For SCEA, excuse me OCMJEA, I do not recall a single question that contained syntax. They do ask questions about declarative security versus programmative security (in the deployment descriptor vs. coded into the EJB itself), but not about the
syntax.
I think what's especially important is to know things like (a) why to use REST instead of Web Services or RMI, or why straight
JDBC over CMP (container managed persistence). If you think JDBC is better, use that if you have decent arguments for it. And (b)
you should know to pick one of the right technologies or a good solution, when confronted with a given requirement. If the requirements ask for scalability, then doing everything with servlets is probably not a good idea.
Cheers-