Passed exam yesterday. After the first 10-15 questions I was wondering whether I could pass.
I was asked questions that I didn't know existed.. :{. Like <dynamic-attributes> was that covered in the HF book? Or local
EJB deployment descriptor format.
(I was thinking... this exam was for
servlet and
jsp not ejbs...
)
So I reviewed each question and used up all the seconds double checking the logic and eliminating answers.
What happened was that I read the SCWCD Exam Study Kit by Deshmukh and Malavia. But it was the 2002 edition! (1.3)
After getting my hands on Head First Servlets and JSP on the 18th I realized the exam questions for quite a bit of topics are really different from the previous edition. 4 days to study.
So I just read stuff that was new in 1.4 like tag files and
patterns Fortunately I was developing web applications and used stuff like filters, el etc in my latest project at work.
I would recommend programmers who are working on projects to take this exam or others related to your work.
Knowing you are taking an exam also helps you create better quality code and come up with solutions that use the latest features in the specs. Because I knew Servlet 2.4 had filters on forward/include dispatchers I came up with a better solution.
It motivates you at work too! (Just think... In university I paid people to give me homework... now I'm being paid to do a programming assignment!)