peter parker

Ranch Hand
+ Follow
since Jul 11, 2001
Merit badge: grant badges
For More
Cows and Likes
Cows
Total received
In last 30 days
0
Forums and Threads

Recent posts by peter parker

Hey all,

I passed the SCMAD exam with 67% on 12.03.2004 after preparing for 3 weeks. I've been developing MIDlets for almost 2 years and got certified to gauge my overall knowledge and understanding. The only material I used to study were the APIs and Whizlabs.

Overall the exam was the most difficult Sun exam I've ever taken. Incidently, it was also the worst written. The test questions are very very poorly written; not tricky, not challenging, simply poorly written. Moreover, the answers (options) are just as vague. I whole-heartedly encourage Sun to revisit the grammar and sentence structure of the questions/options because I'm very confident others will encounter the same issue. Additionally, I encourage Sun to check the accuracy of the question/options because I came across 2 questions w/o correct options. Maybe this is why the passing score is 55%

As for exam preparation, I recommend writing as many small 'test' apps as possible and taking as many mock exams as possible. Here are my average SCMAD mock exam scores:
------------------------------
Diagnostic: 60/68
P. Test 1: 57/68
P. Test 2: 48/68
P. Test 3: 59/68
Final: 48/68
Quiz: 139/150 (12 sec/per question)
------------------------------
I believe the actual exam closely resembles P. Test 2 and the Final Exam.
The Whizlabs SCMAD provides excellent explanations to their questions (although there are a handfull of errors) and the interface is nice. Is it worth $80?? I think not. Where is the Enthuware SCMAD ???

As for exam experience, here's what I recall:
- Know HTTPConnection methods
- Almost 1/3 - 1/2 the exam are questions based on code snippets [know CommandListener, GameCanvas(paint/repaint), RecordStore creation, RMS Exceptions, casting Connections]
- Understand x.509 PKI authentication
- Lots and lots of PushRegistry [static vs. dynamic, IP filtering, send/receive exceptions, etc..]
- Understand Manifest / JAD permissions
- WMA questions are written badly, so watch out.

Here is my exam section analysis:
------------------------------
JTWI: 75%
CLDC: 100%
Security: 85%
Networking: 57%
Application Model: 50%
MIDP Persistent Storage: 66%
Push Registry: 66%
MIDP UI API: 60%
MIDP Game API: 75%
MMAPI: 80%
WMA: 33%
------------------------------

All-in-all, I'm pleased I passed the exam ; I wanted a better score (damn personal pride ), so I'll be sure to study smarter next time.

Next, I'm off the tackle the Oracle DBA (associate), then the MCSD VS.NET, and finally to round off 2005 the PMP.

Best of luck to everyone!

-PP
[ December 05, 2004: Message edited by: peter parker ]
20 years ago
Congrats Beatrice!

What resources did you use to study (i.e. Whizlabs-SCMAD, Sathya's notes) ?
How difficult were the questions on networking and push registry ?
Can you post your scores when u get a chance.

