Hello Everybody,
Today(5/31) i cleared
SCEA Part I with 59%. And I am happy with the result.
I must tell you This forum is amazing and i leart a lot reading
posts and was able to clarify many doubts.
I have 10 years of experience in software development with Java/JEE 5 years, 3 years with some packaged software and rest 2 years(my initial 2 years in IT) some Mainframe support and some web application
testing. With
JEE I worked mainly in the integration areas like JMS, Webservices,
some custom adapter of legacy (JCA alternative) and some EJB 2.X. So my strength is Integration and Messaging area and i scored 100% in that area today . Rest everything else I am weak .
I had plan to write this exam sometime end of this year but have to take it early becoz of ............(Aug 1 date)!!! I started my prepartion from first week of april reading may be 1-2 hours a day. I can't read freely at home in my computer or study in the table as my kid keeps pulling me and nobody else is there to look after the kid, so i bought a Nook Color and used that to read while on sofa watching Elmo or WordsWorld or Blue's Clue along with my kid. I read the folllowings
1)JEE tutiorial,
2)Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for
Java EE Study Guide (Both Mark Cade and Paul Allen),
3)Material by Mikalai Zaikin
and I also bought 3 Mock exams and here are the scores i got for all of them
1) Whizlabs : Diagnostic:68, Mock 1/2/3/4 : from 75% to 90%. Final Test: 68%.
2) ePractizelabs : Mock tests : 68-90% , Final test : 72%
3) Oracle practise test: Part 1: 75% and Part 2: 85%
After all these tests, I realized that my weak areas are Web Tier and Common architecture and strong areas are Business/Integration and Design. I did a lot reading and thinking in my weak areas but still till last 2 days i was not improving much. For Common architecture i generally see all alternative in answers as possible. Hence last 2 days, i only concentrated on my strong areas. Went through all GOF
pattern and CoreJ2EE pattern and revised business and Integrations.
Final Exam Day:
I slept well. Drop my kid @ the daycare early and reached 45 minutes before schedule(I took apt @ 10 AM) and I was not sure how i would perform as somebody in this forum mentioned that the real test is much harder. And that is true.I almost thought i failed towards the middle of the exam as many questions looked to have all possible answers. Then i took 1 minute break and told myself to "Enjoy" the exam, understand the interesting scenario which happens in the real world and start thinking like an Architect and forget about the result. I did enjoy the second part. I had 30 minutes to review and did a review of all 64 and changed 3 answers. By the time , i reviewed the 64th, i am down to 1 min and submitted my exam. I checked the sectional score there itself and one of my weak areas i got 25% and i thought i failed. My stronget area i scored 100%. I walked to the receptionist and then she uttered the sweet
word. Congratulations!!!. Frankly, I was little surprised but clearing by 2 % I understood it could have gone either way. But I am happy. I hope part II will be little less stressful.
Thanks everybody for this wonderful forum.
Congrats!!! 
