Dear Ranchers,
I have been a silent reader of posts here. I would like to thank you for sharing your views, assistance and guidance for SCWCD preparation.
Just want to share my approach:
I have around 3 years experience in developing web applications. I had spent 6 weeks in total for SCWCD.
First 4 weeks
=============
1) Read HFSJ 2 times (prepared my notes, specially reviewed the ones I got wrong on chapter exams)
2) Attempted free mock exams (Marcus Green, sample from enthuware, jdiscuss.com). I was getting around 76% - 85%. (Noted down my mistakes and material that I need to refer for details)
3) Attempted HFSJ mock exam, got 70% at first attempt(looked up
servlet,
jsp api docs for reviewing wrong answers)
4) Read Servlet 2.4 API
doc (Chapter 2 to 12) and Deployment desc diagrams in chapter 13. Just skimmed thru important method descriptions in later chapters with special attention to my mistakes in mock exams.
5) Read JSP 2.0 doc for implict objects and their types(jsp and tag), Tag lib desc diagrams, jsp page and tag directives and jsp standard actions)
6) Read JSTL for some tags (c:forTokens, c:redirect, c:forward etc missing in HFSJ)
Last 2 weeks
============
7) Read Marc Peaboy Notes on Design
Patterns (from
Java wranch). Many many thanks to Marc !!! I got it all right.
8) Read about dynamic attributes (Bryan Basham Tutorial here on ranch - Supplement: Tutorial on Dynamic Attributes) Thank you Bryan !
9) Skimmed thru HFSJ again
10) Final attempt on HFSJ mock exam, got 80%
I did not attempt any mock exams or tests on the day before exam. Just did a light reading of all the material.
I would advise brain dumping of material while you are fresh and looking at
test toutorial(better to take it so that you get 15 mins for yourself to get ready) that you think will be confisuing like some of DD tags, listener and their event objects, page and tag directives, TLD tags etc.
Also it's advisable to review your answers after you are finished. I had 1 hour left for reviewing my answers. Although changing answers at the last moment could be danagerous but you need to be pretty sure about your new answer before you change.
On final notes, HFSJ is perfect book for SCWCD. This books puts you in why mode to grasp concepts instead of just accepting the concepts. My sincerest thanks to Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates, Bryan Basham !!!
[ March 19, 2007: Message edited by: Prakash V ]
