Today, after a little more than 4 months of study, i finally passed SCBCD!
I would like to thank Mikalai Zaikin for his guide... that i've printed and got it binded at the local copy shop... ;)
Some insights about the
test and the preparation:
The Test itself:
The test (for me) was easier than the
SCJP. The reason is that questions with code were not too long and not too many. Mostly were questions about the theory behind
EJB, like roles, methods of EJBcontext and small pieces of code. The terminology was clearer than the one used in Mock tests. I didn't get any questions about JAR packaging and not a single drag and drop question. In addition, no quesitions with "Show the Exibhit" which i hate ;)
I found SJCP more difficult, because there were really long chunks of code and you had to say if it does compile, not compile or which exception...and keep the concentration thru lines of code for 3 hours is really killing..
The Preparation
I always use at least two commercial books (from the ones suggested) and online resources. for this test, i bought:
- EJB in Action
- Enterprise
Java Beans 3.0
They are both good books, but i like the O'reailly book a lilttle better. The reason is that already at page 54 you start developing your first bean with a remote client! As a beginner in EJB i found difficult to figure out how the whole works at the beginning... but with practical examples, i got it quickly.
In addition, there is a really nice section at the end with how to set-up
JBOSS, and for every chapter, a set of detailed excercises!
EJB in action is a more relaxed reading...just small bits of code, but not really a practical guide. After 200 pages...i still couldn't get anything to test! (you can write the code...compile it...but to get it running and see results is another story). The reason i'm suggesting this book, too, is that some concepts are not well explained in the Oreilly book. In fact, the oreilly book starts well...but after a while, it becomes more like a reference book and important concepts are not explained well. That's why, you can then go and look in the EJB in action book for a clarification.
Mikalai Zaikin's guide was really useful! Thanks! i've used it to review what learned reading it from top to bottom one time, highlighting imporant things, and twice afterwards for review.
Mock Exams
As mock exams, i bought enthuware. It's quite good, even though the final day exam, seems too easy and have mostly short questions.
I didn't buy whizlabs Exams, because I was waiting since end of January for their SCBCD Online Course...they always said to come back later, and come back later, but in the end, they didn't organize it (the training includes mocks, so i wanted to get the package)... I didn't buy uCertify mocks neither, since the first time I've visited the site, the cost was $59, then one week later, they sent me a coupon for a 20% discount...i went back and the price was now $79 ...i've asked infos but still waiting for an answer. In addition, after reading the review on ucertify
here, I didn't feel comfortable to buy it.
Now going for the SCWCD certification
Dave