Originally posted by Mohammed Burhanuddin:
I had completed my Part 1 a couple of months back and was planning to start off with the Part 2 in near future, may be by this month end. I was wondering how good/of worth it will be if I take the Part 2 and Part 3, now that beta is there and once it is done, this (current) certification will go off. So is it worth taking/finishing the SCEA now.
If we complete, till when the current certification will be valid.
How long it will take for upgraded SCEA to get finilized and available for all.
What will be the status of all the current SCEAs' once the next version of certification comes up.
Sun hasn't actually ever expired a certification once held by the candidate - I expect this won't change with the introduction of the new SCEA. (We'll just have to put a version after the old one.) If they follow their past model, the old exam and the new one will probably be available side-by-side for a while, and Sun will determine a cut-off date for when they'll stop offering the older exam.
I'd imagine that, based on the Part II/III of the beta ending on December 26th, that they will probably announce the new exam being generally available in March of 2008. (Most betas take about eight weeks from the end of
testing before release.)
As for if it's worth continuing, that's something you'll have to decide for yourself...