SCJD after the acquisition of Sun (by Oracle)

[Roel De Nijs]

Hi all,

Because a whole lot of people have trouble (and get frustrated) with the SCJD assignment after the acquisition of Sun by Oracle, I took the initiative (as being one of the moderators of this forum) to get as much as information possible about this certification and how the complete process of this certification has to happen now. When I get updates I edit this post (or post another reply) with the new information.

April 20:
I contacted Sun Educational Services (SES) of Belgium to get an overview of the current situation. Of course all decisions are made by the management in the United States, the current problems were already pointed out on a conference call by someone of the Belgian SES and after the e-mail I have sent today the issues were again brought to their attention.
According to the very helpful person of Belgian SES:

the current email address with regard to the SCJD certification (questions, uploading and downloading assignments) is [e-mail]. When you send an e-mail you'll get an instant automatic reply you'll get an answer in 7 days

at this moment no decision taken about retiring (ending) the SCJD certification

When I get new information, I'll post it in this thread. If another rancher has valuable (and confirmed) information about the whole process, please feel free to post it here, so this topic is always up-to-date about current situation of SCJD. Please don't use this thread to complain about the lack of service or issues you have with the SCJD certification process (just open another thread).

Hopefully this thread will result in less frustration and about the SCJD certification.
Kind regards,
Roel

[edit] typo in the email address (the valid address has _ww instead of -www). I tried it today (April 21) and got an auto-reply immediately (thanks to Ivan Mora for informing me about the typo)

[Roel De Nijs]

It seems another change in the process is made by Oracle when submitting your assignment. You know must take the essay exam, before submitting your assignment. The original thread can be found here.

Pieter Jacobs wrote:I have been in communication with Oracle quite a bit this week, because in the past you could upload the assignment and then do the essay exam thereafter, but the process has changed.
I received emails from both the email addresses : [e-mail] and [e-mail]; and herewith one of the replies:

Please be sure you have completed your essay exam (310-027) before sending us your completed assignment and include your Prometric test ID with your assignment submission.

Thanks Pieter for sharing this valuable information!

[Roel De Nijs]

Seems the situation with the email addresses is just a temporarily situation (until all systems changes due to the acquisition are finalized):

We are temporarily changing the process for this certification due to some systems changes related to the Oracle acquisition. Rather than download the assignment instructions and upload the assignment completions, we are simply sending it to you as an email attachment and you will send us back a JAR file. Please see your attached assignment.

When you have completed your SCJD assignment, please go to Prometric and take Part 2 of your certification. Part 2 is the exam 310-027, which you can register for at prometric.com/sun. We cannot grade your assignment (310-252A) without the completion of the essay (310-027).
When you are ready to send us your completed assignment you may email it to [e-mail]. We will then collect your essay responses and send this off for grading. We will respond to you with a grade within 4-6 weeks.

Thanks to Evelina Vrabie for sharing!

[Carlos Morillo]

Hello Everybody,

This is the email I got this past Friday May 21st 2010 from [e-mail] after I emailed [e-mail], [e-mail] and
[e-mail] on Tuesday May 18th 2010 requesting Assignment Upload rights:

Hello Carlos

We have changed the process of remitting assignments to make it more convenient for the candidate. Instead of waiting for upload permissions, please email your completed assignment to us directly at [e-mail].

Please be sure you have completed the (310-027) SCJD essay exam before sending us your completed assignment and include your Prometric Testing ID with your submission. To register for the essay go to http://www.prometric.com/sun.

Please let us know if we may provide further assistance.

Sincerely,

Michele
Sun Certification Support
Oracle Education
[e-mail]

Hope this helps,

Carlos.

[Roel De Nijs]

They are making a huge amount of possible addresses to email to and in their email signature is yet another one

[Carlos Morillo]

Hello Everybody,

Received this Auto Reply from [e-mail] after
submitting my assignment by email to [e-mail] and [e-mail]:

Thank you for your assignment submission. Please allow 4-6 weeks for your assignment to be graded. You will receive notification via email once we have your assignment results. If you have not already, please go ahead and complete any outstanding requirements.

Feel free to contact us at [e-mail] if you have any questions.

If you have submitted a query and have not submitted your assignment, we will reply to your question within 5 business days. Please send future questions to [e-mail]

Regards,
OCP Team

Hope this helps,

Carlos.

