Best Strategy of Study for SCEA 5

[Farbod H Foomany]

Hi,
I have made a similar post but let me ask this in a new thread:
I think most of us have some experience with these technologies, but haven't had involvement in others. So there are some areas which we are new in. What is your recommendation for studying those topics...such as EJB3 persistence API, Web services security, etc., Is it better to browse internet and read white papers and short tutorials on those topics or read the first chapters of related books?
What about part II and III of SCEA 5 (all I am asking is about SCEA 5)
Does in-depth knowledge of those technologies come useful in part 2, 3? Or just knowledge of UML and Patterns?
Regards
Farbod

[Theodore Casser]

With regards to the topics on Part I, my opinion is that it's best to read the theory portions, certainly, of the books for those things on which you have a lack of experience. It might help to understand them from the level of the developer in some cases (such as EJB), but bear in mind that the exam more covers the theoretical application of the technology, and the aspects such as security planning and scalability, none of which will be covered in the first chapter of a book.

For Part II, there's no real way to 'study'. It's a matter of knowing how to do it, more than what to do, and here's where a novice at UML is going to get tripped up. This isn't all you're going to need to know - you also need to know, for practical reasons, where to apply the Java EE 5 technologies and how to do so - but without practical experience in design, you're going to be sunk. Part III builds on this, by asking you the why's of where you applied the Java EE 5 technologies, so....

[Farbod H Foomany]

Hi and thanks,
helpful reply. I think I got your points. Just that novice at UML is different from noivce at J2EE technologies. You may be an experienced analyst and designer and have never used EJB or messaging services. Hope that studying can help in that dimension.
I understand also that you should read the entire book, but selectively with more emphasis on non functional specifications.
Thank you again
I welcome any other advice.
Best Regards
Farbod

[Juan Pablo Crossley]

I wrote down my experience regarding the SCEA 5, take a look of it in http://javaxcross.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-pass-scea-5.html , but I think you must try to understand the technology, I mean... go and create an EJB3 if have lack of experience in that part, I don't think you need to be a guru, but try to create a Hello World example, this will help you a lot and will not take a lot of time,

for the part 2, I think the same, try to do some exercises creating some designs and share it with other people to get feedback, that's the best option you have, reading... yes, this help, but the practice is the key part in here.

[Farbod H Foomany]

Thank you Juan, it was helpful.