Passed 486 with 89%

[Tauqueer Ali]

Hi Fellow Ranchers,
I passed 486 exam with 89% two days back. A large share for this success goes to this excellent
forum. Questions discussed by Desai Sandeep and Junilu Lacar were particularly helpful.
Thanks a lot.

Let me share my experience with you guys.
I applied the iterative and incremental approach to my exam preparation and found it to be
very useful. It took me exactly 28 days to prepare for the exam. I started with Larman.
During the first iteration I went quickly through all the chapters to get an overall idea
of the whole thing. At the same time I kept marking the difficult topics(high risk topics).
During the second iteration I deliberately chose the high risk topics in the beginning and cleared
them keeping in account their relevance to the exam.
The third iteration didn't add any new major concepts to my preparation. It was more of
bug fixing sort of iteration where I tried to revalidate my concepts.
All the iterations were time boxed and I tried my best not to exceed them.
1st iteration 8 days
2nd iteration 6 days
3rd iteration 4 days
After that I started with UML distilled. Its actually a very easy read after Larman but
it's a must read from exam point of view.
5 days before writing the exam I purchased OOAD@Whiz. Found it to be quite useful.
you may not get very similar questions in actual exam but it helps.
Pre assessment test is an indispensable resource. It completely defines the scope of the
exam. I found the actual exam to be quite similar to it.
My comments regarding the 2 books that I used, "Applying UML and Patters" by Craig Larman and
"UML Distilled" by Martin Fowler :

Larman's book is an excellent book and is a must to get the true idea of iterative
and incremental development(Unified process). Understanding of this process is the
key to the exam.
UML Distilled is a very concise book. It'll give you all the necessary factual information like
types of diagrams,
when to use a particular diagram (very important from exam point of view),
a very brief idea about the Unified Process.
To get a complete and comprehensive idea about Process, you should read Larman.

One particular resource that I would like to mention here is the case study on Larman's site.
(Instructor resources link on the home page ). Its actually an exam question to be used by
instructors who plan to use Larman's book.
I found it to be an excellent learning tool. Did it after I finished reading both the books.
A thorough understanding of class diagrams, including associations classes, aggregation and composition
is a must. I'm mentioning these topics here because these are somewhat more involved than
other topics and should not be left for the end.

Hope that helps,
Thanks
Ali.

[Varun Narula]

--------------------
One particular resource that I would like to mention here is the case study on Larman's site.
(Instructor resources link on the home page ). Its actually an exam question to be used by
instructors who plan to use Larman's book.
I found it to be an excellent learning tool. Did it after I finished reading both the books.
----------------------------
Could you show the URL ???
Thanks

[Rajesh Pathak]

Great score Ali. I am impressed
Thanks for posting your valuable comments.

[Tauqueer Ali]

Larman's homepage
http://www.craiglarman.com/
Instructor's resources link.
http://www.phptr.com/larman/uml_ooad/index.html
I checked Instructor's resources link today and found it to be down. 2 weeks back I had downloaded the case study from this page only. Looks like we might need to inform site administrator about it.

[Vikrama Sanjeeva]

Hi,
Tremendous Score Ali...
However UR comments are much detaild but here are few queries.
1: Did u use Larman 2nd edition?.
2: U have wrote about High Risk Topics.Can u mention them.
3: I used trial version of [email protected] include long descriptive questions explaining very long domain.Is that the same pattern in exam.
Bye,
Viki.

[Tauqueer Ali]

Hi Vikrama,
1: Did u use Larman 2nd edition?.
Yes, I used Larman's second edition.
2: U have wrote about High Risk Topics.Can u mention them.
High risk topics may differ with your comfort level with OOAD.
I've been working with Java for some time and some elementary stuffs related to OOAD were
clear to me when I started my prep.
Here's a list of the topics that I found to be a little involved(high risk):
Deciding which class diagram is correct for a given case study. It involves a good grasp
of Design patterns, knowledge of Associations and association classes, difference between
composition and aggregation. One particular problem that comes in mind is the use of
State Pattern where the role of a particular class can be changed at runtime.
These types of questions are there in Pre assessment test as well as in the real exam.
Deciding the names of operations and judging which operation (responsibility) should belong
to which class is also a very important topic from exam point of view.(ref: Information
expert pattern - GRASP , Larman)
Solving a question like this requires some hands on practice with a case study after you have
completely grasped the GRASP
patters from Larman's book.