[Roel De Nijs]

According to someone of SES Belgium:

When you are ready to send us your completed assignment you may email it to [e-mail]. We will then collect your essay responses and send this off for grading. We will respond to you with a grade within 4-6 weeks

But seems there are some issues with attaching a JAR file and sending an email to this email address. More info in this thread.

[Mike Bailey]

For any of you that bought the assignment before the acquisition of Sun by Oracle (like I did), here's what happened.

After explaining my situation, I got this:
"We would suggest that you complete the assignment and essay and mail us within 2-3 weeks. This process is undergoing a change and it will not be possible for you to upload the assignment after the 12 month period." followed by the boilerplate response that is included earlier in this thread.

After explaining there was no 12 month period for me, errr that 12 months had passed since I downloaded the assignment (it is almost 2 1/2 years since I bought the assignment) in a few emails back and forth (the CSRs don't seem to be overly competent) I got this response:
"We would request you to mail us the assignment as soon as possible, since the assignment process is undergoing a major change after the Oracle SUN merge. Please submit the assignment and the essay by 15th June, we cannot extend your deadline beyond that. "

Considering I got this mail on May 27th and had only done initial requirements and design work, I was a little worried. But I did pass and actually got my results really fast. I took the essay on June 14 mailed the jar in on june 15th, got an email that the assignment was sent to a third party for grading on June 17th, and got an email on june 24th that I had been manually certified on june 20th. I asked for my score, but the reply said that passing grades don't get a score. That stinks.

[Matthew Workman]

I originally sent my assignment in around March 25. I sent it to all the e-mails that have been posted here. I still have not heard back. I've called several times but they are no help on the phone. In mid april I sent an e-mail to [e-mail] asking if they recieved it. I got an e-mail back saying they would try to find out if they had received it. They never did get back to me. June 4th I sent another e-mail asking about it and never got a response. I sent yet another a few days ago.

[Fernando Franzini]

Thanks for tip Roel
I'll send an email requesting my SCJD certificate once I haven't received!
Regards.

[Mike Peters]

For what it is worth, these are the steps I took:
1. prepared my submission.jar (finished on July 4)
2. could not upload, so I e-mailed [e-mail], [e-mail] and [e-mail] with the question what to do, but apart from the confirmation message I never got a response (July 4)
3. took the essay exam (July 12)
4. submitted my assignment to [e-mail] (July 14) and got a confirmation
5. today I got a confirmation that I passed (July 21)

My experience with the process is that everything works smoothly, except for the missing response from [e-mail].

[Rodrigo R Branas]

Guys,

I'm in the same situation. I downloaded the assignment on August of 2008. I scheduled the essay to next August 08.

What should I do? Anybody knows if is still valid?

Thanks a lot,

Rodrigo

[Roel De Nijs]

If I had to take the process again, I would do as I described here.

[Rodrigo R. Branas]

People,

Below the answer of OCP Team regarding my question about submit an assignment from 2008 (more than 1 year).

Hi Rodrigo,

Please send your SCJD assignment and essay to us at this email address [e-mail]. We will process it when we receive it. Please be sure that you include your Prometric Testing ID/ Candidate ID when you send your assignment.

When you have completed your SCJD assignment, please go to Prometric and take Part 2 of your certification. Part 2 is the exam 310-027, which you can register for at prometric.com/sun. We cannot grade your assignment (310-252A) without the completion of the essay (310-027).

Thanks,
OCP Team

[David Byron]

Based on the information here, it looks as if these are the new names of the certifications:

SCJP 6 == Oracle Certified Professional, Java SE 6 Programmer
SCJD 6 == Oracle Certified Master, Java SE6 Developer

[Roel De Nijs]

This page still says "Sun Certified Java Developer (SCJD)"

[David Byron]

David Byron wrote:
Based on the information here, it looks as if these are the new names of the certifications:

SCJP 6 == Oracle Certified Professional, Java SE 6 Programmer
SCJD 6 == Oracle Certified Master, Java SE6 Developer

Now confirmed.

