Shapra Benglur

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Recent posts by Shapra Benglur

From what I remember, one or two questions related to JAXB. One was related to steps in JAXB binding and the other listed JAXB under a list of alternative technologies.

The IBM XML Certification Success guide plus anyone other web resource should give enough JAXB depth for the exam.

Best,
Shapra

Originally posted by Chandra Atla:
Hi All,

Howmany JAXB questions will be there in the IBM 142 XML exam? Please let me know the kind of JAXB questions/the difficulty level etc.

Thanks,
Chandra


[ November 11, 2007: Message edited by: Shapra Benglur ]
I wrote the test today. Here are my impressions

* I feel the depth expected in JSF/JSP/Tags is a bit too much for an Architect level exam.
* Too much focus on J2EE patterns -- this is lock in. The exam should be renamed Sun Certified JEE architect.
* The current exam appears to have a nicer balance (design patterns, UML, architectural issues, etc)
* SCEA 5 Beta has some good, probing questions on security
* The scenarios were pretty good. For some questions, the "right" answer may be a bit subjective.
* 4 1/2 hours is overkill

Overall, I wasnt prepared. I may not even pass. But I thought the Beta was pretty easy. This baby needs some more balance and less Sun-Bias.
[ October 22, 2007: Message edited by: Shapra Benglur ]
I have the Head First EJB book. I am not sure about the "depth" required in this topic for SCEA-1. Could someone please provide guidance? Would these chapters suffice?

2. EJB Architecture
3. Exposing Yourself: the client view
4. Being a session bean
5. Entities are persistent
8. Getting the message?

There are other chapters going into EJB, Transactions, Deployment etc.
#2 isnt really necessary for this exam. But it is a nice book to have on your shelf

I used #3 primarily (bought the second edition ,used, on EBay). I also used #1 to close any gaps I identified with the trial exam.

Originally posted by sita raman:
Hi,

Please advice which of these books is best for the IBM XML CERTIFICATION.

1. XML in a Nutshell, Third Edition [ILLUSTRATED] --
2. XSLT Cookbook, Second Edition (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback
3. Professional XML, 2nd Edition (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)
thanks and regards,
Sita Raman

I received the cert (hard copy) + one laminated "id" card on 8/22/07

Exam date: 7/6/07
(Cert requested about 2 days later). I had a soft copy sent right after I requested the cert.
The cookbook is too "heavy". If you cover what's in the "XML Nutshell" and look at some examples on the web, you should be able to cover the XSLT code questions (I got about 5 on the test).

The best way to figure out is to take the trial exam ($10). It is close to the real one in most areas.
I think it is $120 in the US (Seen on the Prometric site a week ago).
Suman,
I did not use any exam simulator for my prep. I dont know how different the Brainbench cert is, but I would try using the IBM 5 part prep tutorial.

XML 142 Certification Prep

The resource would be w3Schools: W3Schools

Originally posted by Suman Sharma:
Hello Shapra,
Congratulations. Good score!

I need to take BrainBench test for XML. I have gone through one XML book, but I was just wondering if you have a list of questions that could be helpful in quickly reviewing the xml concepts before taking the test.

Thank you.

After the SCJP and the IBM XML 142, I decided to get the SCEA certification. I ordered both the prep books (Paul Allen's and Mark Cade's) from Amazon. I already have the "Head First Design Patterns", GOF and UML distilled.

The real unknown for me in this terrain is EJB: I have no J2EE experience & it is unlikely I will use them in the near future. Other parts of the exam look alright.

Should I get a book dedicated to EJB or would the two prep books cover enough?

Originally posted by Billy Tsai:
Hello
can you describe what chapters or sections of "Professional XML" and "XML in a Nutshell" that directly cover the exam objectives?
thanks



If you are using Professional XML (2nd edition):

Chap2: Basic XML Syntax
Chap3: More XML Syntax
Chap5: Validating XML: DTDs
Chap6: Introducing XML Schema
Chap8: XPath
Chap9: Transforming XML
Chap11: The DOM
Chap12: SAX2
Chap14: Data Modeling
Chap16: Querying XML


If you are using "XML in a Nutshell" (3rd edition): (Doesnt cover XQuery)

Chap2: XML Fundamentals
Chap3: DTDs
Chap4: Namespaces
Chap6: XML as a document format
Chap7: XML on the web
Chap8: XSLT
Chap9: XPath
Chap13: Cascading Style Sheets
Chap16: XML as a Data Format
Chap17: XML Schemas
Chap18: Programming Models
Chap19: DOM
Chap20: SAX

[ July 08, 2007: Message edited by: Shapra Benglur ]
[ July 08, 2007: Message edited by: Shapra Benglur ]
Consider purchasing the online practice exams from Sun ($75).

Sun e-practice exams

You get a set of 3 exams. The questions reflect the real level of difficulty. K&B can help you get a higher score, if you put in the effort.
17 years ago
After some hard work covering the XML landscape, I took the test today:

>>>>> 79% (39 out of 49) >>>>>>>

1. Architecture (8 of 9)
2. Information Modeling (7 of 11)
3. XML Processing (10 of 11)
4. Transformations (12 of 14)
5. Testing and Tuning (2 of 4)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The test started out with a couple of tricky XSLT transformation questions (recursion). I finished with 5 minutes to spare (total: 75 mins).

Prep Tips:

* Start off with the 5 part series from IBM
* Read either "Professional XML" or "XML in a Nutshell".
* The IBM sample test closely mirrors the real test. This will help you identify areas to explore. $10 a pop.
* Repeat above as required.
* Throughout your study, try to execute the samples (use Stylus or XMLSpy)

In summary, this is a good test, covering a lot of ground. Compared to the SCJP test, there isnt much trickery here. A couple of answers require you to watch closely (where a mysterious namespace URI appears from nowhere or a prefix is wrongly mapped).

Goodluck!
Congratulations, Rahul :thumb:
>>XSL defines the style of the xml document. Did I get this wrong?

Maybe xml schema/DTD....which one would be ideal for XML validation?>>

XSL Transformations can be used, for example, to generate an HTML version of your XML document. For XML validation, DTD or XSD (Schema) may be used. Schema allows for better control of occurence, types etc.

Quoting from the Developer works article (Part 2 of 5)

".. You can design an XML Schema to constrain your document to a greater degree than is possible by using the DTD. For example, an XML Schema grammar can specify that exactly four apple elements must always be the immediate children of a basket element. You can define complex types, building on string types. For instance, you could require a zipcode element to have a pattern facet of value "\d\d\d\d\d-\d\d\d\d", so that values such as "95123-4823" are valid, but "abcde-fghi" or "27703" are invalid..."

Here's the link to the 5 part prep series:

Test Prep
[ June 11, 2007: Message edited by: Shapra Benglur ]