OCM Java EE 6 Enterprise Architect Exam Guide (Exams 1Z0-807,1Z0-865,1Z0-866) by P Allen & J Bambara

Rating: I give this book 7 out of 10 horseshoes.

I want to give the "OCM Java EE 6 Enterprise Architect Exam Guide" book 9 horseshoes and the CD with the practice exam 2 horseshoes. I'll compromise and give the whole entity 7 horseshoes. What's wrong with the CD you ask? It requires Windows. When I installed it on my Windows virtual machine, I got an error that it could not register the font Lucidia-Sans Regular TrueType. Verify that you have sufficient permissions to install fonts and that the system supports this font." The software worked fine without the font, so I could have done with the error. Also, the hint button in practice mode (titled "assistance") looked like a title and it took me a few minutes of searching to find it.

Ok, now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's go on to the actual book. All three parts of the exam are covered. I think part 1 is covered the best followed part 3. This makes sense as part 2 of the exam is more "doing."

As with other McGraw-Hill books, there are some hands on exercises and each chapter ends with a two minute drill along with practice questions. Some of the questions were true/false and not representative of the exam format. They don't tell you how many answers are correct which makes them harder.

I particularly liked the tables. Both to review topics and to map scenarios to patterns and technologies. This is a skill you need for the exam so it was great to have it highlighted.
I like that it wasn't an artificial world. The book mentions Eclipse, Spring, Guice and WebSphere. I also liked the phrase "note that these answers are not necessarily what you might encounter in your workplace." I was surprised to see so much JavaScript code in the book, but it was apparent that isn't on the exam.

When I look the (SCEA 5) exam, I used the Cade/Sheil book. Allen/Bambara's book covers version 6, has much more detail on what you need to know and has way more practice questions. It's actually possible to use it to study instead of just as a brief review.

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Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher for reviewing it on behalf of CodeRanch.

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Review migrated from old book review post