Passed SCWCD 5.0 (CX-310-083) with 86%

Study time: 2.5 months with frequent interruptions.
Books: HF Servlets and JSP, Sun Certified Web Component Developer Study Companion by Charles Lyons. Referred to the Specs at times and the XSDs but that's about it.
Hands on: Tomcat 5.5 and Eclipse. Started with using Notepad and Tomcat only, got bored very soon by the time wasted.

Experience:
1. At least 20 questions from design patterns, security, tag files and custom tags.
2. Like me, if you really care about the 300 bucks exam fee, read the Charles Lyons book in addition to HF Servlets and JSP. HFSJ, in spite of being a great book, does not cover everything.
3. Enthuware mock tests are must-do. I do not work for Enthuware and still recommend them.
4. I did not take extensive notes as I used to do in college. I read the two books cover to cover, attempted all the mock questions and exams, and then made note of some page numbers I thought were important. Before the exam, I only revised those pages.
5. The Charles Lyons book also gets you a free online exam. The book or the publisher does not mention anywhere how to take that exam so I am going to describe it here. It took me a week and multiple emails to get this information from Garner Press.
(1) Go to http://exams.garnerpress.com
(2) Register by following the link on the left hand side
(3) Once you have completed registration, login to the site (e.g. via the link on the left hand side)
(4) To activate your free exam subscription, visit http://exams.garnerpress.com/scwcd once you have logged in.