-PP
20 years ago
Just got done about 2 hours ago and I feel relieved!!! Granted, I am somewhat dissapointed in my score, I passed!
I mainly used Pete Morgan's notes and SCEA@Whiz.
I read through Pete's notes about 4 times and made my own notes from the @Whiz feedback. I also read most of the 'Passed Part I' posts on this site and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scea_j2ee/ in hope that I could scavenge some actual test questions. I also took 19 @Whiz mock exams and used Jaworski and Moleham exams once or twice.
In all I spend about 80 hours studying (weeknights and weekends, spread over 6 mo.)
While studying for the exam, I was rather curious to know what mock exam most closely reflected the actual test questions. Now that I've passed the actual exam, I can say without a doubt NONE OF THEM ! The exam is not extremly difficult, but you have to earn it! There are very few questions that have 'obvious' correct answers, especially EJB and EBJ container. I will say that the Moleham exam_1 is very similar in difficulty, and the @Whiz exams are good for training and feedback, but I don't feel that either mock exam 'presents' the questions like the real exam. I know this may sound vague, but after taking the exam you'll know what I mean.
Like everyone has said before, know EJB and EJB container. Know when to use session and when to use entity. Know all lifecycles from start to finish, benefits of bean pooling, what classes are involved in I18n(thought i had got these right....) and yes VT100 and MQSeries. Moreover, practice the 'process of elimination' in mock exams; it's the only thing I'd do differently aside from working harder on EJB stuff.
Here's my break down:
---
Concepts - 66%
Common Architectures - 50%
Legacy Connectivity - 100%
EJB - 55%
EJB container Model 50%
Protocols - 100%
Applicability of J2EE - 100%
Design patterns - 60%
Messaging - 100%
Internationalization - 50%
Security - 100%
---
Best of luck to all !!
-PP
r haynes,
if i understand your question(s) correctly, you'd like to know:
q1. is senior java programmer the same as scea.
a1. possibly...however, much depends or how you define 'senior java programmer' and the programmers individual job experience.
generally speaking , most scea will have at least 2-4 years of development experience.
q2. what type of documentation should the scea produce.
a2. again, it varies or such factors as size, complexity, time, money, resources, etc...
here is a link to a site which provides standard documentation that must be produced to the state of florida for outsourced IT development.
http://www.myflorida.com/myflorida/sto/isdm/
hth,
peter parker
Hey John,
CRUD - Create Retrieve Update Delete.
CRUD is used to describe common application functionality.
As for developing a CRUD using Struts, the Framework is very rigid, because it's so new which makes doing simple things complex. For instance, the Struts framework promotes using tags in JSP. However, let say you wanted to display 50 records and change the background color of the odd records. To do this you'll have to 'bend' the framework and use a scriptlet within JSP or create a custom tag...
That's a simple example, but in essence providing the purety of MVC (model-view-controller) architecture using Struts is not a simple task.
However, Struts is a big-step in the right direction.
Hope this helps
PP
22 years ago
Hey Ted,
I'm working on my second site using Struts and really like it, but some days it can drive me up the f@#$% wall. Others have the same problem and the reason is simple. No CRUD examples w/Struts distribution. All the .war files that come with
the distribution are 'taste testers'. I'd love to work on struts-crud.war for the next release.
It would contain a CRUD with at least one example of all the struts tags and have ample code documentation.
Many developers have to go to your site and download Artimus or Scaffold, which are okay, but are not really suited for learning. We also search the web for struts issues and normally find ourselves in a threaded message boards or some site in japan....
Anyway, I don't mean to offend, as you've obviously given rebirth to JSP open source, but I hope you'll continue to keep up the good with Struts.
Thanks,
PP
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform
Sun Certified Web Component Developer for J2EE
22 years ago
I really enjoy using struts, but find it CHALLENGING sometimes to work within the framework. Here is a challenge I need help with:
I have a html:multibox with the days of the week (Sun, Mon...) The user may select any number of days and save to the database(mySQL)
When posting multiple checkboxes (html:multibox)to the Form, the Form requires me to use a String[] to accept multiple selections. In the Action, I loop through the String[] and save them to the database. However, when I'm creating my view I'm looping through a resultSet and storing Form beans in an ArrayList (for logic:iterate).
The ArrayList would not let me iterate through the collection with a String[] of days. So I had to create an ArrayList of days to compensate.
How do I set the user selected days (multibox values) in the view from logic:iterate ? Is there a better way to do this ?
Thanks,
PP
22 years ago
Congratulations Maxim! How long did it take for you to complete part II/III ? Also, what software did you use for UML ?
Great score Leo!!
Did you use the Petstore as a model for Part II/III ?
PP
Andy,
Did you find any of the notes useful ?
-PP
I'd also like a copy.

Email: [email protected]
Thanks,
PP
I've been reading Pete Morgan's notes and they're very informative and well written, plus they include diagrams. Thanks Pete!
I think we should add his notes to the SCEA Links section.
PP
hey guys, i'm looking to gather some opinions on who has composed the best study notes for Part I and where i can get a copy .
btw - i'm already familar with the SCEA links section.
Thanks,
PP