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Preparation Strategy for SCJD

 
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Hello everyone,

I passed the SCJP last spring and would like to attack SCJD now. I'm working for a consulting company, and my first project with them was in Java development. This was my first Java development experience outside of a university classroom and home. My last project involved multithreading and I/O. I also got exposed to the full project life cycle and some design patterns.

It is my understanding that exam covers networking, database locking and swing. I have a very rudimentary understanding of Swing (I have had some class experience but never extensively coded using it). I have not been exposed to networking, and even though I understand the concept of locking, I'm not sure how much I need to know in order to be able to complete the assignment.

I am trying to work out a strategy of my preparation for the exam before downloading an actual assigment. I have started reading the "Design Patterns" book by the Gang of 4 to get familiar with good design practices and trying to learn design patterns. I'm also reading Habibi's book in parallel. How much do I need to know about networking, swing, database locks before I can actually download assigment and start thinking about my design? What approaches did you guys take in order to prepare yourself to the exam and pass?

Any suggestions/comments/advice will be highly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.
 
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hello,

sounds to me like you are on a good way. You can download your assignment soon or even buy the voucher tomorrow in order to get 25 % off.

You don't have to know more about locking than you appear to know now / learn from the Habibi.

The only additional literature I recommend is "Effective Java" by Bloch.

Kai
[ June 28, 2005: Message edited by: Kai Witte ]
 
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Hi Svitlana,

you already did start perfectly with Max Habibi's book. So you get the feeling to what extend you need to go with your SCJD project.

I had always two books at hand which I used for solving problems and which I can really recommend to you.

One you already read is the Habibi book . The other is Head First Design Patterns (HFDP) which is based on the Gang of Four (GOF) Design Patterns book.

Good Luck,
Darya
 
Svitlana Dukhovna
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Thank you guys! I'm really worried about networking and swing though. Is Habibi's book enough or do I need to look at other resources for these topics?
 
Darya Akbari
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Hi Svitlana,

Habibi's book works fine to get a feeling what the SCJD expects from you. You can not simply copy it one-to-one. But you can many things do similar how Habibi did.

You don't need to be a an expert in networking and swing. To cope with these topics I recommend you the Head First Java (HFJ) book.

I promise you, spend 4 or 5 days with this book and all your fears are flown away .

That should be enough books . Just download your assignment and visit this forum to ask or search your questions.

Good Luck,
Darya
 
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Hi Svitlana

I'm really worried about networking and swing though. Is Habibi's book enough or do I need to look at other resources for these topics?

First up - don't be worried about either topic. Max's book does cover both, and if you have any questions you can ask them here.

You mentioned before that you have had some exposure to Swing. In this case, you will find that you will probably do very well with your existing knowledge. The areas you may have to learn are the JTable and (possibly) dialog boxes - both of which are covered in the book.

Likewise there is a whole chapter on networking (both Sockets and RMI) in the book (this gets expanded to two chapters in the second edition (shameless plug ). Read the chapter, and then take a look at the source code for the completed project (have you downloaded that from the Apress web site yet?), and then decide how you feel about it. You may feel that this information is all you need. Or you may decide to ask further questions here, or look at some of the online resources mentioned in the JavaRanc SCJD Reading FAQ.

One word of caution though - if you watch this forum, you will notice that a lot of posters ask questions about the assignment that are not covered in Max's book. When you look at the question raised carefully, you may find that in a lot of cases, the poster is going beyond the requirements of the Sun assignment (which is usually why Max's book might not cover it). A typical example is candidates trying to determine how to clean up locks that exist when a client has crashed. If someone asks such a question, then they will almost always get an answer, however they might not always get warned about going beyond the requirements. If you see something you are not sure how to do or you are not sure whether you need to do, feel free to ask if it is a requirement or not - you might save yourself a lot of work . Of course, if you are interested in learning something, then you will find members here are more than happy to help with almost any topic.

Regards, Andrew
 
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Andrew, I noticed Max's name is dropped from the author list for the second edition.
Is this an oversight or is Max no longer involved?
 
Andrew Monkhouse
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Hi Jeroen,

Max has another project that has taken all his time, so he removed himself from the list of authors. This is extremely unfortunate as he is a fantastic author (in my opinion), and he has a lot to offer SCJD candidates.

Regards, Andrew
 
Svitlana Dukhovna
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thank you guys! Does Max = Mehran Habibi?
 
Darya Akbari
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Oui Madame

Regards,
Darya
 
Svitlana Dukhovna
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Merci beaucoup!
 
Jeroen Wenting
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cheers Andrew, sad to see that happen.
Could you tell APress to not list "upcoming" releases half a year or more before they're ready? It's costing them sales of the 1st edition (which is still a good book to have).
 
Andrew Monkhouse
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Hi Jeroen,

I wish I was in the position to "tell" them anything. All I (and you, and everyone else) can do is let the publishers know our feelings.

Unfortunately this situation is rife in every industry, the book industry being no exception. The computer book industry is, at least, slightly better than other books, insofar as there is minimal time between the "Bound Book Date" and the "Official Publication Date" - in the case of my book, there is only a 4 day gap between these dates, in other categories there can be a gap of several months between these dates (in addition to the advertising starting 6 months prior to bound book date).

You can see the same thing happen in the software industry with major players announcing software months (and sometimes years) before it is due to be released - we even have the term "vapourware" for that practice.

Other industries do it as well - take a look at the car industry as one example.

Regards, Andrew
 
Jeroen Wenting
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I know, but as an author I thought you might have an ear with someone on the inside.

I worked on enough things that didn't make it or had massive overruns (mainly due to extremely "optimistic" planning) to know what you're saying.
 
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Originally posted by Andrew Monkhouse:
Hi Jeroen,

Max has another project that has taken all his time, so he removed himself from the list of authors. This is extremely unfortunate as he is a fantastic author (in my opinion), and he has a lot to offer SCJD candidates.

Regards, Andrew



Don't you believe it: The book's in better hands then ever with Andrew & Terry, and the second edition is going to blow the socks off the first. I, for one, can't wait to read it

M
 
Jeroen Wenting
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You don't fool me Max, you're just lazy

Got the first edition now, will possibly get the next edition too if it's released in time to be useful to me.
Voucher has been ordered for the assignment, if it takes as long to arrive as the SCJP voucher it'll be here in about a month (which must be a record as Sun ships them from their offices about 30km away from me).
 
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