Secured 79% today- worth reading exp.

[mayank jamindar]

Dear Friends,
I can't recall the name, but there is a nobel prize winner who did suffered from GoldFish Syndrome( a problem of swiping off all from memory at periodic intervals), and it took him Years long to invent and get nobel because after every period of time, he had to start frest to his research!
Something similar was my case, it took me 6 long months to appear in the exam. I postponed my schedules two times for exams, within 6 months and lost all the learnings and restarted again, also that I am bad at remembering things and get them swipped off from memory, and also I am lazy to very harder. This exam needs a lot of CRAMMING because its APIs, method calls, return types, and static logics, for most of part.
I read HFS.About the book: Its a really good effort by Kathy,Bert, and one more person. Its extremely good for someone very new to the topics. This book is worth purchase, and will live longer than other comparisions.
Now the other side of book, All the parts related to word "TAG" are confusing. I read this book 3 times to understand them. If any author is here, plz work a little bit more on these parts. Also that the book needs to be made more indepth covering more content, there are various small things that are skipped, and pays price for that. EL needs to be covered with more emphasis. Definitely book corrections are need to be done.( I am open if you need detailed suggestions)
But overall looking as first publish, its doing really good. Good Kathy, and Bert, my personal congratulations.
I secured 52% in HFS Mock test, just the night before. so 52+27 for me.
The Mock tests of Enthuware are worth purchasing, it gives you a lot of practise of questions. BUT I tell you exam is dam easier than any mock exam any on the net. (may be you can share purchase)
I got a lot of questions on relations to "TAG" and that made the tougher part of it. Do practise them very well. SCJP guys, its less of concept here and more of api's.
I did not read any specs, reading 200pages is not a easy job, and at page 10 you start forgetting of page1
EL was the my worst performace, reason they give you multiple answer question for this, i mean choose 4 out of 6, now you are bounded to make mistake in either of 4.
I got 70 questions in all ! Still a surprise for me.
All those who are close to giving exam: Don't panic at whats not done. Just concentrate on what you did. If I can pass with only HFS you can also do it.
I know this would be the longest post ever but I even know this that last day we all go for looking only for such posts, and it would be of tremendous help to you.
I want to thank all of you who helped me in this forum, thanks everone.At one times my questions were even locked by the Manager. , thanks to manager to still allow me be your part.
I think I did well,or not soo bad. I believe in "SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE". I want to request everyone who visits this post to revert back to this post with his comments, I will definitely see give you replies. THANKS

[Chandra Sagi]

Let me congragulate you on your performace. Good job.

I am in the early stages of preparing for SCWCD and reading HF. I cannot comment now. Anyways that was a cool message.

Cheers
Chandu

[Frederic Esnault]

Hi!

First of all, congratulations !

I'm preparing SCWCD now, reading HFSJ.
Read and made summary of servlet specs, had a quick look in JSP spec (keep for reference), and still have to look JSTL spec.

I just finished chapter 10 of HFSJ (Tag files, Simple&Classic tag handlers).

Up to now, what i can say is :
- i don't really agree on the "No concept, Just API". I found plenty of concept which once you got them, makes plenty of mock exams answers obvious.
- but i mut admit the biggest pain here is the API :
* The methods, parameters and return type;
* Which interface defines which methods; (simple in servlet)
* custom tags (c:...) attributes (names, type, contents, required, ...)
* and so on

This side of the exam disappoints me a little bit as i'd thought exam would be concentrated on concepts...mostly.

But i DO understand that method lists of interfaces are MANDATORY to know.

Well IMO, it's not really necessary to memorize that doTag throws IOException and doStartTag do not, so try/catch is necessary in doStartTag (compiler WILL remind you if you forget). But in the other hand, it's necessary to know interfaces' method, so that you might build your app efficiently.

Anyway, hold on tight people ! This is worth it !

[Bhavik Patel]

Congratz man ...Now you have one more star in ur signature ..SCWD 1.4

[Sue Pillai]

Congratz!!

I am going to give the exam a couple of days later. Your post does give some encouragement. I hope I pass!

