SCWCD 1.4 Beta Preparation

[Zulfikar Dharmawan]

Some of you guys, had probably received the free voucher, well... me too. So, the horn has been blown. It's preparation time. I've been procrastinating old SCWCD for quite some time. I have the Hanuman's book. I see that there are some new objectives not covered, such as:
1. Expression Language,
2. Taglib,
3. Custom tag
Could anyone suggest any sites to ponder on those particular subjects?
Thanks before

[Nicholas Cheung]

Hi,
First of all, I guess custom tag, or taglib are not new topics. They are discussed in the book SCWCD Exam Kit Chapter 15 and 16.
The new topics are:
- Expression Language
- Filter
- JSLT
- New design patterns
- Replacement of SingleThreadModel interface
And some of these topics are covered in the book, such as Filter (chapter 18) and Design patterns (an introduction in chapter 17).
Those not covered can be found from JSP 2.0 Spec (EL, JSLT) and Servlet 2.4 Spec (SingleThreadModel interface replacement, details of Filters).
Hope this help.
Nick.

[Kathy Sierra]

Howdy all,
The content in the SCWCD exam kit is excellent, and appropriate for the objectives which are also covered in the new exam. BUT... be warned that the mock exam questions in the book are no longer a good representation of the old one. They were *very* close in tone and style to the previous exam, but the new questions (see the other threads where we've talked about this) are radically different.
We WILL post some mock exam questions here that are similar to the style you'll see on the exam, prior to the beta (we won't get to that until after the new year, though).
So, I think that book is still the best bet for studying the content, for the previous objectives, but the mock exams are no longer a good indication of the real exam. They are STILL very good mock questions to test your memorization. Most of this knowledge will still be needed for the new exam, except that instead of asking a question so directly (the way they were in the old exam and in this book), the new questions will expect you to read code and figure things out. But without that base knowledge, you won't be able to figure it out...
The other book I might suggest is Pro JSP (APress). I haven't read all of it, so I don't want to give it a complete recommendation, but some of the parts I've read are really good, and it *does* have the new information for the new JSP spec.
I would say that many of the most difficult questions on the exam are related to custom tags. EL questions are fairly straightforward, because EL is simple, but there are some real *gotchas* in places where EL looks like Java, but behaves differently (especially with the [ ] operator!). Be very certain that you can access properties of an object, multiple levels deep, using any combination of the [ ] and the "." operator, including array access. Be sure you REALLY know the implications of accessing the implicit objects, and the ramifications of scope and thread safety, etc.
Of everything on the exam, the patterns questions are the most straightforward. If you know the patterns and what they're good for, you should do fine here. Be prepared to read a scenario and decide which pattern or patterns will be good selections.
Security is also not too tricky.
But man oh man... the custom tag handler stuff is a little rough, more difficult than in the current version of the exam. And of course now there's the simple model, and you have to know about tag files, etc.
Hmmm... there's a lot of stuff on the exam about listeners, and some of the issues are not as simple as they might seem. Think about exactly WHICH object is getting the notification, and under which circumstances. Think about migration issues, too. REALLY be sure that you understand all of this.
Filters are another challenging part of the new exam. Be sure you understand how that all works.
Oh yeah, just because we don't like scriptlet code in JSPs anymore, that does NOT mean that it you won't see it on the exam. You'll still have to read a lot of scriptlet code in the real world, so there's a LOT of it on the exam. Even though we don't like it!
There are a lot of questions that involve knowing all of the different places where the Container will search for various things (taglibs, etc.). Be prepared to know EVERY possible place and way in which things in your web app can be located. You might see a directory structure and YOU must drag and drop the correct directory name into the right slot, for example, so be sure that you know EVERYTHING about deployment!
If you're not sure about something, test it on the new Tomcat.
Bert and Bryan and I will give you much more info on how to prepare for the beta, but probably not until the first week in January.
So, these are just a few thoughts to keep you busy

cheers,
Kathy

[Ko Ko Naing]

Thank you, Kathy... It's really good to see you guide the people here in SCWCD forum, even though u usually wandering around the SCBCD ranch...
I believe that the info you provide here are really useful for us, who are struggling for the beta exam...
Without the guide of U, Bert and Bryan, the beta testers will be like trying out of the Amazon jungle with just a map... But with the guides from u three, we got a GPRS connection from satellite and we will make it finally for sure... (Out of the Amazon Jungle) :roll:
Thanks again, Kathy...