[Matthew Brown]

"Master". Like that one

[Roel De Nijs]

That means I have to update my cv and all other resources where I have mentioned my certifications

[David Byron]

Roel De Nijs wrote:That means I have to update my cv and all other resources where I have mentioned my certifications

That's unclear in their explanation. Their position is that certifications passed before 01 September 2010 will remain SCJD. Use of the new branding will require purchasing/passing an "upgrade" to the next technology release:

Oracle wrote:You can upgrade your certification at any time to the latest technology release to receive an Oracle certification title.
...
Only candidates who pass the certification exams from September 1, 2010 forward will receive the Oracle certificate and logo. Any candidates who became certified prior to September 1, 2010 will receive the Sun certificate and logo. If you were Sun certified prior to September 1, 2010 and request a new certificate after September 1, 2010, you will still receive a Sun certificate and logo.
...
If you currently hold a Sun certification, we can only provide you with a certificate with the Sun Certification title.

What this means for SCJDs that are already at the latest tested technology release is unclear: it means either using the new branding now xor waiting until an SE7 cert update is available and then taking it.

[Roel De Nijs]

Makes no sense to me: you'll get another title, although you'll have taken the same exam (unless they use other certification exam versions). Because of the new title someone who took the SCJP6 at September 2, 2010 he will be an "Oracle Certified Professional, Java SE 6 Programmer". I will be a Sun Certified Java Programmer for Java 6, which will sound outdated (and an old certification), because the current name of this certification is OCP...

[Florin Antonescu]

Hi there!
I have a question related to the new names of the Sun certifications. Today I gave the essay exam of the SCJD certification, but haven't submitted the assignment yet. I was thinking of waiting until 2-3 September and then to upload it, maybe in this way I will receive an Oracle certification title. What do you think, is it possible, or should I upload it now?

Thanks,
Florin

[Avishkar Nikale]

Florin Antonescu wrote:Hi there!
I have a question related to the new names of the Sun certifications. Today I gave the essay exam of the SCJD certification, but haven't submitted the assignment yet. I was thinking of waiting until 2-3 September and then to upload it, maybe in this way I will receive an Oracle certification title. What do you think, is it possible, or should I upload it now?

Thanks,
Florin

Florin,

I have read in the forum about certain instances where if the assignment is not submitted in proximity of the exam
it could lead to a delay.

This would not always be the case but better safe than sorry.

Please gather more advice from people who have given the SCJD in recent past.

Hope the below link helps.

SCJD 5 months - 3 resubmissions

[Roel De Nijs]

This story is completely different: 3 weeks between taking essay exam and submitting assignment, 2 weeks to get result.

I would wait and go for the new Oracle certification title (although it will take quiet a while before they'll be commonly used: the Sun-acronyms are a lot easier/shorter than the Oracle-titles)

[Roberto Perillo]

Howdy, Florin. Welcome to JavaRanch, champion!

I was thinking of waiting until 2-3 September and then to upload it, maybe in this way I will receive an Oracle certification title.

Well, according to this page, if you take a certification from September 1st forward, your certificate will contain the Oracle logo. However, you already took the essay exam, so I'm not sure if this rule would fit. Well, if I were you, I'd submit the assignment today, to avoid any risk, you know...

[Florin Antonescu]

Roberto Perillo wrote:Well, if I were you, I'd submit the assignment today, to avoid any risk, you know...

I think I will submit it today.
To which email address should I send the assignment to? [e-mail] or [e-mail] or [e-mail] or [e-mail] ?
Should I upload it to https://www.certmanager.net/sun_assignment anymore?

[Elchin Asgarli]

Roel De Nijs wrote:This story is completely different: 3 weeks between taking essay exam and submitting assignment, 2 weeks to get result.

I would wait and go for the new Oracle certification title (although it will take quiet a while before they'll be commonly used: the Sun-acronyms are a lot easier/shorter than the Oracle-titles)

Why should he wait just to have a different logo on his certificate? Don't get me wrong, but does it change the point of certificate?

[Roel De Nijs]

[e-mail] is the email address used for submitting your assignment.

No need to upload it anymore via Sun's website, process in the Oracle days is just sending an email to the above email address with your submission jar attached.

[David Byron]

Florin Antonescu wrote:Today I gave the essay exam of the SCJD certification, but haven't submitted the assignment yet. I was thinking of waiting until 2-3 September and then to upload it, maybe in this way I will receive an Oracle certification title. What do you think, is it possible, or should I upload it now?

I think it's very likely that if you submit your project now, you'll receive your results after 01 September.

Whether you receive the legacy cert or the new cert depends (apparently) on when the result is generated.