[Christophe Verré]

I got 70 questions in all ! Still a surprise for me.

This one always makes me laugh loud

[Vishnu Prakash]

Now the other side of book, All the parts related to word "TAG" are confusing. I read this book 3 times to understand them. If any author is here, plz work a little bit more on these parts.

1. Tag files
2. Simple Tags
3. Classic Tags

All three topics are covered seperately and in detail. I don't see anything confusing. If you are learning tag concept for the first time, then definitely you got to practice a lot.

Also that the book needs to be made more indepth covering more content, there are various small things that are skipped.

This servlet/jsp book. The book was intended for scwcd 1.4 exam and it covers all the objectives in detail.

EL needs to be covered with more emphasis.

I agree with you in this. I appreciate if authors can add more mock questions in this particular topic.

The Mock tests of Enthuware are worth purchasing.

Worth purchasing. Got 7 full tests.

SCJP guys, its less of concept here and more of api's.

This isn't correct. To be honest with you scwcd 1.4 has more concepts to learn than scbcd 1.3. By making you to cram the api, the exam is really helping you a lot. While coding(or) helping others with their code you can correct syntax errors without a second thought. You will not search api docs looking for assistance. That will distinguish you from others and as a sun certified candidate that will make you feel proud of yourself.

I did not read any specs, reading 200pages is not a easy job, and at page 10 you start forgetting of page1

Specification is there for reference, NOT for cramming. If you make it a practice of going through the spec after completing every single topic, you can understand things better. For any assistance you can post the particular lines in ranch and seek explanation.

Hope my comments are useful.

[mayank jamindar]

Dear Friends,
I wish to thank every one of you to comment out
Thanks Chandra for your message.
Thanks Frederic, it was the same disappointment here, and thanks for clarifying me, I meant the same.
Thanks Bhavik, Your message is important to me.
Thanks Sue, What I have personally experienced is When you are done and can do no more, Just boost in the Confidence in yourself that you know everything and can atleast perform the best of yours and would definitely excel, this thinking has brougt a great effect in my results definitely above +5% so that may work for you as well. All the very best.
Thanks Satou, Not sure with your answer, but if it makes you happy, I have acheived the Success, I guess you also answered some of my queries, Thankyou very much all this.
Thanks Vishnu, You are my favorite, I like Your Sarcastic but natural comments, Now abt your answers

* This servlet/jsp book. The book was intended for scwcd 1.4 exam and it covers all the objectives in detail.*

I have just appeared to exam and found a few questions which were a little bit more detail now definitely they are in syllabus as in exam. We are bounded not to put real exam questions here.

*This isn't correct. To be honest with you scwcd 1.4 has more concepts to learn than scbcd 1.3.*

I have no experience of scbcd, but compared to scjp, I believe its true. Friend all things have two sides of coin. Definitely knowing API is very good, you have all the advantages you listed, but dear its not what we expect, nowadays advanced tools can help you a lot with api's and syntax's. I believe its not important what would be the return type of getAttribute, but whats important is you cannot store primitive types in scopes like session! Did you get my point. We can cram and then we tend to forget and reach at same point, what remains is the knowledge of dealing the situations and concepts.
NO matter we do have differences in views at certain points, we both tend to benifit this community, that's why I like you. Thanks Thanks a lot.keep in touch.

[Vishwas Hegde]

Thats really great.

Congrats


BTW

I got 70 questions in all ! Still a surprise for me.

I have seen many people saying this... why is this so.
It should be only 69 questions right??


Regards
Vishwas

[sunil chow]

Hi mayank

congrats on clearing the exam
I would like to add a few comments to your post

SCJP guys, its less of concept here and more of api's

I don't think this is correct completely as vishnu suggested. In fact
i think the opposite is true. In the new version of the exam(scwcd1.4) the emphasis is more on concept than api. Though you could get a few questions on the api, the exam will be a test of more or less understanding of your concepts.