[Lakshmi Karri]

Is this the book you are refering?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1930110596/jchqjavaprogramm/103-1662875-8014216
Just wanted to make sure.
Thanks

[Zulfikar Dharmawan]

Originally posted by Lakshmi Karri:
Is this the book you are refering?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1930110596/jchqjavaprogramm/103-1662875-8014216

Yes, SCWCD Exam Study Kit: Java Web Component Developer Certification by Hanumant Deshmukh, Jignesh Malavia, Jacquelyn Carter

[Zulfikar Dharmawan]

Originally posted by Kathy Sierra:

... Most of this knowledge will still be needed for the new exam, except that instead of asking a question so directly (the way they were in the old exam and in this book), the new questions will expect you to read code and figure things out. But without that base knowledge, you won't be able to figure it out...

Thanks for the insider info, Kathy
BTW, as I read through the objectives, most of them expect us to write code. So, I see that the exam will not be a multiple choice type of exam, is it?

[Bert Bates]

The new exam IS mostly multiple choice, I say mostly because there will be several "drag and drop" kind of questions also. However the drag and drop questions are really like hyper-multiple choice. The bottom line is this, other than adding feedback comments, you NEVER have use your keyboard. The whole test is mouse driven. Of course that means that you're not going to actually WRITE any code, but you will be asked to analyze code samples, and to add the correct "code snippets" into partial code samples.
In general, Sun is trying to migrate its certification exams away from "knowledge based" (memorization, multiple choice), and towards "performance based" (actually doing tasks). This is a migration however, not an overnight revolution. If you are familiar with the existing test, you'll see that with the new test, even though it's still multiple choice, the nature of the questions has changed. The old test has kind of a "tag trivia" reputation, and we're hoping that the new test will be seen as testing much more practical, useful knowledge.
The new objectives do in fact take a more "doing" orientation, and the exams will evolve in that direction too!
Bert

[Pradeep bhatt]

I say mostly because there will be several "drag and drop" kind of questions also.

The Drag and drop does not work in the local Prometric center . I had to restart the machine thrice when I took up SCBCD beta.

[Ko Ko Naing]

Originally posted by Pradeep Bhat:

The Drag and drop does not work in the local Prometric center . I had to restart the machine thrice when I took up SCBCD beta.

BTW, did u get SCBCD, Pradeep? I couldn't catch up the news at that time, coz I was pretty busy with my work...

[Pradeep bhatt]

BTW, did u get SCBCD, Pradeep?

Yes.

[Michael Sullivan]

I'm reading a lot here about persons using Tomcat as their servlet container. I've just downloaded and installed Resin 3.0.4, a significant rewrite of Resin and includes support for the JSP 2.0 and Servlet 2.4 draft specifications.

Will this be sufficient for the SCWCD 1.4 exam? I use resin at work and would like to stay as close as possible to that. (anyone else running Resin in these parts?)

[Pradeep bhatt]

Bert and Bryan and I will give you much more info on how to prepare for the beta, but probably not until the first week in January.

Just wanted to remind Kathy,Bert and Bryan!

[Mehdi Chaouachi]

Yes, it is already the second week of jan and none of them has appeared till now

[rashmi date]

Hi Bert-Kathy,
i passed my scjp 1.4 with 93% because of your book.i remember before publishing the book for SCJP you gave all of us the free download for the few chapters.
Can i request you the same for SCWCD Beta.if you can do that it will be a g8 help for all of us.
Thanks in advance.waiting for your reply.
Rashmi

[Theodore Casser]

Originally posted by Pradeep Bhat:

The Drag and drop does not work in the local Prometric center . I had to restart the machine thrice when I took up SCBCD beta.

This is why I'm being careful as to what center I take my exam at. I had the same problem, after they'd said that it wasn't going to be a problem. We'll see in a week or so, I suppose.
All things being equal, I'm hopeful they got everything ironed out this time.

[sh yh]

Originally posted by Kathy Sierra:
Howdy all,
I would say that many of the most difficult questions on the exam are related to custom tags. EL questions are fairly straightforward, because EL is simple, but there are some real *gotchas* in places where EL looks like Java, but behaves differently (especially with the [ ] operator!). Be very certain that you can access properties of an object, multiple levels deep, using any combination of the [ ] and the "." operator, including array access. Be sure you REALLY know the implications of accessing the implicit objects, and the ramifications of scope and thread safety, etc.
Kathy

What does "thread safety" mean?
Does it mean the thread safety of EL or implicit objects or scopes?
Thanks

[Dave Knipp]

Hi everyone,
I've been keeping up with the status of how the scwcd beta is going and regret that i couldn't participate. But i would like to take it within the next couple of months and i dont want to take the old one cuz its now almost out of date
Does anyone know when the new scwcd exam will become available? i know they have to go over all the beta tests and filter out appropriate answers etc. but is this a 2 month process or a 6 month process?
Also does anyone know of any books that will be coming out that cover the objectives on the new scwcd exam?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Dave