Jeffrey Mychasiw

Interesting discussion:
I do have a couple points, perhaps not popular ones though.
1 - When I wrote, I took the certification personally. Why just settle for a passing grade?
2 - I did better than I expected (higher than the sample tests) but I did study allot. My aim was to get higher than 80%. The sample tests were showing about 85%. I was happy with my result and I felt I deserved it because of the time and effort I put in.
3 - My employer supports Certs very well. They pay for the test and materials as well a bonus for passing. I could have received the bonus with 61 or 98, but I was proud to demonstrate that I put in 110% effort.
4 - I feel that the Sun's passing mark should more like 75% not 61%. This way when you 'just pass' and become 'certified' it is known the cert is challenging. If I was an employer, given the current passing grade, I would ask a job candidate for thier score.
5 - I have worked on several Java web projects at my company and was never able to use all area's covered in the exam. With the exam study I was able to learn some stuff that I otherwise would not have seen in each the projects.
In addition with a framework like Struts(and others), much of the nuts and bolts are hidden from the developer. The exam shows you the how's and why's. I think this is important
6 - 61% demonstrates that you have covered the material. 96% demostrates that you have covered the material very well. I think there is a difference.
Thank you.
Just my 4 cents.

..more to my original question.
I guess I was hoping for official documentation that states the topics that I DO NOT have to study for the upgrade exam that I otherwise would for the full 1.4 exam.
The little that I have read is that you need to know the new stuff as well as some of the old.
It would be great for an exam cram that targets just the upgrade

I certified for Java 1.2 and am interested in
the sun upgrade exam.
I found this:
"Sun is offering a new upgrade exam with the release of certification for the Java Programmer. This exam is for candidates who have already successfully completed the Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform examinations, of a previous version."
Are there books or material that are specific to just the upgrade to 1.4?
Can anyone comment con the upgrade exam?

Thanks to all involved with the Javaranch.
I scored 58 out of 59 and am happy but a bit surprised.
I used the manning book and Jweb+ only.
I was scoring around 85% on the jweb mock tests and I guess the actual exam was a bit easier.
I tried one test from Whiz labs but found JWeb to be the closest to the Sun Exam.
Thanks again

Thanks to all involved with the Javaranch.
I scored 58 out of 59 and am happy but a bit surprised.
I used the manning book and Jweb+ only.
I was scoring around 85% on the jweb mock tests and I guess the actual exam was a bit easier.
I tried one test from Whiz labs but found JWeb to be the closest to the Sun Exam.
Thanks again

Congrats on the test.
I write mine tomorrow (friday).
I am curious what were the scores that you got on the Manning Mock exams.

Congrats on your great score!
I am glad to hear that JWebPlus is a good simulator as I too am using JWebPlus. How did your scores on the JWebPlus scores compare to your real score?
The reason I ask as I am scheduled to write in two days and have done the first 4 practice tests and have been getting around 85%
Thanks

I am scheduled for the test this friday.
I would like to share my experiences so far.
I have been preparing for the last couple of month's with the Manning book.(great book)
I have purchased the full version of JWebPlus.
I feel ready for the test but I really would like to score above 80%.
Before I started JWebPlus, I did the 4 mock's on Jdiscuss.com and got 26,25,26,27 out 30.
Now I have completed 3 of the 6 JWebPlus exams.
So Far:
1 - 86 percent
2 - 85 percent
3 - 86 percent
As recommended, I am reading all of the questions.
So my question is not am I ready but should I postpost the test until I get 95 percent on each test?

I was just curious if sun publishes the statistics
for it's exams.
Such as for SCWCD:
How many certification tests are attempted.
How many certified WCD's exist at this point in time.
What are the average scores?
What is the distribution of the results(how common is 96% etc.)?
How many people have actually scored 100% ?
I'm just rambling but you get the Idea..

Greetings:
If possible, I would like help getting struts running without a web.xml file.
I am working on an App with EJB/JSP/Servlets(kinda model One). on Weblogic5.1.
This app does NOT follow the specified Webapp format (with the web.xml). All configuration is done with the weblogic.properties file. I guess it is configured as the default web app.
I have the Struts.jar in the WEB-INF directory and am using the stand alone tag libraries(logic,bean). This has been working fine.
I am lobbying the owner of the app to convert it to a 'webapp' but thisill not be happening anytime soon.
My question are:
What are the some of the considerations?
If I want to start using the controller, is this just a matter of activating the Struts components within the weblogic.properties file?
Without web.xml, do I need to set a classpath?
Sorry for the odd questions.
This app has broken all of the JSP best practices and I am trying to bring it up to speed as I do changes.
I have been using just he standard taglibs on any new changes and it has worked well. I want to turn the controller on and start converting some of the bad pages to Struts.
Any help would be appreciated