I've recently passed the SCEA/OCEA Part 1 with 71%. Thanks for all who have posted their experiences. It was very helpful in my preperation.
Following are the books that i've used:
1.
SCEA study guide by Mark Cade and Simon Roberts (NEW BOOK) : MIght have read this more that 5 times. This gave more info on the exam
pattern. I found design patterns are good for review here.
2. Core security patterns (First few Chapters)
3. Mastering
EJB 3.0 book. (Online PDF), i had some experience using EJB 2.0.
4. Mastering
JSF: First few chapters, Life cycle of JSF etc
5.
Java EE 5 Tutorial. (First five chapters), might have read more than 2 times.
6. Purchased Core J2ee patterns but didnt read much. Just had a glance at it.
7. Mikalai Zaikin’s notes , i've actually started with this..
I've purchased the Whizlabs mock exams. This gave me exposure to the exam pattern and practice to sit for couple of hrs and answer questions.
Out of all these ..i found that most of the questions in the exam are very new and i've answered them based on my experience.
I've purchased the exam voucher in Jan'2010,had this (Passing part 1) as my goal for 2010 and started causual reading (Now and then). I''ve read 2 -3 weeks min of 4 hrs per day and 8 hrs in the week ends before the exam on Nov 1st 2010.
I have more than 10 yrs of exp in java/j2ee .. My view on this exam/certification: i was able to recap some of the stuff which we dont use daily ...but its difficult to get time to read .. and i think these certifications will fill in these gaps..
Now am ready to go for Part 2 and 3.
All the best to all of those who are attempting this ...Have fun ..