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B&S: Passed 387

 
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Hi All,

Just found out that I passed the SCJD exam with a score of 387. Here's my breakdown:

General Con: 96
Documentation: 70
OOD: 30
GUI: 31
Locking: 80
Data Store: 40
Network Server: 40
Total: 387 (97%)

Like others, I'm not sure about the score on the GUI. I thought that I had a pretty good design. I created the app as an MDI application with a menu, and used some popup dialogs for searching and booking. It's very extensible, but maybe it was overkill. Who knows? Anyway, I'm glad that I passed!!

I worked on the app for about 3 months (in my spare time). I used the Monkhouse book and this forum as my primary resources.

I created a mult-tiered architecture, used RMI, and my data access object was implemented as a singleton which used a single RandomAccessFile object. I just used text files for my documentation.

My advice is to read the specs carefully, and keep your implementation simple. I am happy with my design, but I think that in a few places I went beyond what the specs were asking for.

Good Luck to all of you on your exams!!

Take Care,

Steve Daskam
SCJP, SCWCD, SCJD
 
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Alright, man! Congratulations!
 
Greenhorn
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Congrats Steve !!!

Anirban
SCJP 1.4
 
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Hi Steve,
Any book that you followed and would like to recommend?

Also, I did SCJP5 a few days back....Now, i have to do both SCJD and SCWCD.
But not sure in which order i should proceed. Any suggestions.

Thanks!!
 
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Congratulations.
 
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Mac PPC Eclipse IDE Ubuntu
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Congrats!
 
Steve Daskam
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Gaurav,

I would recommend this book by Monkhouse and Camerlengo (it's great):
http://www.amazon.com/SCJD-Exam-Second-Experts-Voice/dp/1590595165/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216141967&sr=8-1

As for the order of the exams, it's really up to you. They are very different unrelated tests. The SCWCD is a multiple-choice, drag-n-drop, short answer type of test that is focused on java web-related topics, whereas, the SCJD is a hands-on java application. I did the SCWCD test first (a few years ago) as I was wanting a better foundation in the web technology. I just now took the SCJD exam as I have been meaning to take it for a good while, and have just now gotten around to it. Also, I made it one of my personal goals (for work), so I was somewhat forced to finish it.

Anyway, whatever order you take them is fine. I think in my case, I usually go by what I am most interested in studying/working on at the time (i.e whatever will hold my interest).

Regards,
Steve
 
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nice score!!!
 
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Congrats on your high score!
May I ask you how you managed to pass the fileName to the singleton?
Did you create a method getInstance with dbFileName as a parameter or you passed the parameter via a file? I want to implement data as a singleton as well but I cannot figure this one out.
Thanks!
 
Steve Daskam
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I had some internal turmoil about creating the singleton, but decided that it was the way to go as it seemed to make my design simpler. So I went through the different possibilities.

I decided against getInstance(fileName) as this could be misconstrued as allowing multiple instances (which I didn't want), and it also turns the class into more of a factory. So I came up with a couple of different alternatives:
1) Set a System property with the file name before calling getInstance()
2) Set the file name via a static initialization method

Overall, I wasn't completely thrilled with either of these alternatives, but ended up going with option 2.
 
Steve Daskam
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Just thought of a third option that I considered which is also valid. You could create a separate data factory class and pass in the file name to it. In the factory, you would just have a check to see if the data class is already created and if not, create it with the given file name. Somehow I forgot about this option while I was coding or I probably would have chosen it.

Regards,
Steve
 
Steve Daskam
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Vathanak,

I didn't really handle the scenario that you describe. I just noted in javadoc that the lock method MUST be called before those methods and the unlock method MUST be called after those methods.

Steve
 
Don't get me started about those stupid light bulbs.
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