NEW CERTIFICATION EXAM: Java Associate's Wanted

[Evelyn Cartagena-Meyer]

*Java Associate's Wanted*

The Sun Microsystems certification team is creating a NEW industry
leading Sun Certified Associate exam. Be part of the team setting the
industry standards by working on the NEW Sun Certified Associate for the
Java 2 Platform, Version 1.0.

Be a part of the industry leading Java Associate Certification and set
the skill standards for the Sun Certified Associate for J2SE, Version
1.0 Development!

If you are a beginner or an expert who knows exactly what you'd be
looking for when hiring an entry level programmer into your team, this
is your opportunity to get involved in the creation of the upcoming
industry leading certification exam.

We are looking for participants for the Blueprint Survey phase.

This step is to determine the right mix of test sections and testing
objectives via our web-based Blueprint Survey tool. This tool specifies
the testing objectives and how many questions should be produced for
each testing objective according to importance, frequency and
difficulty. From here, the certification weightings are calculated. This
weighting aligns industry expectations with the developer skills to be
validated.

*SCJA Survey Participants*: Needed 40-60 Candidates
*When*: March 14-18, 2005
*Duration:* 40-50 minutes
*Where*: Internet web survey.
*WHAT*: Provide input through check boxes and
comments on-line.

All survey participants will receive a free voucher to take the Beta
exam for this new certification. The Beta examination will be available
May 2005 at all worldwide Prometric testing centers and will take
approximately 4 hours to complete. Vouchers will be sent out via email in early May.

If you PASS the Beta exam, you will receive your certificate, enamel
lapel pin, wallet identification card and the Certified Java Technology
Professional logo.

*How to Participate*: If you are interested in participating in the
SCJA blueprint survey, please send an e-mail with the subject line "Java
Associate BP Participant", your name, country, company and email to: *Evelyn
Cartagena-Meyer by March 11, 2005*. [e-mail]

Thank you.

Regards,

Evelyn Cartagena-Meyer
Java Certification Program Manager
Sun Microsystems, Inc.

[Jeff Bosch]

I'd like a little clarification of the level of expertise/knowledge being tested here. How would it compare to SCJP? Would it encompass J2ME/SE/EE? How about other emerging Java-based technologies such as SWT/JFace?

As far as testing beginning programmers, isn't SCJP sufficient? If not, what's lacking that this Associate certification would provide? I just have the feeling that this ground is already sufficiently covered, so I don't really see a need for this cert.

Thank you.

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

Easier than SCJP.

"Would it encompass J2ME/SE/EE? How about other emerging Java-based technologies such as SWT/JFace?"

J2SE. Not J2EE. Probably not J2ME, SWT or JFace.

[Carol Murphy]

Like a 2-year Associates degree relates to a 4-year bachelor's degree?
I haven't heard of a Java Associates Exam before. I thought you had to start with the SCJP exam!

[Jim Yingst]

It's a new exam. I imagine Evelyn will be posting the objectives shortly. I believe it will actually cover a wider area than SCJP, in the sense that it will expect some very basic knowledge of some J2EE technologies (very basic), and some UML. But it will be much less in-depth than SCJP is.

[Jeff Bosch]

Like a 2-year Associates degree relates to a 4-year bachelor's degree? I haven't heard of a Java Associates Exam before. I thought you had to start with the SCJP exam!

That's because this one's brand new and hasn't been developed yet!

[Mike Gershman]

Easier than SCJP.

I have trouble seeing the point of this new exam. If the SCJP, SCWCD, SCJD, etc., won't get you an interview without paid commercial Java programming experience, what will an easier entry-level exam accomplish?

IMHO, Sun needs to find out what sort of questions will convince employers that this is a candidate worth hiring without paid Java experience.

One JavaRancher who does hire Java programmers said: "If I ever have a small project which is done by one person (as opposed to the teams I usually run), lasts two weeks (not months), doesn't integrate to legacy systems and has no future requiring maintenance, maybe I'll hire someone with a good SCJD score."

How do you test for these issues?

[Jeroen Wenting]

Same here. What's the target audience of the program, and what's the exam objectives?
If it's easier/less complete than SCJP it'll become just like MCSE, completely useless except for resume stuffers.
If it's equivalent to SCJP, it's useless because there's already SCJP covering the same ground.

So it'll have to be something non-technical but not competing with SCEA to make sense in the current system of Sun certifications. Maybe an equivalent to SCEA outside J2EE would fit in but I'd hardly class that as an entry level cert.

[manoj pillai]

I would image this would cover stuff outside Java language as well - OS basics, Web technologies and protocols, XML, Configuration management, team skills etc - basically stuff you ask entry level candidates when you interview them.

[Jeroen Wenting]

Impossible. What OS? What config management system? What XXXXX? This isn't MCSE we're talking about...

[Ko Ko Naing]

Could anyone suggest any resources to prepare for this exam? Since it will be in May, I have only two months left to study...

Any comment is welcome...

[Nicholas Cheung]

I guess the best resources for SCJA is the tutorials from SUN. It is because the exam focus on high level Java technologies, and thus, we might not need to learn into too details.

However, I believe if we passed SCJP, SCWCD, SCBCD and SCMAD, together with IBM 486 knowledge, it will be enough for us to handle SCJA.

Nick

[Jeroen Wenting]

Originally posted by Nicholas Cheung:

However, I believe if we passed SCJP, SCWCD, SCBCD and SCMAD, together with IBM 486 knowledge, it will be enough for us to handle SCJA.

Nick

in fact, if you have those SCJA would add nothing for you except resume stuffing, strengthening my belief that that's the raison-d'etre for SCJA.

[Nicholas Cheung]

in fact, if you have those SCJA would add nothing for you except resume stuffing, strengthening my belief that that's the raison-d'etre for SCJA.

If getting SCJA does not harm you, why border to take it for free?

Nick

[Anselm Paulinus]

Evelyn intentionally does not respond to questions on this board; not because she does not read the comments here but because she does not want to be drawn into these discussions.

[Ko Ko Naing]

Originally posted by Anselm Paulinus:
Evelyn intentionally does not respond to questions on this board; not because she does not read the comments here but because she does not want to be drawn into these discussions.

I second Anselm's comment... We shouldn't draw this thread into that debate about whether SCJA is useful or not...

I asked about the resources for the SCJA Beta exam... If there is someone who can start with an opinion about the resources, it might be very good for those, who are going for this cert...

So let's go on with optimistic opinion on SCJA from now on...

[Nicholas Cheung]

Ko Ko,

Let's start on studying SCJA after I took IBM 399.

Nick