BCD5 or WSD5 first

[K. Tsang]

Hello ranchers,

I recently passed the WCD5 exam and thinking of doing the BCD5 and WSD5 exams. Yet I don't know which one to go for first.

I did use EJB & JPA in the past so I'm familiar with these technologies. Yet with web service, work projects tend to use WS quite a bit so I'm thinking learning technologies like SOAP, REST and JSON etc will help.

Which exam should I focus on first?

[Himai Minh]

For my experience, I took web service exam first. Web service exam covers a little bit about EJB. Honestly, this exam is very stressful.
Now, I am preparing for EJB exam.

Web service exam covers some materials which may not be included in study guides (MZ's notes, Ivan's notes, Java Web Service Up and Running, WSIT tutorial, J2EE version 5 and 6 tutorial, Ethuware mock exam, EPractice Lab, Jersey tutorial chapter 1-5 ...). You may want to google WS-*, for more supplemental materials.
This exam is overwhelming and it took me 14 months to study for it on daily basics.
It is hard to collect all the materials you want. And some materials are confusing and I needed to ask on this forum.
I wasted a lot of time struggling with some topics like Yahoo Rest service, J2EE core design patterns, which are covered in those materials, but end up not in the exam at all.

One more thing is a web service exam has 12 questions about design and best practice. However, Oracle does not clearly specify what design and best practice will be on the exam. It is even hard for the mock exam publishers to guess.

But for EJB, everyone said reading JSR-318 (EJB specification), Frits's 101 pages of notes, Ivan's notes, Ethuware mock, the books recommended in this forum as well as EJB in action, are good enough to pass.
As I am reading Frits' notes, I have a feeling that this EJB exam will not be as tough as the web service one.

[K. Tsang]

Thanks Himai

That's the thing I worry about the WSD exam. There are just some many specs yet no material cover them all in a decent way. I guess I better start looking.

For BCD exam, I'm not that worry because I know what material/ reference to study.

[Frits Walraven]

I always advice to take the WCD and EJB exams first. Some questions from the WSD exam come directly from those specifications.

I am just wondering why you are taking the old version of the exams?

[K. Tsang]

Thanks Fritz for your advice.

After thinking about it, I would most likely do BCD first. I'm doing the v5 exams because my company is in fact still using JEE5 technologies. Another reason is because all my Java certs are in fact v5 (JP, JD, WCD recently).

[Frits Walraven]

K. Tsang wrote: I'm doing the v5 exams because my company is in fact still using JEE5 technologies.

Personally I always go for the latest exams as my company will eventually go to the latest specs (and they did recently) Apart from that you will stay a bit up to date (until they bring out new versions )

Another reason is because all my Java certs are in fact v5 (JP, JD, WCD recently).

WCD is the only on related to Java EE5 (the rest is related to Java SE5) so that argument should not be a decisive factor.

Business Components in EE6 is split into 2 separate certifications: EJB and JPA whereas BCD in EE5 covers both topics in one exam.

Anyways: good luck with BCD!

[K. Tsang]

Frits Walraven wrote:WCD is the only on related to Java EE5 (the rest is related to Java SE5) so that argument should not be a decisive factor.

Business Components in EE6 is split into 2 separate certifications: EJB and JPA whereas BCD in EE5 covers both topics in one exam.

Anyways: good luck with BCD!

Decisive factor, no, yet I recently got WCD5. Soon the other EE5 developer (BCD5 and WSD5) will be in my hands Also EA5 lol ... by then I would have the complete set (of Java SE/EE 5) minus 2 (associate and mobile)

And I'm aware of the separate exams in EE6 for EJB and JPA.

[S Poon]

Hi K. Tsang,

I enjoy reading your post! It indeed looks nice on the wall. Soon you become a SE & EE 5 guru!

Good luck!

Steven

Note: When time past, don't forget to add a second row on your wall: SE & EE 7 or 8 (big big change) =P