Code implementation of the following patterns:
Singleton, Proxy, Factory, Facade, Strategy, State, MVC.
Knowing Code implementation is very important, because you'll hardly find a question
mentioning the name of these patterns. Questions will have class diagrams, sequence diagrams
etc. based on these patterns and you have to figure out the underlying pattern by looking
at the diagrams. Once, you are able to associate a given condition with a pattern, it'll
be a kids job to solve the questions.
Some questions based on Project management issues like
Delegating responsibilities to team members depending on the complexity and scale of a project.
Functional and unit testcase strategies. etc.
I couldn't find dedicated resources for this one. OOAD@Whiz has some questions on this topic
and I found that to be enough. However, I would request Desai Sandeep and Junilu Lacar to suggest
some good resource for these topics as they are not covered in great details in Fowler or Larman.

3: I used trial version of [email protected] include long descriptive questions explaining very long
domain.Is that the same pattern in exam.
The real exam certainly has a few long and descriptive questions(case study based). It helps if you
have practiced these kind of questions.

Hope I've answered your questions.
Thanks
Ali.

[Larry Lecomte]

Thx for the info. Gives some good ideas for preparation for the exam.
Concerning project management questions, I've found the following reference: web page
where it mentions the Walter Royce book 'software project management'. Are there any downloadable articles on this subject for the exam

[Vikrama Sanjeeva]

Hi Ali,
Yes u have almost answer my all questions.Hope this one is last.

Originally posted by Tauqueer Ali:

Code implementation of the following patterns:
Singleton, Proxy, Factory, Facade, Strategy, State, MVC.
Knowing Code implementation is very important, because you'll hardly find a question
mentioning the name of these patterns...

What i think from above quote is that I should look for the code of patterns.Like in GoF book there is a code illustration for every pattern in C++.Are u telling the same thing?.
Bye,
Viki.

[Tauqueer Ali]

Vikrama,
Some questions in the exam had detailed class diagrams. The class diagrams had underlying patterns in them. Its possible to figure it out even if you have only understood the class diagrams representing those patterns. For example Larman has class diagrams illustrating various patterns along with some code. What I was trying to suggest is that if you really go through the code implementation of a pattern, things become clearer. However, not everybody needs to do that. You may be able to get a clear picture just by looking at the class diagrams of a pattern.
The point is you should be comfortable with the patterns to such an extent that, give a
complex class diagram, you should be able to relate its classes and associations to the corresponding pattern.

Thanks
Ali.

[Malay Thakkar]

Hi Ali,
Congratulations for getting such a nice score....!!!
Also I appretiate for sharing your experience with us.It is really nice to have such useful insights from you.I have want to ask you about the case study questions , if you have got those questions can you send me at my e-mail address [email protected].
Can you tell me what I need to do during last week of preparation before exam.
Regards
Malay

[Vikrama Sanjeeva]

Hi,
Thanx a lot Ali for indepth discussion on exam.Hope u'll stay around us for solving our future exam related questions.
Bye,
Viki.

[Tauqueer Ali]

Thanks a lot friends. I'll try my best to answer your questions.

Malay,
I'll tell you what I did during the last week of preparation. It might answer you question.
I revised Larman one more time. Didn't read the whole book again. Only worked with the topics
that I found to be difficult. I've mentioned these topics in my previous post.
These are very important topics. I also practiced with OOAD@Whiz. It has 5 tests. Its standard is slightly tougher than the original exam. I got 75% in my final practice test. Found it to be really useful. You might have to consult UML Distilled every now and then while practicing with these questions.A few questions are based on some very subtle details mentioned in UML Distilled, like transitive dependencies, package dependencies etc. The real exam didn't mention these keywords but I remember a question which could only be solved if you knew the concepts like package dependencies, transitive dependencies and compiler dependencies. you'll find all these things in UML Distilled. So, read it one more time.

