Ken Young

For mock exam links, I first did the mock exams described in:

Javaranch SCWCD links

Again I like the free J2EECertificate best - topic-wise questions, comprehensive exam, "difficult" questions exam, with statistics (need free registration).

Other free mock exams that I found:

Jiris: one comprehensive mock exam

JavaPrepare: Some topic-wise questions, pretty straightforward

JavaBeat link: Contains links to two mock exam engines. Its mock exam questions are the same as JavaPrepare.

Sun JSP Quiz: Basic JSP questions.

CertGear: 15 free demo questions, commercial version available.

I also found an excellent site with mock exam links, sample chapters and notes etc:

Radhika Palwai's Web Development Resources


Ken

Originally posted by Vidya Sethuraman:
Congrats!

How did you read the specs? Did you just take the spec reference mentioned in the HFSJ chapter-wise exam or did you scan the entire specs right from the start?

Thanks!

I did both...when I don't understand the answers in the chapter-wise mock exams, I read the relevant spec pages. Then I scan the entire spec after I'm done with reading the book.

What I did was that I downloaded a copy of servlet, JSP and JSTL specs and put them on my "desktop". (I did the same on my computer at work too...shhhh...it just "looks" like I'm hard working when I have these word-filling documents opened when someone else walked into my cube =D )

I only read the specs after I went through the HFSJ book. The HFSJ outlines the important topics that I should know about, as well as omitting stuff that won't appear or less important on the exam. e.g. only the "core" JSTL tags will be on the exam, so when I read the JSTL spec, I skipped other sections (SQL, XML etc). That helps a lot since the documents are long and many sections are not on the exam.

Hope that helps!

Ken

Originally posted by Seema Ahuja:
Kool score Ken,

I am too preparing for SCWCD..and i am completed new to this topic.
I have got HFJS book, but i feel i should hv prior knoweldege of Jsp & servlets.
What do u think...would it suffice to study from the book or should i get any other book for Servlet & JSP?!
if yes then which one?

Please sugguest

Thanks.
Seema

Hi Seema,

Having prior knowledge definitely helps, but using HFSJ alone should be fine too. I have no prior experience on servlets/jsp, so most of the topics are new to me. For me using HFSJ alone is sufficient if you become really familiar with it (go through several times)! I think the book does an excellent job on introducing the main ideas (which is what I needed to get started on the topics). Many other posts on this forum recommend several other books, I am sure you can find the recommendations in other posts.

Another thing I feel would be extremely helpful is to do more hands-on practice, HFSJ starts with a sample project so I tried it out, it would be nice if there are more practical exercises that I can code and try out myself (of course you can type in the examples and change some settings to see the difference).

Regards,

Ken

Unfortunately I write the notes out myself on scratch paper to help me remember...no electronic form It works out better for me to help memorize the keywords by writing it down (I was probably old school to believe reading the book + writing notes is better than just reading the book alone ^_^)

Not sure what to do next...both SCBCD and web services look attractive

Just cleared SCWCD today with a score of 67/69 =) Got a question wrong on web container model and another on session management (which I now found out I changed my initially correct answer when I revisited the question :/ )

I started preparing about two months ago, mainly using HFSJ. Here's what I did:

Read through HFSJ once and did exercises and chapter mock exams. I knew a little bit about HTTP but most of the concepts are new to me, that took a couple of weeks to get through the book (I read a couple hours per day).

Went through HFSJ again, writing down the deployment descriptor elements separately as I encounter them in the book.

The search tool in this forum very powerful, I can find most of the answers for my questions! I also browsed through this forum to look at how others prepared for the exam.

Read the specs: servlet, JSP and JSTL. They are a must! (as everyone else has said) The documents seem to be huge but it turns out I can go through the relevant materials fairly quickly after I am familiar with the materials from reading HFSJ.

Searched this forum for a list of mock exam links and tried the questions. I didn't buy any commercial mock exams. The mock exam links on the javaranch site are all very helpful. J2EE Certificate is an excellent source for topic/chapter-wise mock exams. Highly recommended!

Took the HFSJ mock exam. I only got 68%, the actual score comes out better than the norm +20%, but I won't complain

I think HFSJ is an excellent book to prepare for the exam. Some suggestions I think "might" be useful to make it better:

An overall example/sample showing all the elements in the DD, especially whether an element should be put inside the <servlet> tag. This would be very useful as a refresher before the exam. I have to write down the elements myself as they are mentioned in the book.

