice exams? where are they available? Are they useful?

Pls. let me know if anything else is useful before giving exam.
Thanks in advance.

[Shodhan Shah]

Frederick
One more question.
Is ePracticd Certification exam provided by sun is useful?
thanks

[Balaji Anand]

hi

I corrected it.Sorry abt the error in the last message.
I have now
Java 2 SDK Enterprise Edition v1.3.1
Java 2 SDK Standard Edition v1.3.1_18
Java 2 Runtime Environment Standard Edition v1.3.1_18

when I create a bean with the code i get a verify warning

For EJB Class [ org.phoenix.CompanyBean ] business method [ addEmployee ]
Error: Compatibility Note: A public business method [ addEmployee ] was found, but EJB 1.0 allowed the business methods to throw the java.rmi.RemoteException to indicate a non-application exception. This practice is deprecated in EJB 1.1 ---an EJB 1.1 compliant enterprise bean should throw the javax.ejb.EJBException or another RuntimeException to indicate non-application exceptions to the Container.

(Page 272 of the spec Compatibility Note)So I removed the RemoveException from both the methods that throw them in the CompanyBean. I think RemoveException should not be thrown from the Bean anymore after 1.0. It is a WARNING not an Error.

The next part is what I was asking your help for... I dont mean that your document is having error regarding this. sorry if i sounded like that.
I have fixed that error.
[ April 27, 2006: Message edited by: Srividhya Anand ]

[Balaji Anand]

Thank you so much for your help I am able to run entity beans.
Thanks a lot
Srividhya

[satheesh krishnaswamy]

Hi Fredrick,

Nice Shot. You Deserve it.
I personally believe people who helps others will surely get the God's Help.I will pray for your Job.You will get a Good position in life

All the Very Best for SCEA and also for your Career.

I request you to still be an active Member in this forum,despite being in SCEA too..

[Frederic Esnault]

Hi all !

Srividhya :
First of all, no problem, my doc may have errors, it happens . And btw, you were right, my bean contains an error as it throws a RemoteException. I know why i didn't see it : i checked the errors only checkbox in verifier window, so i didn't see the warnings. Thanks a lot for spotting this for me, this is a Big Bad mistake I'm glad you had everything working. Can you tell me what was not working, and how you corrected it to make it work?
And one last word : you must know, for the exam, that EJB 2.0 supports only J2SE 1.3, not J2SE 1.4. The best proof of that is the error you had when you used jdk 1.4. EJB 2 guarantees to give support for APIs like JNDI, JTA, JMS, etc... For only 2 of them you must know the version number and there is a way to memorize easily :
- JDBC 2.0 <=> EJB 2.0
- J2SE 1.3 <=> SCBCD 1.3


Shodhan :
Whizlabs is a company that makes and sells commercial exam practice softwares. An exam simulator is a software with 1 diagnostic exam (to spot your strong/Weak areas), some practice exams (3 for SCBCD) and a final exam to take when you think you're ready. Along with this they put an interactive quiz to help you memorize key points, and some quick revision notes that summarize important informations about exam required knowledge. This is quite useful, and I used a whizlabs simulator for the 3 certifications I passed.

HFE is a shortcut for the book from Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates : Head First EJB. This book is really good for exam preparation (and also to teach you EJB even if you don't plan to take the exam, but it's exam oriented). It has at the end a final exam you can take to test your knowledge when you think you are ready for the real exam. Your score should be lower than the one you would get in the real exam, because HFE exam is more difficult (mostly because it does not tell you how many answers you must pick for mutli-answers questions).

satheesh :
Thanks for these nice words, this is good to read I will definitely come back here, don't worry, I'm already planning to make a entity with compound primary key tutorial for Srividhya (and all others interested people). But don't expect it today, it's my wife's birthday, and I'm taking her to Disneyland (in paris, france) (she never went, and I only went once). After that this is the week-end, and we are going to celebrate our first wedding anniversary . So don't worry if you don't see the tutorial coming right now, it will definitely come soon.
[ April 27, 2006: Message edited by: Frederic Esnault ]

[Steven Colley]

Congratulations Frederic, good job again!!

Let me know, wich version of Whinzlabs SW u used. was it the triel version??

Ah, and good trip to you!!

cya

[Steven Colley]

Other questions Frederic,

Have you used the "Mastering EJB" as well?

And for "exam", is the SPEC a must?

Tks.

[Liyaquat Ali]

Congratz Frederic

Man U R super fast at preparing and passing these xamz that too with xelent scores.

Congratz n keep it up!!!

[Balaji Anand]

Fredic,

Earlier... i dont get any verify errors but failed at the deploy time with the following error
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError:com/sun/tools/javac/Main
but the error.log doesnt have any message abt the error... I used
java.sun.com/j2ee/tools/management/README_j2eemgmt.txt(2nd point).
I still wonder how I was able to start up j2ee cloudscape and deploytool with this wrong value because it catches in the batch file.

