Passed in 2nd try

[Terry Wang]

Just passed SCWCD today (74%) in my second try (first 59%).
Having limited knowledge in servlets (book knowledge and 3 month project testing experience) and little in JSP (less than 1 month), I still think this exam is easier than SCJP because of the limited content.
Total preparation time (5 weeks, 1-3 hours per day), including 2-week retest waiting penalty.
Here're some of my advices:
1) Specs are most important source than any other books. Book content is much wider and you don't need 60% of them if you want to get certified first. Be sure to read the specs at least twice before taking the exam;
2) Remember all the EXACT(even the "-" in tag names) method and element names (type-in questions) in the objectives. For methods, only names (not parameters) are tested;
3) There're about 10 code sample questions on both of my exams;
4) Security and session management, about 4-5 each, Ken's note is quite enough;
5) Threading is the only tricky (maybe not for gurus) part; about 5 questions;
6) Design patterns (4 questions) are relatively easy, be sure to know the situations where each of them should be used. The questions come in 2 types, a) given a business requirement and future enhancement, which pattern is best, b) the advantages of a certain pattern (multiple selections)
7) Tag library elements, there're lots of questions about them;
8) About 5 questions about using JavaBeans;
In general, Ken's note is very good as a summary of the key points, but you still need to review the specs in more details. Sun's $50 commercial test tool is good (got several questions very similiar) if you want to pay. I used Hunter's Servlet book as reference, too.
Thanks again to all Java gurus, especially Ken, without this forum, rookies like me would have to take much more time to gather the information for this exam.

[Rahul Mahindrakar]

Wang
Congratulations!!!
------------------

Mahindrakar
IBM Application Server & Developer Forum Moderator
Consultant - Zensar Technologies ,Pune India.
SCJP2, SCJD2 & SCJEA (Part I)

[Manjunath Subramanian]

Hello Wang,
Congratulations on your achievement!!
All the best for the future!!
Manjunath

[Jyoti Gupta]

The specs you refer are those the one from the sun site or the one that Ken Zrobok had modified and mentioned in the discussion forum. I am asking this because the original spec are in too much detail but the one he modified is a limited one.
Jyoti

Originally posted by An Wang:
Just passed SCWCD today (74%) in my second try (first 59%).
Having limited knowledge in servlets (book knowledge and 3 month project testing experience) and little in JSP (less than 1 month), I still think this exam is easier than SCJP because of the limited content.
Total preparation time (5 weeks, 1-3 hours per day), including 2-week retest waiting penalty.
Here're some of my advices:
1) Specs are most important source than any other books. Book content is much wider and you don't need 60% of them if you want to get certified first. Be sure to read the specs at least twice before taking the exam;
2) Remember all the EXACT(even the "-" in tag names) method and element names (type-in questions) in the objectives. For methods, only names (not parameters) are tested;
3) There're about 10 code sample questions on both of my exams;
4) Security and session management, about 4-5 each, Ken's note is quite enough;
5) Threading is the only tricky (maybe not for gurus) part; about 5 questions;
6) Design patterns (4 questions) are relatively easy, be sure to know the situations where each of them should be used. The questions come in 2 types, a) given a business requirement and future enhancement, which pattern is best, b) the advantages of a certain pattern (multiple selections)
7) Tag library elements, there're lots of questions about them;
8) About 5 questions about using JavaBeans;
In general, Ken's note is very good as a summary of the key points, but you still need to review the specs in more details. Sun's $50 commercial test tool is good (got several questions very similiar) if you want to pay. I used Hunter's Servlet book as reference, too.
Thanks again to all Java gurus, especially Ken, without this forum, rookies like me would have to take much more time to gather the information for this exam.

[Terry Wang]

I used the original 2.3 and 1.2, but skipped some sections. Ken's note is very good but not 100% enough.

[mocca az]

An,
Can you give me more details on sun's cert prep tool. $50 for 30.
Are the questions always the same or randomly picked...?
I am trying to determine which prep tool would work the best for me...
Sun's
whizlabs or this new one www.enthuware.com
Mostly i am curious about sun's setup

[Terry Wang]

Sorry for not replying you sooner, Mocca.
I found sun's prep tool is good because you can get familiar with the way that a certain type of question is asked. And for each objective, you'll know what level of knowledge will be needed. For example, if the tool asks you about a specific method name, it will remind you to review other similiar methods, too.
With or without the tool, you still need to review the specs as much as possible. Good luck!