Kamal Tripathi wrote:
I will post my prep strategy later in detail. But let me thnk one and all,
Well I said it could take some time and it did. So here it is
This is the list of material that I referred. Normally you would read such detailed prep strategy only if one has scored 100%

but I am just trying to help.
One of the main things that helped was taking notes. I prepared some notes for myself that I used towards the end. So that provided for complete revision without much time. Now I didn't take down everything in some notebook. I photocopied relevant graphics from HFSJ (that was ard 3-4 pages back to back) and filled up the page with relevant notes related to graphics. Remember graphics help best for easy recall and notes should not be illustrative and long!!!
1) HFSJ 2nd edition for SCWCD5 - Read 2-3 times - It was like the more I read the clearer concepts became. Each time I read it, I stumbled upon some finer points, I might have missed in hoard of details. So my notes too improved with each reading
2) JSP 2.1 Spec - Downloaded PDF and read relevant portions in detail. I have PDF highlighting software so even highlighted important points even though they had been covered in HFSJ. So when I came back to this PDF my recall was better and revision quicker.
3) Servlet 2.4 Spec - Same here as well.
4) JSTL Spec - You don't have to read the entire document. What I did was take the print out of core tags TLDs (find it
here and if you manage the space smartly you can print everything in 3 pages back-back) and read the specs cursorily ONCE. See whatever extra detail for core tags is mentioned in the spec that might not have been covered in HFSJ. I even looked at the
JSTL API DOCS once to take any notes from these api's. So for example you might want to checkout LoopTagStatus details. There are some methods, which HFSJ doesn't cover. After this you may not look at it ever again.
5) MZ Notes, Peabody Design Patterns, Ashok Babu Notes (Refer SCWCD links in javaranch. MZ notes will make you recall some important points from the JSP and Servlet specs, Peabody Design Patterns was good for DPs, although I took the print and added some of my own notes here from HFSJ and mock tests. AshokBabu is complete from API point of view but I was tempted and read up even more APIs. You would be tempted too after you read the specs)
6) This forum Highly recommend it. Whenever I had doubts in any topic while reading HFSJ or taking test, I used the search feature (which I think can be improved a lot). It is messy to go through search results but if you read 3-4 threads for each concepts, they will be clearer. I even bookmarked important
thread and returned to those in case my confidence dipped in those.
Do use search feature. If you want to ask specific question from any mock test, there is high probability it might already be discussed in the forum. I sometimes googled opening lines of question and sometimes only links were from coderanch.
I prepared for exactly 1 month. Time you might want to take to prepare depends on if you have worked on JSP, Servlets earlier or not and how much time can you devote everyday. I have around 1.5 years of exp in JSP, Servlets but most of the things you never use. Since I mostly used
Struts, I used Struts tags instead of core tags.
Ideally I myself wanted to prepare for at least 2 months but I had to travel to US and vouchers bought in India don't work in US so I had to take the test before leaving. For some of the concepts I didn't work out code examples.
Tests I took
1) HFSJ Mock Test - Flunked Badly. Questing look simple but pay attention. This is HFSJ test, harder than actual
2) Whizlabs Trial Test - Moderate but some options were wrong. So beware
3) JavaRanch mock test - Good ones.
4) Some other free tests like uCertify etc - I took two full length tests. Flunked in one, passed one.
Finally on the D-day carry the "good exam feeling". After flunking couple of full length tests, I revised my concepts thoroughly again and regained some confidence and had that "good exam feeling"
So all the best to all those who are planning to take SCWCD in future. For me I am now planning for SCDJWS now.