I just passed the
Java EE 6 Enterprise JavaBeans Developer Certified Expert exam with score 86%.
I had no prior experience with the Enterprise JavaBeans technology and I did it in almost 1.5 months. I used the following material:
a)
EJB 3 In Action
b)
EJB 3.1 professionell (iX Edition): Grundlagen- und Expertenwissen zu Enterprise JavaBeans 3.1 - inkl. JPA 2.0
c)
Frits Walraven OCPEJBD 6 EJB 3.1 notes (is a must)
d)Enthuware practice exams (is a must)
My study plan was as follows:
I went through the
EJB 3 In Action twice. This book is really good to get the basics and covers some deep concepts that you won't see in most of the other books and resources available. For example it explains poison messages which I only found in this book and a question in one of the Enthuware's tests. This book is unfortunately for the
EJB 3.0 edition. So it doesn't cover the new features. I also spotted an error in the book. It uses the @Runas annotation in the method level, whereas it is only allowed in the class level.
After that book I thought "ok how different can EJB 3.0 and EJB 3.1 be". So I tried the enthuware's quick diagnostic
test. It was a disaster. My score was bellow 50%, and many questions sounded like Greek to me. So I needed a book on EJB 3.1. I opted for the b)
EJB 3.1 professionell (iX Edition): Grundlagen- und Expertenwissen zu Enterprise JavaBeans 3.1 - inkl. JPA 2.0 which is written in German and written by Ihns(among others) who is in the EJB 3.1 Expert Group. So the quality of the content was guaranteed. If you can speak German this book is highly recommended. If not, there's no problem. You just have to grab a good book on EJB 3.1. And stay away from
O'Reilly's Enterprise JavaBeans 3.1 . This book is really bad.
After reading
EJB 3.1 professionell (iX Edition): Grundlagen- und Expertenwissen zu Enterprise JavaBeans 3.1 - inkl. JPA 2.0 I tried the first enthuware test and my scores was 71%. Still not good enough.
The
Frits Walraven OCPEJBD 6 EJB 3.1 notes is a must. I read it once tried the second test scored around 85%. Read it again tried the third test scored around 88%. Read it once again one day before the exams tried the fourth and last test scored 90%.
The
Frits Walraven OCPEJBD 6 EJB 3.1 notes is a summary of the specification. It puts together corner cases that may be spread in a book, and missed when you read a book for the first time and strive to get the basics.
On the exam: No surprises here. The listed material covered all aspects of the exam. Enthuware's tests were a bit harder I must say but all in all they were very similar. I also had an almost identical question on the exams which I wouldn't have know, if i hadn't worked on the enthuware's tests.
Next goal for me: OCEJPAD. Any suggestions here? Expected preparation time? Any suggested material?
