Where and how to Start?

[Gautam Jha]

Folks,
I passed the SCJP 1.4 two weeks back and going to start SCJD preparation from next week. I am a little confused as to how and where I should start?
Is there a SCJD FAQ web site where I can get some related information? Which books to buy and which ones to avoid? Good sites for related tutorial. I am just trying to gather all the basic, first time information.
Any help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
P.S I personally feel that only thing lacking at Java Ranch is a FAQ page at each forum. This page could detail information for first timers. That way at least some of the basic stuff is taken care off and does not have to repeat. Suggestions/Thoughts?

[Mag Hoehme]

Hi G
the developer exam tests your ability to solve a problem. So it is different from the programmer exam.
The best starting point is the instructions that are packaged with the assignment. Read them carefully. You will probably re-read them every now and then. I am not sure, but I suspect that there are different assignments around. The differences are only minor - so the best thing is to stick to your instructions as the prime source of information.
The instructions also say that it is part of the game that there are open questions - and it is up to you how to solve them. The best guidelines I can think of are:

Prefer the standard solution.

Prefer the solution that is easier to understand.

If you do something unusual or difficult to understand, comment carefully (commenting the obvious will be punished).

Stick to a style guide (for readability).

Let the examiner know why you opted for a particular solution.

And again - stick to your instructions.

Regarding online resources: There are many. Type "SCJD" into your favourite search engine and check the links. You will want to search for other topics, too, while you are coding. Here are my main online resources:

This wonderful forum. Come back and participate in the discussions.

The Sun material.

www.javaworld.com

My favourite search engine www.google.de, which retrieved whatever resource I needed from the depth of the web.

Regarding books: The following list of books helped me a lot:

The Java Tutorial (downloadable from Sun). Indispensable.

Grosso, RMI (O'Reilly). Really good.

Gamma et al., Design Patterns (Addison-Wesley). Standard knowledge for building a good application.

The famous RHE (Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide). Very good ideas and very good for general considerations.

Robinson/Vorobiev, Swing (Mannings). The book I like least, but use most. It is also available as an electronic copy.

I hope this helps.
Mag (SCJD)
PS: I agree with you on the FAQ!
[ October 21, 2002: Message edited by: Mag Hoehme ]

[Gautam Jha]

Thanks Mag!! Appreciate your detailed post. I did some searching on the web too and got some very useful information.
Looks like I have some good reading to do for next few weeks. Here are the topics I have identified and would like information from others if I missed something:
- IO
- GUI (AWT + Swing)
- RMI
- JDBC
- Patterns
- JBeans (Not sure if this one is required??)
Also what do I need to know from server side prespective? I am I missing something??
As of now I plan to get familiar with the above topics and then download the assignment. Once I know the assignment I can do detail preparation accordingly.
As usual, thanks in advance for your help and time.

[Mark Spritzler]

You will not use JDBC or JBeans in this assignment.
Now you still want to follow some of the rules of JBeans with private variables and getters and setters where needed.
Good Luck and we are all here to help you.
Mark
p.s.
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