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SCJA or SCJP please help me....

 
Greenhorn
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hi,

I am new to Java and I would like to do Certifications in Java. So, I need some suggestions from U whether to take SCJA exam or take SCJP directly without SCJA? Why because many of my friends are telling that SCJA is having miscellaneous topics and it�s more confusing than SCJP. Please help me by suggesting what to do ASAP.

thanks,
Sukku
 
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I think your point that you are new to Java is the key point in your post.

The SCJA exam is for just that - people who are new to Java, and people who will be using Java, but don't need the in depth, technical knowledge of intricate syntax and fairly advanced concepts.

The SCJA does cover a large range of topics - from J2ME to EJBs, but it does it at a high level - you don't need to do a JNDI lookup on an EJBHome to pass the SCJA exam - but you do need to know when to use EJBs, and when Servlets or Swing applications make the most sense. That's key knowledge that anyone using Java should have, and that's why it's part of the exam.

I think your friends may have been going too in depth on the extended topics the SCJA covers. Again, you do need to know a broad range of topics, but the coverage isn't too deep. On the other hand, SJCP, the Java Programmers Exam, requires a very, very deep knowledge of something very specific - namely the syntax.

You'll find SCJA requires much less time to prepare for than SCJP.

A few more plusses for the Sun Certified Java Associate exam:

it looks great on a resume
it's great confidence builder before taking SCJP
it costs less than SCJP (50 bucks less last time I checked, but that may have changed)
it covers Java 5 features, so you can claim a Java 5 certification on your resume

Best of luck on your Sun Certifications!

-Cameron McKenzie
 
sukhanya sukku
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Hi Mr. Cameron,

I am very thankful for your valuable and helpful suggestion.
I would like to ask you one more help that is how many days it's going to take to get ready for the exam if I start preparing from this week by getting SCJA Study Guide for Java5 by Cameron McKenzie and one more thing is I can spend fulltime for preparing.

Thanks for your informative reply,
sukku
 
Cameron Wallace McKenzie
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The SCJA Study Guide is very focussed on the exam objectives, and really helps explain that wide range of topics that your friends mentioned can be overwhelmening. Over and over again, that's the feedback I get from readers.

It is not a Java syntax book though. You need to know basic Java syntax, and while the SCJA Guide helps you prep for the syntax questions, I don't consider it to be a 'learn Java from scratch' book. For that, I recommend the Head First Java book.

If you are confident with the basic syntax of Java, I think 2-3 weeks of study with the SCJA Certification Guide would get you very prepared.

Good luck!!!

-Cameron McKenzie
 
sukhanya sukku
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Thanks Mr. Cameron for your great help and I will start my preparation for the exam.

Thank you,
sukku
 
sukhanya sukku
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hi Cameron,

Iam preparing for SCJA with the help of your book its really nice book for this exam covering all exam objectives in a simple and effective manner.Right now Iam in the second part ending i.e.., 15QuestionsOOA&D and UML I did the questions well but when I tried mock exam on UML at your website http://freemockexamssunjava.scja.com/ExamScam/QuestionServlet?exam=uml&SUBMIT=BEGIN+EXAM+%3E%3E

I did very bad and Iam scared wheather iam going to do well in the exam or not.
so can you explain me the UML diagram in the above site and can you please explain main difference between different keywords UML diagrams.

Thank you,
sukku
 
Cameron Wallace McKenzie
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I'm glad my resources are coming in handy.

I don't like to hijack these JavaRanch threads too much. Shoot me an email offline, or even through JavaRanch, and we'll chat.

Looking for your email!

-Cameron
 
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I don't like to hijack these JavaRanch threads too much.



Agreed.
 
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