I'll put the case study and its questions on some free web hosting and send you guys the link. I hope it wouldn't violate any copyright issues. The original source for this is Larman's home page, but the link is not working for quite some time. Any comments regarding this ?


Thanks
Ali.

[angelo celeste]

Hi Ali.
You mentioned the following:
One particular resource that I would like to mention here is the case study on Larman's site.
I am having difficulty accessing this link. Do you have a copy of this resource? If so is there any way to get a copy from you?
I would greatly appreciate it.
Congratulations!
Angelo

[Yogesh Deshpande]

Originally posted by Tauqueer Ali:
Hi Fellow Ranchers,
I passed 486 exam with 89% two days back. A large share for this success goes to this excellent
forum. Questions discussed by Desai Sandeep and Junilu Lacar were particularly helpful.
Thanks a lot.

Let me share my experience with you guys.
I applied the iterative and incremental approach to my exam preparation and found it to be
very useful. It took me exactly 28 days to prepare for the exam. I started with Larman.
During the first iteration I went quickly through all the chapters to get an overall idea
of the whole thing. At the same time I kept marking the difficult topics(high risk topics).
During the second iteration I deliberately chose the high risk topics in the beginning and cleared
them keeping in account their relevance to the exam.
The third iteration didn't add any new major concepts to my preparation. It was more of
bug fixing sort of iteration where I tried to revalidate my concepts.
All the iterations were time boxed and I tried my best not to exceed them.
1st iteration 8 days
2nd iteration 6 days
3rd iteration 4 days
After that I started with UML distilled. Its actually a very easy read after Larman but
it's a must read from exam point of view.
5 days before writing the exam I purchased OOAD@Whiz. Found it to be quite useful.
you may not get very similar questions in actual exam but it helps.
Pre assessment test is an indispensable resource. It completely defines the scope of the
exam. I found the actual exam to be quite similar to it.
My comments regarding the 2 books that I used, "Applying UML and Patters" by Craig Larman and
"UML Distilled" by Martin Fowler :

Larman's book is an excellent book and is a must to get the true idea of iterative
and incremental development(Unified process). Understanding of this process is the
key to the exam.
UML Distilled is a very concise book. It'll give you all the necessary factual information like
types of diagrams,
when to use a particular diagram (very important from exam point of view),
a very brief idea about the Unified Process.
To get a complete and comprehensive idea about Process, you should read Larman.

One particular resource that I would like to mention here is the case study on Larman's site.
(Instructor resources link on the home page ). Its actually an exam question to be used by
instructors who plan to use Larman's book.
I found it to be an excellent learning tool. Did it after I finished reading both the books.
A thorough understanding of class diagrams, including associations classes, aggregation and composition
is a must. I'm mentioning these topics here because these are somewhat more involved than
other topics and should not be left for the end.

Hope that helps,
Thanks
Ali.

Hi Tauqueer,
Hearty congrats dude! You are GEM.I really appreciate the replies you have given so far in a Professional manner.
Was the IBM simulation test useful?
Cheers
Yogs

[Vikrama Sanjeeva]

Hi,

Originally posted by Tauqueer Ali:
Larman's homepage
http://www.craiglarman.com/
Instructor's resources link.
http://www.phptr.com/larman/uml_ooad/index.html
I checked Instructor's resources link today and found it to be down. 2 weeks back I had downloaded the case study from this page only. Looks like we might need to inform site administrator about it.

I have tried for instructors manula link but it is opening this site:
http://www.phptr.com/index.asp?session_id={7DE333B9-59FF-4B83-8192-BD2524E53E25}
I failed to search manual anywhere at this link.It will be better if you mail me at [email protected]
Bye,
Viki.

