Need Guidance on getting started for SCEA Part 1

[Nandu itha]

I'm planning to take SCEA Part 1 and while i'm looking at Coderance forums for SCEA it seems like i need reffer quite of few books , and also i saw there is one new edition from Sun which is

Sun Certied Entrprise Architect 2nd version, This one book wont be sufficient or what ?

Also for an example if i pick the Masterting in EJB 3 (for EJB section ) which has 800+ pages do i really need this depth for writing the exam?

same applies to all the sections, if each section requires one book and each has 800+ pages do i really have to stress each section this depth or how should i proceed please suggest.

Thanks in Advance

[deepak adlakha]

Welcome to SCEA discussion forum and all the best the exam.

There is no single book as of today, which is sufficient for this exam.

I would suggest read objectives carefully and spend some time in this forum and read posts which are posted by the people who cleared the exam and this should give you good start and in case doubts..post in this forum.

i hope it helps.

[Bear Bibeault]

"Scea Is The Goal", please check your private messages for an important administrative matter.

[Deepak Bala]

for SCEA it seems like i need reffer quite of few books

Yes, that is what architects do. They have to read from multiple books in the real world too.

You will have to master all those concepts in order to pass

[prathap venkata naga yelugula]

Welcome to JavaRanch...

Cheers!
Prathap.

[Nandu itha]

Thanks every one

[Nandu itha]

One Another question any suggestions on which section to begin with or just start with section 1 and keep going


Thanks in advance

[Deepak Bala]

There is no order. Just keep reading

[Pawel Piwowar]

Hello Ranchers,

This is my first post on this forum. First of all, I want to thank all of you for sharing your Java certification experiences. It helped me a lot during my preparations .

Answering to Swapna Bhavanasi questions :

I took SCEA part 1 lately, receiving 87%.
I used following sources during my preparation:
1. Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for Java™ EE Study Guide, Second Edition By: Mark Cade; Humphrey Sheil (http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780131363021/)
- very helpful, however should be used only as a guidance, definitely not enough to pass the exam
2. Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0, Fifth Edition By Richard Monson-Haefel, Bill Burke
- very good book, you dot have to read everything for this exam, just key points and concepts, skipping API details
3. http://java.sun.com/javaee/technologies/ (for JSF, Web Services, JAXP, StAX, etc.)
- key concepts of JEE technologies, don't need to know all API details
4. SCEA 5 Study Guide By Mikalai Zaikin : (http://java.boot.by/scea5-guide/)
- very helpful, despite covering only part of the topics
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_Patterns_(book)
- GOF patterns
6. Core J2EE patterns: best practices and design strategies By Deepak Alur, John Crupi, Dan Malks
- J2EE patterns
7. Other books, articles from Internet (I don't remember all of them), however the previous 6 from my list were essential.

Regarding the order of reading, I would advice using this presented by SUN : http://www.sun.com/training/catalog/courses/CX-310-052.xml .
It is helpful when making mock tests, which also follow this order.

About the exam: It is hard, harder than mock tests, however the questions are not tricky or impossible to answer. They are simply not straight forward. You have to analyse them carefully in order to choose the best answer. (Yes, there are some simple questions, but only about 20%). In most cases you have to choose the best solution for given scenario. Practical experience from real projects helps a lot.
Also knowledge of JEE technologies is a must, however not necessarily the full details of each of them. Regarding patters, it is not enough to memorise them, you have to really understand them. Examples of source code help here.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Regards,

Pawel Piwowar

[Nandu itha]

Thanks Pawel For Sharing this type of valuable information

[Debashish Chakrabarty]

Thanks Pawel. Can you shed some light on what kind of questions were asked on JSF? (Its really annoying that I should learn a framework that I never used or intend to use just for this exam's sake.)

[Pawel Piwowar]

Hello Debashish,

For this exam you don't have to learn all the details of JSF. What is important for the exam is applicability of this technology in various scenarios.
As everybody knows, there are lot of scenario type questions on the exam, and you have to be able to decide if it is better to use JSP alone or JSP + JSF, for example.
These are not easy type of questions, since both answers are correct, but one is slightly "more correct" than the other.
JSF is quite interesting technology and it is worth to learn it. Please note, that it is Architect exam, and even if you will not use JSF directly, you have to
know its basics, as it is a standard technology included in JEE.
I could advice you reading article : "A first look at JavaServer Faces": http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-11-2002/jw-1129-jsf.html?page=1

Regards,

Pawel Piwowar