Cleared OCEEJBD 6 with 90%

[Bell Katapa]

After a bit of a hitch with certview (profile issues) i am finally able to see my results (24 hrs after writing) for the "1Z0-895 Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 6 Enterprise Java Beans Developer Certified Expert Exam". The score: 90%.

My preparation
In my arsenal i had quite a number of books and materials listed below:
1. EJB 3 In Action by Debu Panada, Reza Rahman & Derek Lane
2. Enterprise Java Beans 3.1 by Andrew Lee Rubinger & Bill Burke
3. EJB 3.1 Cookbook by Richard M. Reese
4. EJB 3.0 Developers Guide by Michael Sikora
5. EJB Certification notes by Frits Walraven
6. EJB Certification notes by Ivan Krizsan
7. EJB 3.1 Specification document
8. EJB6+ Certification exam simulator from Enthuware

- I first read EJB 3 In Action but the i noted it only covered the 3.0 spec and required extra downloads to access fully functional example source codes. Despite being bulky it's very gentle on the absolute beginner.
- I moved onto the book by Andrew Rubinger. The author demonstrates impressive levels of knowledge and gives vital insights into development details, pitfalls and best practices. However as i come from a background of netbeans+glassfish i found porting his examples a bit of a challenge.
- I then grabbed the effort from Richard Reese. As his approach takes you quickly into coding while 'imposing' netbeans+glassfish, i finally 'took-off' with practical learning. This built coding confidence in me.
- While reading Richard's work, i alternated with Sikora's book to re-enforce some of the knowledge i could not fully grasp. I loved this book because it's short, concise, simple and straight-to-the-point, despite falling short on covering all topics.
- Frits' work was the starting point towards the sprint to the certification finish line. He extracted, interpreted and illustrated sections of the spec he thought was most relevant for the exam. Like-wise Ivan's work followed the same approach. I read their pdf documents and experimented with their source codes.
- Then i switched to the specification document while at the same time attempting Enthuware mock exams (they cost about $20 on-line). I read all the exam-relevant chapters from the spec and attempted most of the questions on the Ehtuware suite. My scores on the main Enthuware tests were as follows:
Test 1 - 60% (Fail)
Test 2 - 85% (Pass)
Test 3 - 92% (Pass)
Test 4 - 90% (Pass)
The importance lies in how much you can grasp from the tests and not just the score. Enthuware gives important explanations mostly 'airlifted' from the spec.
- Finally i scheduled the exam and scored 90%.

The Exam
There was a question on the exam concerning automatic scheduling of business logic. It required altering a method of a bean so it can be called periodically using the @Schedule annotation. It happened that there were two answer options (radio buttons) that were exactly the same and the question required just one answer. I know this for sure because i compared character-by-character. If this was among the 6 or so questions i got wrong then i was unfairly treated. I would like to know from the experienced whether one can contest questions on the exam. Other than this i am satisfied with my score. Time to take on JPA by the horns!!!

[Jhonson Fernando]

Congratulations Bell!

Thanks for sharing the valuable tips, it will be helpful for all the aspirants.

[Paul Anilprem]

Congratulations! Great score!!

[Joe San]

Congratulations!

[Frits Walraven]

Congratulations

[Bell Katapa]

Thanks Guys.

Paul, an observation regarding interceptors: i never came across a question in the enthuware question bank that addressed 'turning off' all interceptors from the deployment descriptor (assuming the application assembler has no direct access to source code) when assembling the enterprise application. This was tested on the exam.

[Paul Anilprem]

Bell Katapa wrote:Thanks Guys.

Paul, an observation regarding interceptors: i never came across a question in the enthuware question bank that addressed 'turning off' all interceptors from the deployment descriptor (assuming the application assembler has no direct access to source code) when assembling the enterprise application. This was tested on the exam.

Hi Bell,
Thank you very much for your feedback. We will incorporate questions on this aspect in our question bank asap.

-Paul.

[Jim Kevin]

Hi Paul

I have prepared for the ejb certification and read all the required documents. I have taken the Epractize lab Mocks and obtain the following:

- Mock 1: 70
- Mock 2: 80
- Mock 3: 86
- Final : 70

After that i though i was ready but then i took the Enthuware mocks and got the following:

Test 1: 55
Test 2: 68
Test 3: 57
Test 4: 60

According to you what do you suggest i do? Can i go and write the exams with these results or do i still need more preparation?

Mr Bell Katapa this question goes to you too i need advice Please

[Bell Katapa]

Hello Jim,

Sorry i have just seen your post. Hope my response is still relevant.
Usually it's what we learn from the questions we get wrong (and right) on the practice exams that count.

However if i can offer my opinion purely on the scores you've posted i should say you may just get a fair amount of marks above the passing score (73%).
To be certain of passing with chances of a handsome score you should at least score marks in the region of 90% in 3 mock exams. Again there are no "hard rules" but am not completely off-the-mark with my advice.

Good luck,

Bell.