[David Byron]

Elchin Asgarli wrote:Why should he wait just to have a different logo on his certificate? Don't get me wrong, but does it change the point of certificate?

"Sun" is now a stale, legacy brand referencing a non-existent company. If certification has promotional value (above the value that comes from actually doing the work), then it seems obvious that a fresh, current brand is preferable.

[Roel De Nijs]

Elchin Asgarli wrote:Why should he wait just to have a different logo on his certificate? Don't get me wrong, but does it change the point of certificate?

Why you could/would do that, I described a few posts above (which is just my personal opinion).

And I believe they use the date you took the essay exam as the official start date of your certification, so in the case of Florin waiting a few weeks longer will make no difference. I didn't think about that one when I posted the "I would wait"-comment

[Elchin Asgarli]

I got your points, and in addition I can say that having your certificate Oracle branded will also show that you freshly took it - thus you have knowledge fresh in your head.

But my own opinion coming from gut feeling is still the same as Roel's

[Olu Shiyan]

All,


So I guess if you downloaded the assignment before September 01, 2010 but submitted and did the essay in say October 2010. You'll get an Oracle certification right?




Thanks

[Roel De Nijs]

I guess if you take the essay exam after 1 september, you'll get an Oracle certificate. When you downloaded/got the assignment, is not important.

[Florin Antonescu]

Olu Shiyan wrote:So I guess if you downloaded the assignment before September 01, 2010 but submitted and did the essay in say October 2010. You'll get an Oracle certification right?

The official Oracle position as presented on their website is that

Oracle wrote: Upon completion of all steps, you will achieve an Oracle branded certification title.

[David Byron]

More info:

At Oracle.com, if you visit the page that lists all certifications, click on the Upgrade your certification menu item on the "Already Certified" menu, and follow the "View Sun Certification Upgrade Exams on the Sun Certification Exams Page" link, here's what you'll find:

SCJP, SCWCD, SCBCD, SCDJWS, and SCEA have upgrade exams, but SCJD has no upgrade exam. I assume this is a function of the fact that among these, only the SCJD lacks a conventional exam that can be updated as the technology evolves.

The official way to "upgrade" to an Oracle certification is to take the upgrade exam for the certification one already holds. Since no such path exists for the SCJD, I posed the question in the SCJD LinkedIn group. I asked what path exists for obtaining an OCMJD if one already holds an SCJD. Kate Ingalls Jones, a Market Development Manager at Oracle Corporation, provided the following response:

Kate Ingalls Jones wrote:Or for those already certified in the latest release, you could consider a certification in another area of specialization such as web component development, business component development, web services development or enterprise architecture to receive an Oracle certification title.

Seeking clarification, I asked "So how would the holder of an SCJD upgrade to an OCMJD?" but have received no reply.

Either no path SCJD-->OCMJD will be provided, or the folks at Oracle haven't worked it out yet. Right now, it looks like the former is true. If anyone learns otherwise, please post that information!

[Elchin Asgarli]

David Byron wrote:but SCJD has no upgrade exam.

SCJD does not need an upgrade, which means it is not based on technology. There is no SCJD 4, SCJD 5 etc., its once and forever. Please correct me if I am wrong.

That is how it used to be in Sun times, I believe they did not make their system generic enough so that they could adapt such a change made by Oracle

[Georgiana Lungu]

Here is an URL to the print screen I have done when i was downloading my assignment directly from Prometric, maybe it helps

PrintScreen

[David Byron]

Elchin Asgarli wrote:

David Byron wrote:but SCJD has no upgrade exam.

SCJD does not need an upgrade, which means it is not based on technology. There is no SCJD 4, SCJD 5 etc., its once and forever. Please correct me if I am wrong.

That's the point. The lack of an upgrade path means that it is apparently impossible for a holder of the SCJD to acquire an OCMJD.

For this reason, it seems to me that perhaps Oracle ought to allow SCJD holders to receive the OCMJD (and/or use the Oracle branding) automatically. They're 100% convertible.

[Raf Szczypiorski]

Hi,
I just got an answer from Oracle regarding the certificate name, please read below:

Hi Raf,

Your assignment result was announced on 07 Sept 2010. We will be processing your Oracle Certified Master, Java SE6 Developer certificate.

Regards,
OCP Team

Hope this holds true, and hope this will help you and clear any doubts. As soon as I get it, and something is wrong, I will post more.

Raf