[angelo celeste]

Hi all.
Just to let you know that I have emailed both Craig Larman and Prentice Hall the publisher.
The Publishers reply:

I apologize, but we're currently experiencing technical troubles with our web sites, including the companion sites for books. Our web manager is
working to fix the problem, and will reply to you when a solution has been
reached.
Thanks,
Justin

They are aware of the problem and are trying to rectify it.
As soon as I hear that it has been fixed I will post it here.
Hope that helps
[ January 06, 2003: Message edited by: Angelo Celeste ]

[John Lee]

Congratulations!

[Sanjay Mishra]

Mighty Congratulations!!! Tauqueer.. A great Score indeed... Thanks a lot for replying to my post about the centres in Bangalore... Can I contact you if i need further help?
Regards
Sanjay

[Tauqueer Ali]

Angelo, Vikrama
I'm having problems putting the case study on a free web hosting. I've sent it to Malay on mail.
You guys can send me a mail at this id [email protected] or [email protected].
I'll send you the case study.
Yoggs

Was the IBM simulation test useful?

Extremely useful. Start ur prep by taking it. Its an excellent tool to figure out ur
weak areas.
Sanjay

Can I contact you if i need further help?

Sure. Please mail me at the mail-id mentioned above.
Thanks
Ali

[Vikrama Sanjeeva]

Hi,

Originally posted by Angelo Celeste:
Hi all.
Just to let you know that I have emailed both Craig Larman and Prentice Hall the publisher.
The Publishers reply:

They are aware of the problem and are trying to rectify it.
As soon as I hear that it has been fixed I will post it here.
Hope that helps
[ January 06, 2003: Message edited by: Angelo Celeste ]

Thanx for ur valuable efforts
Bye,
Viki.

[Larry Lecomte]

Concerning Larman`s case study, you could upload it to yahoo`s OOAD_UML group. Maybe JavaRanch`s could offer this possibility in the future

[angelo celeste]

Hello all.
I have received a reply from Prentice Hall. You can use the following link to Craig Larman's
"Applying UML and Patterns".
Hope this helps.
Regards
-Angelo
[ January 08, 2003: Message edited by: Angelo Celeste ]

[Vikrama Sanjeeva]

Hi,

Originally posted by Angelo Celeste:
Hello all.
I have received a reply from Prentice Hall. You can use the following link to Craig Larman's
"Applying UML and Patterns".
Hope this helps.
Regards
-Angelo
Celeste ]

Where is the case study?.I didn't ind one.Are you talking about Exams provided in Exam section?.It will be better if you provide the exact link of case srudy.
Sorry for inconvience.
Bye,
Viki.

[angelo celeste]

Hi Viki.
According to Ali (The start of this thread):
One particular resource that I would like to mention here is the case study on Larman's site.(Instructor resources link on the home page ). Its actually an exam question to be used by
instructors who plan to use Larman's book.
I found it to be an excellent learning tool. Did it after I finished reading both the books.

Try the following:
http://authors.phptr.com/larman/uml_ooad/exams.html
So I would look for the exam questions on the site.
-Angelo

[Tauqueer Ali]

Hi,
The link mentioned by Angelo is what I was talking about. Hope you'll find it useful.
Thanks
Ali.

[Vikrama Sanjeeva]

Hi,
Thanks Angelo & Ali.Now i got it.
Ali you are getting famous , check ur name here..
Good Marketing for just Rs/=995
Bye,
Viki.
[ January 09, 2003: Message edited by: Vikrama Sanjeeva ]

[Scott Duffy]

Thanks Ali for the book recommendation! I purchased "Applying UML and Patterns" the other day, and I can't put it down. Excellent guide to proper software design using UML.
Again, also thanks for your excellent review of the exam (which no doubt be a major factor in helping me pass the exam).
[ January 09, 2003: Message edited by: Scott Duffy ]