Now the other side of book, All the parts related to word "TAG" are confusing. I read this book 3 times to understand them. If any author is here, plz work a little bit more on these parts

This is one section of the exam which needs a fair bit practice on your computer. The other section being EL. Though the book covers what is needed for the exam, one needs to practice to understand these concepts well.


I got 70 questions in all ! Still a surprise for me

If you have observed during the begining of your exam it is clearly stated that only 69 questions will be taken into account when you are given a score
and that one question will not affect your score. But it won't tell you which is that one question which will not be considered for giving you the score.

Regards
-------
Success is the result of good judgment
good judgment is the result of experience and
experience is often the result of bad judgment

[Vishwas Hegde]

If you have observed during the begining of your exam it is clearly stated that only 69 questions will be taken into account when you are given a score
and that one question will not affect your score. But it won't tell you which is that one question which will not be considered for giving you the score.

Why is that??
Then how to get 100% ??? Should I get 70/70?

Regards
Vishwas

[sunil chow]

Hi vishwas

Then how to get 100% ??? Should I get 70/70?

You have to get 69/69 to get a 100% as i posted before that one question
sun will not consider while calculating your score. So they don't care
as to you got that question right or wrong :roll:

If i am not wrong, during the start of the exam where they say about this question(the one which is not considered for calculating the score), the simulator says that this question is a kind of a survey.
Even i am not very sure why they want it to do the way they
are doing it

Even in the head first book, somewhere in the initial pages of the book, the book says you might get either 69 or 70 questions. Please check it if you have the book.

Everyone who takes the exam will not get 70 questions, few may get 69 as well and few other may get 70 as well. Hope i am clear this time.

Regards
-------
Success is the result of good judgment
good judgment is the result of experience and
experience is often the result of bad judgment

[Vishwas Hegde]

Sunil,

Thanks for the reply.

But what if, a person gets 69/70.

So they don't care
as to you got that question right or wrong

Say he/she might have answered correctly for the one question, which sun doesn't care, and have missed some other question. ie. According to him/her its 69 correct only.... but you mean to say its 68 only right?

Anyways... I may not be able to score 69/69, but just wanted to know how it turns out to be... exactly.

Regards
Vishwas

[mani kanth]

cong.....

mayank finally you added one more valuable star to your resume .even my story is similar to your story . your post is really intresting and funny too. am planning to give my exam on mar-9 little scared still two more topics has left out (design patterns,security) little scared to face the exam.

but your post gives me some encouragement.

well keep it up you deserve the success.

speciall my personal opinion is this ranch is helping to boost up self confidance so much.
special thanks to vishnu prakash who always ready to help.
his links errata, spec are really great.

i suggest every one should download these errata who is refering hfsj(head first)

so whats your next plan

[Liyaquat Ali]

Congratz!!!



Gr8 atlast U managed2clear the xam after having2start all over again a couple o times

[sunil chow]

but you mean to say its 68 only right?
yes and this is according to my understanding may be someone else can tell you more about how exactly it works. Probably Bert may be the right person to answer your query as he would be knowing the nitty gritty details which you are curious to know.

Anyways... I may not be able to score 69/69, but just wanted to know how it turns out to be

Go for it. There is nothing wrong in aiming at it

Best of luck for your exams

Regards
-------
We cannot command nature except by obeying her

[mayank jamindar]

Dear friends,
If you have observed during the begining of your exam it is clearly stated that only 69 questions will be taken into account when you are given a score
and that one question will not affect your score.

I had taken Utmost Care to read each and every line and understand, as I was aware of similar incidences. I know there are Practice questions to make you get the feel of exam but this is EXCLUDING them. And it was CLEARLY mentioned on the last screen that exam consists of 70 questions. Even My NIIT Supervisor saw that and was surprise, and I really got 70 questions so Dear friends, It also don't make sense on part of sun to introduce such a condition that any one question won't be evaluated.
And about TAGS I had practise but I really feel some Topics on book should be made more better. There is NO harm in revising the contents once again, it would be of no effect if not of help right? I just want to make this book the best, Simplist, & Perfect, covering every thing that can come.

Mayank