here is how I prepare for the exam:
At the beginning I planned to study one month and take the exam for SCWCD 1.3. I bought the wonderful book Study kit SCWCD from DesmuskhI did not know that a new certification was coming out.
So... when I wanted to register for my exam, I found out this new certification (SCWCD 1.4). Then I look at the objectives of the SCWCD 1.4 and started to read the specifications Servlet spec 2.4 and JSP 2.0).
I did not read all the specs but I read about 400 pages in it, to be sure to understand what have changed from the previous specs and learn the new concepts needed for SCWCD 1.4. I learned all the new stuff in one and half week but that was a very busy time to be honnest.
For the JSTL, I did not have the time to read the spec for the JSTL. I looked on the website of Mikalai. For new
J2ee patterns, I looked some pages on internet.
To better understand how it works, I wrote some
Java code particularly to
test new concepts like expression language, Tag files, JSTL,... and for understanding how the container behaves in some circonstances.
I also tried the tests provided by the jdiscuss website (quite good even if three are some errors that can help you very much), the one provided by the book and some others.
I think what is really difficult is to know when you are ready. Even if I read a significant part of the specs I have been surprised about certains questions. I have questions about env-entry, dynamic attributes which are not mentionned on the objectives. Reading the specs have helped me very much.
If you read carefully only the specs you can success but the problem is that is difficult to focus on points importants. There are much information in the specs...
The best advice I can tell you is to read the spec if you plan to take the exam before a book is ready.
I whish you all a successful exam and if you have any other questions, do not hesitate to reply to this post.
Adri
[ June 11, 2004: Message edited by: Adri Smith ]