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Visual Age cert?

 
Greenhorn
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Getting ready to write the Visual Age cert in a week and a half or so. Wondering if any one has written this exam? Have been trying to find some additional resources (have studied PDF's, on line docs, help files, etc) re: the exam specifically with no luck. I have the exam objectives, etc but its always nice to get a real person's impression of the exam and that has proven to be very difficult. Any help would be great. Thanx!
Jenn
 
Jenn Green
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I wrote the exam on Friday and passed with flying colors! Just wanted to give an overview from my perspective as I've found that information concerning this exam is somewhat sketchy at best.
It turns out the IBM ICE exams online at IBM are a fairly accurate reflection of the exam BUT the variety of questions there is fairly small. It is a good resource to use close to exam time, when you want to see how much you know.
I was trying to figure out if the exam would be mostly questions based on the IDE or Java programming principles but couldn't find any one who had written the exam. anyway, it turns out that about 25% of my questions were based on the Java language and its principles, while the remainder were specific to the Visual Age IDE.
I was also a little concerned that they may throw in stuff specific to the various 3.x versions that have been released but there didn't seem to be any those types of things covered. Nothing like which features were new to various versions, etc.
Anyway, best of luck to anyone else considering this certification.
Jenn
 
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I just passed Test 282 yesterday! This makes me an "IBM Certified Specialist - IBM VisualAge for Java".
I found this exam difficult; I passed with a 78%. I had plenty of experience with some of the features of VAJ, but the Visual Composition Editor had gone completely unused in my previous project. I had to do a lot of studying to figure it out well enough to pass the exam.
I agree with what Jenn said: the online exam provided by IBM is representative of the questions asked, but doesn't give a large enough variety of questions. It would be nice to have more sample questions available. The last two times that I took the online exam I was getting 90%, but I had become too familiar with the questions by then.
I think the most difficult thing about the exam is that you have to remember so many detailed features of the IDE without any visual cues. For example, a question on the exam might ask you where to find some option in the BeanInfo window - under the Features, Definitions, or Bean Information pane - and you might not remember the specific names of the panes, and then you're in trouble... things like that make the exam tough.
 
Jenn Green
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Hi Marya,
Just wanted to say congrats! It seems that certified VAJ people are few and far between for the time being. Enjoy!
JG
 
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Congrats Marya. Great Going .
 
Marya Doery
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Hi Jenn, I'm curious as to why you took the exam. On my part, it was because my current employer required some people to get IBM certifications to remain partners with IBM. I wonder if the certification helps for anything else. Preparing for it sure did improve my VAJ skills, in any case! - Marya
 
Jenn Green
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Hi Marya
My employer also requires the cert - ideally JCert Level II. They are a partner with the initiatve. I am writing Websphere tomorrow (not required) and have UML left to go. I also wanted to get the certs for a little credibility - I don't have a whole lot of work experience right now, but at least it shows I can perform to certain standards. Although, I definately value experience!
JG
 
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Hi Jenn Green
CONGRATS!!! Hey even i have been asked to take the visual age of java certification next week.I am doing all preparations.Can you please send me some of the questions of the examination.This would be a great help for my preparations.Thanks in advance!!!

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