Some listings or diagrams to show which attributes or elements are required/optional would be extremly helpful too. Many mock exam quesions I encountered ask whether some particular attributes are required.

Maybe consolidate the "bullet point" pages at the end of each chapter, like the "two-minute drills" sections in the SCJP study guide book. I can use the summary sections before the exam for a last-minute refresher instead of flipping through all the dialogs and graphics in the book again.

Thanks Bryan, Kathy and Bert for another excellent book!

Ken

I came across the same question and wondered the same thing.

Option A: "Filters may be used to create request or response wrappers."
Option B: "Wrappers may be used to create request or response filters."

I picked option B (twice! >_< even though the answer is option A with the explanation "option B is incorrect because the terminology is reversed."

I picked option B because I thought a class that implements the Filter interface (the "request or response filter") uses/instantiates other wrapper classes in the doFilter() method, like the example on page 690. Doesn't that mean wrappers can be "used to create" request or response filters (option B)?

Now I read a few times more, I would choose option A if it means something like "I can use the Filter mechanism to pass wrappers for request/response objects to the servlet", hence filters can be "used to create" request or response wrappers.

Why is my first explanation incorrect?? Or am I just confused on the English here.....

When I started studying for the 1.5 exam I was using the K&B 1.4 book (1.5 book was not available yet at that time). I thought I was pretty good at the 1.4 topics, but when I finally got the 1.5 book and did the self-test questions I didn't do well. So I spent some more time on the 1.5 book by going through the whole book over again.

The 1.5 book is much more suitable for preparing for the 1.5 exam. If you keep reading and practicing mock exam questions, at some point you'll feel comfortable about taking the exam. If not, maybe you can give yourself a little more time to get familiar with the topics instead of rushing yourself.

Good luck ~

I bought the book from amazon, it's the 1.5 version. But if I click on the book image on amazon from the link above, it shows the table of contents of 1.4 version of the SCJP book. But otherwise the book information is correct (use ISBN).

To be sure, you can check out other online bookstores using the ISBN, e.g.:
Barnes and Noble

Actually I think the javaranch mock exam list is one of the most comprehensive (though the exams themselves may not be the all 1.5) list on the web. When I clicked on one of the older exams such as 1.4 and I encounter a question that I know should not be in 1.5 anymore, I'll just skip over it. Even skipping the older version questions (such as those on AWT), a lot of the mock exam questions are still useful for practicing.

Many of these sites in the list is well organized too, with separate page answers and detailed explanations. I find it very useful as assisting with more practice in addition to the K&B self test and sample exam questions. Of course, if you buy the commercial mock exam kits they are probably more up-to-date, but this free list basically contains more than enough practice questions.

In fact I only use the K&B book and this mock exam list...

Originally posted by cs singh:
how can 3 be possible , the method name is diff. and for valid overriding, u need to have the same method name..
Am i sounding wrong???

I think the question is about "overloading" methods, not "overriding", since there is only one class here (I think you need more than one class to override methods?):

1 is not valid since only the return type is different than the original function (need at least different argument list).

2 is a valid overloading method with the same name and different arguments.

3 is valid because its function name is different case (fore"G"ate), so it's a basically another method (not overloaded at all).

4 is not valid since only the access modifier is different (similar to 1).

Thank you everyone

Hi,

Passed SCJP 1.5 on Feb 11 with 94% score! I would like to thank the excellent K&B book, it's truly amazing.

When I started preparing for the exam, I first bought the K&B 1.4 book when the 1.5 book was not available yet. My plan was to study the materials in 1.4 and then update myself to the new 1.5 topics. I thought I covered the topics, then when I came across the K&B 1.5 version in bookstore, I found out the 1.5 exam is so different that I have to buy the 1.5 book. It was suprising when I did well in the mock exams in the 1.4 book but 1.5 is much harder, especially on generics.

I really like the latest 1.5 book where the self-test answers repeat the original questions, saved a lot flipping back and forth.

And thanks to JavaRanch too, definitely the best java forum on the web! The javaranch mock exam list is the most comprehensive page containing different levels of mock exam questions.

I wish I had found about this forum earlier =)

Regards,

Ken