Hello Rancher,
Cleared SCWCD today morning with 95% (missed 3 questions).
Even I faced the mystery
of 70 questions appearing on screen, but the Report Sheet only showed 69.
I would like to share my experience and overall preparation for it.
Had given
SCJP 1.5 on 5th June 06, Then started with SCWCD preparation but due to our over ambitions project deadlines in offshore companies, did not get time to even prepare a bit for the exam for next 1 month. Finally after the project delivery on 11th Aug, decided to book the date for SCWCD on 28th Aug. thoroughly prepared for 2 weeks using the HFSJ. Since I already had a good exposure to JSP/Servets already, I skimmed through the basics but took my own time for the newer topics like EL and Tag Files. I was already acquainted with Filters, Custom Tags and all the Design
Patterns so they were not of any worry to me.
Got some vague question on some Class Loader
, which is where I think I lost 1 questions, Can�t figure out the other 2 [everything looked correct from my perspective]
Books/Notes Referred 1. Read the HFSJ book once [
Great Book Guys: Thanks to Bert, Kathy & Bryan for the gem]
2. Read Frederic�s Notes [Summarized really well, mostly for Last Minute Revisions]
3. Again read the HFSJ book, this time taking notes and preparing A4 size Post-It notes so that I could stick them up at my work place and glimpse through them as and when needed (This is really very good and effective technique if you need to know and byheart so many things like JSTL, declarative security)
4.Read Charles chapter on Security [Just liked the diagram on page 522]
5.Bryan�s Dynamic Attribute Tutorial [this one helped me get points on the Dynamic Attribute Question I got in the Exam ]
6.And other stuff from Hanumant Deskmukh�s book that was skipped by HFSJ (like <c
ut>, <c:redirect>, variable tag)
Mock Exam 1.
Java Ranch Mock Exam (avg: 90%)
2.
www.jdiscuss.com (avg: 80%)
3.
www.jiris.com 4.
www.j2eecertificate.com (avg: 85%)
5. JwebPlus Enthuware Mock Exam (avg: 80%)
6. HFSJ Final Mock Exam (Scored 60.4%
) (The +20% Rule more than worked for me
Suggestions/Observations 1. Design Pattern questions are very easy and straight forward
2. Custom Tag Libraries have a few tricky questions
3. EL is something that
you should be very careful [Quote vs. No Quotes]
4. Must know the API�s for req,resp,ctx,cfg,sessions and listeners very well
5. Try to give as many mocks as possible before the exam.
6. Time is not a constraint, one could finish the exam in 1 hr [I took 1hr 30 mins]
Hope some of the myths clear after reading this
1. I never referred to any specs of any kind for my complete preparation of SCWCD [don�t even know the exact versions to download still ]
2. I did not try even a single HelloWorld program practically leave apart the Custom Tag Development and other EL concepts
But that didn�t stop me from PASSING the EXAM.
Would be joining the celebrations
of Lord Ganesh in Maharashtra, India and may be take up SCBCD sometime later this year.
Regards,
Dinesh Sundrani
[ August 28, 2006: Message edited by: Dinu Sundrani ]
