David L Wilson

This may be a silly question, but can I draw the diagrams by hand on paper, then scan them in and include them in my HTML pages? I have been trying out various Eclipse UML plugins, and haven't found anything I like. I'm going to try StarUML next, but it seems like it would be relatively easy to just draw these diagrams out, rather than learn and fight with a UML tool.

I did the same thing. I gave myself two weeks, although I didn't really start until the last week. The Cade book was very helpful. I have about the same background as yourself. The real-world experience was very relevant. Good luck.

I've had passing part one on my to-do list for a while, but I always had other things to do. Early this year I bought the voucher with the "one free retry" deal, thinking that I would take the exam, probably not pass, and then retake it after studying the parts I was weak on. Well, I still didn't get around to studying much. Last week I was reading through the Cade book, and I found the receipt for the book stuck in there, from 2005. So I scheduled the test for today. I took yesterday and today off, and spent the time in various Starbucks, reading through the books. I took the exam this afternoon, and passed. I'm embarrassed to say my score, but as the lady at the testing center said, "Nobody asks what your score was".

My lessons learned:

I answered much of the questions from my work experience. But even though some of the questions dealt entirely with technologies I've used, the English wording of the question made it hard for me to answer. I'm impressed that a non-native English speaker could pass this.

I could answer some of the questions logically. If I only knew part of the answer, often I could puzzle out the rest of it, or rule out some of the possible answers.

The questions on patterns were limited. I was able to get by knowing only the most common patterns.

I've never worked with JSF. During the test I wished I was more familiar with the differences between JSP and JSF.

If there was one thing I wished I could have during the test, it was a list of one sentence descriptions of JAX-WS, JAX-RPC, JAXB, JAXP, JAXR, and anything else that starts with JAX.

On to part two! I'm not worried about this, it will be a lot like what I do for work.

I have been planning to take the SCEA exam as a New Year's resolution, and yesterday I got an email from Sun with an offer for a free retake with any voucher. I have been studying for months, but have been reluctant to take the exam because I'm not sure I'm prepared, and don't want to blow $300. Now I can take the exam, maybe I'll pass, and if not, I'll know what the questions and the exam look like, and can try it again. Sounds good to me.

I called the Sun rep and signed up for a voucher this morning. I should have the voucher by tomorrow, and will register for the exam in a couple weeks. I'll let you know how it goes. If you want the Sun reps phone number or email you can PM me.

Dave

I just happened to stop by the Sun certification site on Wednesday evening to see if my SCJD certification had finally been sent, and I saw the free voucher for the SCMAD. I didn't even know there was such a certification, but I have read Knudson's book and a Sun book on J2ME, and done a month of paid work last year writing MIDlets, so I figured it was worth a shot. I got my voucher via email on Thursday, and signed up for an exam Friday at 11:45 am. I stayed up most of the night Thursday re-reading the books, and I ducked out of work at 11:15am (the test center is a mile from work) to take the exam. I'm not sure if I passed; if I did it won't be by much. I don't mind if I didn't pass this time; I think it was great practice, and it was free. I will definitely take the exam again if I need to, and I will pay if I had to.
Study up on RMS, differences between CLDC and MIDP, connection syntax, JADs/JARs, and differences between Canvas and GameCanvas.
Dave Wilson

Passed, with some help from this forum and the Roberts/Heller/Ernest book. Did the assignment in 23 days, took the exam a few days later, on November 10. Finally got an update in the database in January, but have not received a certificate. Emailing Prometric just gets an excuse about the "i-7 database", whatever that is.
One book that did *not* help was Alain Trottier's "Java 2 Developer Exam Cram". I bought this book for some help with cleaning up locks held by disconnected clients. I read the code, and experimented with it, before finally deciding it was just plain wrong. Emailing Alain got a reply of "Good catch ... I ran out of time when I did it ...".
Results:
Comment: This report shows the total number of points awarded for each section. The maximum number of points is 400, to pass you need a score of 320. Section Summary: Section Max Actual Points Points Generl Con: 100 95 Documentation: 70 58 OOD: 30 25 GUI: 40 30 Locking: 80 58 Data Store: 40 40 Network Server: 40 40 Total: 400 346