Any update about the compound key example? :-)

Srividhya

[Frederic Esnault]

Hi again !
I'm back from Disneyland, where i shouted in Space mountain

Felipe :
I used whizlabs commercial version of the software (i bought it). I personaly think this is worth it (even if the SCBCD has some minor problems which surprized me coming from whizlabs). And no I didn't use "Mastering EJB". I only used the Head First EJB book which I think is very very good. But for SCBCD (like SCWCD), I think HFE is not enough. The spec is a must-read. I don't think you must make notes (like I did for servlet spec - available on my website), but it's mandatory to read at least once, and even if it's fast-read, just slowing down on important parts, the EJB specification. Generally speaking, from my SCWCD/SCBCD experience, I can say that ignoring the spec is a mistake and even if you may suceed in the exam without, using them makes you much more confident and gives you better results (I got 95% for SCWCD and 97% for SCBCD because I did not let any detail bother me, I used the spec whenever I had a doubt about anything). So, to make it short , my answer is : yes, spec is a must, at least for a first read, AND as a reference whenever a question comes to your mind. You'll see in the forum that some questions find a final answer in a post where someone make a quote from the spec...

Liyaquat :
Thanks for your nice words

Srividhya :
No sorry no news from the compound PK tutorial, as I said in my previous post and in this one, I just come back from Disneyland, and this weekend is quite busy for me and my wife, so don't expect anything before monday. My poor wife was nice to me during my preparation of the exams, I cannot let her down this week end with 1.her birthday, 2. our first wedding anniversary. But don't worry, it will come soon.

[Balaji Anand]

hi

oh i missed noting that... my wishes to you both.

Srividhya

[Frederic Esnault]

Hi,

This morning I just done all the coding for the coumpound key tutorial. The document is not done yet, but all the files are, and it runs fine.

If you cannot wait for monday (I should release the full tutorial on monday), then go to my website to download the files. I released the EAR, the client jar, the client class and the sources for all of them.

Like this you can have a look at code change (it's based on CMR tutorial files). For the configuration in deploytool, wait for monday (but you can do it, it's not so difficult, there is a field for primary key class, just put org.phoenix.EmployeePK there, and leave primary key field empty; basically that's all).

[mohan dodderi]

Congradulations Frederic, nice score
why can't u go for IBM486(UML & OOAD) exam
is there any specific reason,not to go for IBM 486[UML & OOAD]


regards
Mohan dodderi

[Balaji Anand]

Hi
thanks for the files. This is all i wanted. i think i can take it from here
Thank you so much
Srividhya
[ April 29, 2006: Message edited by: Srividhya Anand ]

[Frederic Esnault]

Hi all,

Mohan, about IBM exam, I don't know about it, that's all. I just know that SCEA is a real good certification, very valuable, and I just want to have it.

But maybe IBM certification is good too, I'll have a look. Thanx for the ifo.

Srividhya , you're welcome . But I've been thinking about the files, this is not enough. I'll make a new file, with no CMR (focus on PK subject) and make some tests like DuplicateKeyException, FinderException,... And make a document very clear about all this. Your tutorial idea was very good and deserve to be done better than what I did with the files I released. But what I did already may help you to know how to use a compound PK, so it's not completely useless I'm happy it helped you !

[Patrick Williams]

Frederic, Congratulations! It will be a pleasure to use your notes. I am rededicating myself to the SCBCD today!

[wise owen]

Congradulations!!!

[Shodhan Shah]

Frederick

Thanks for your suggestion.
I summarize the following for SCBCD exam
1) Start with HFE.
2) Read SPEC.
3) take whizlab mock exam.
( anything else needed? )

Question: How is mock/practice exam provided by Sun (for SCBCD) which offers 180 questions at $75.00 ?
Is it also nice like whizlab? Do you have idea about that?

[Frederic Esnault]

hi Shodhan,

I'd add something to your list. You can use other people's notes, like mine, Mikalai's one, or others, but I think you should definitely make your perosnal notes. You can make it without, but it's definitely a plus.

About Sun ePractice exam, I don't know i didn't use it.
Maybe whizlabs is better for the price.

[Ramakrishnan Ponmudi]

Congrats Frederic
this is a GREAT SCORE

[Bert Bates]

Hey Frederic,

Congrats! I'm sorry I didn't see this thread earlier, but it wasn't in the results forum!

Great result, we're glad the book helped.

Bert

[mohan dodderi]

hi
i want to know about exam format of SCBCD 1.3 ie
1)is exam will contain fill up the blank type of questions
2)do they mention no of answer to select like [select two ]

pls replai its very urgent i am planning to take up exam next week

regards
Mohan dodderi

[Prasenjit Saha]

Hi Mohan!!
I am planning to give SCBCD1.3 too this july.
As far as I know, the questions are multiple choice type.You have to select the correct choices (Maybe 1 or more).The number of correct choices will be mentioned in the question itself(Telling this from my SCJP1.4 experience).
Sorry if the info is not 100% correct.

[Frederic Esnault]

Hi all and hi Mohan,

yes the exam will contain some fill in the blank questions (drag/drop), and yes, they mention the number of answers to select (like your example : select two, select three, ...).

Sorry for my late reply, I spent a month in china, and i'm quite busy right now looking for a job in china( btw, if someone in china knows about a good opportunity... )

Thanks all for your congratulations !