Certification Courses

smack

Guys,

After completing college a year ago, and being fully employed in the J2EE side of programming, I am now looking at getting some certifications for myself.
I have already looked at the java.sun.com website, and there was one that interested me that I would want.
Sun Certified Business Component Developer (SCBCD).

The only problem with this is that it requires you to do a pre-requisite, that i dont really want to do.
Sun Certified Associate (SCJA)
Sun Certified Programmer (SCJP)
Sun Certified Developer (SCJD)

As I have worked with java for a number of years now, i dont feel the need to do these simple enough courses. I think I have a good enough knowledge of java, jsps, servlets, etc to get by. What i am looking for, is something more around EJBs (CMP,BMP, Session Beans, deployment, etc).
I am also looking for some courses on enterprise server certifications.
IBM Websphere and WSAD, would be a good one to get.
BEA Weblogic is also another would I would be interested in.

Do you guys have any recommendations on some good certifications to get in this area.
Also info on how much, how long it takes to get the cert would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance,
Seamus

i71jskz5xu42pb

smack wrote:

Sun Certified Programmer (SCJP)

As I have worked with java for a number of years now, i dont feel the need to do these simple enough courses

I'd be willing to bet that you would not do well on this exam if you were to do it today. While you may consider yourself familiar with the java language this exam goes to a level of detail most people never need to know (especially if you are using an IDE which uses dynamic compilation). I've seen good developers get pretty average scores. (I'm not familiar with the SCJA - may be relatively new.)

As such these base exams, while required, are not worth much. The SCJD and SCEA on the other hand do measure skills that are more appropriate to real life.

My advice - suck it up, do the 'simple' exams and then do the SCJD and/or SCEA. IBM/BEA certification - if you are going to be working on these platforms for the foreseeable future then maybe.

bigbadcon

I would agree with paschalnee,

I recently finished college in may and decided to do a certification to put me ahead of other graduates while im looking for a job and i decided to do the Sun Certified Programmer (SCJP) course.I bought the book on amazon and looked through the contents and thought "i know all this already" but i soon learned that the detail it goes into is quite intense so its not as easy as you think.although its multiple choice the question are tricky and quite sneeky in places so you need to know the topics in detail.

Anyway good look in which ever one you take

smack

So, I think i have to do the SCJP.

So what is the best way to do the course. 5-day instructor led course. Learn yourself?
Also I was wondering how does one sign up to do the test, and how are the tests performed (online or do you have to go to a test centre)?
Couldn't find anything for ireland on the sun website.
How much does it generally cost?

Hobbes

I sat and passed the SCJP. I can tell you straight off that they ask you questions on stuff you will never need to know outside of a manual (if ever). Some of the questions are trick questions (in that if you don't read everything your going to pick the wrong answer).

What I did was study using http://www.jchq.net/ and got the Mock exam program from Whizlabs http://www.whizlabs.com/ whic is very good. Using that I worked out what parts I was weak on and kept studying. My score in that application matched my final score.

You have to sign up on prometric site and get a voucher from Sun beforehand as far as I recall. The exam cost $114 (afair, could of been more).

Buying the exam is here.
http://www.sun.com/training/certification/register/index.html

Hobbes

You can get IBM related certifications here...

http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/certs/index.shtml

smack

was trying to find the pass rate that is needed for the exam on the sun website, but couldn't find it. Does any of you guys know what % is needed to pass the exam?

Hobbes

61%

http://www.jchq.net/faq/jcertfaq.htm#4.5)

Another thing to watch out for is the multiple choice questions. If you get one of the items wrong in the multiple choice you get the question wrong. It also tells you (now, not for earlier 1.4) how many items you should check off.

bigbadcon

think the SCJP is 80% if thats the one your talking about.not 100% sure thuogh

bigbadcon

I stand corrected

smack

Are you guys sure that it is 62% because at this page I found that it is 52%?

http://www.sun.com/training/catalog/courses/CX-310-035.xml

Miharu

The pass rate is different depending on which version of the exam you are sitting - 52% for 1.4, and 59% for 1.5.

daresie

I took a weekend course and that was useful enough. However I think once you have a decent book, and a load of practice questions as Hobbes suggested, that's all you need. I'm currently studying (I take the exam next week), and the book I'm using is "Programmers Guide to Java Certification" by Khalid A. Mughal and another fella. Really helpful and not too pricey.

"Classes implementing interfaces introduce multiple interface inheritance into their linear implementation inheritance heirarchy" and so on.

bigbadcon

Has anyone sat the exam recently and who can confirm the pass score for the scjp cause im sitting it on tuesday and im gettng a bit worried about it.On the cd i got with the book it has sampe exams on it and it says the pass rate is 80%.Theres no way il get that!

i71jskz5xu42pb

bigbadcon wrote:

Has anyone sat the exam recently and who can confirm the pass score for the scjp cause im sitting it on tuesday and im gettng a bit worried about it.On the cd i got with the book it has sampe exams on it and it says the pass rate is 80%.Theres no way il get that!

If the "pass rate" is 80% that means that 80% of the people that take the exam pass (not that you need 80% to pass).

If you're taking the exam Tuesday then it's presumably to late to cancel/reschedule? If that is the case then it does not matter what the pass rate is - all you can do is your best.

Anyway, the figures quoted below seem closer to the ballpark I remember on these exams.

bigbadcon

Sorry what i meant to say was that you need 80% to pass on the cd i got with my book which is scaring me a bit.Been researching a bit and it looks like its 52% to pass which i think im cabable of getting.hopefully

its a bit crappy the way that if theres a question that is looking for 3 answers and you get 2 right you get the whole question wrong.boourns

Anyone done it recently with any tips for me? besides study that is

Hobbes

You really should be aiming for +80% anyway, your only kidding yourself otherwise.

I had my mocks set to 90%

bigbadcon

Hobbes wrote:

You really should be aiming for +80% anyway, your only kidding yourself otherwise.

Well the only reason I decided to do the certification in the first place was to help me get a Development role as Im a recent graduate and its really tough to get your foot in the door.

I got one in the end starting in January so i thought id do the course anyway while im killing time til then. Not looking for 100% but it would look nice on my cv as there isnt really much on it at the moment cause im straight out of college.

53% will do me nicely although i would be more proud of myself with a nifty +80 but im not gonna hold my breath

Hobbes

The reason you should be aiming for a big score is that your prospective employer if they are familar with the exams they can ask for the results.

The results you get (which can be checked online using an ID you give them) Breaks down each area and your percentage in that area.

Having medicore scores just suggests that your average at best. Of course you can refuse to give them the code to access the data.

My job didn't hassle me for the scores for SCJP but have done for others (PCLP).

bigbadcon

Ended up getting 77% in the end. Delighted with myself.had some tricky questions alright but all in all it was ok.

If anyone is thinking of doing it javaranch.com is definitely the site to look at cause its run by the people who write the books for the scjp and some even wrote the question on the exam itself.

The forums in there are really good as they have forums set up for each certification and everything java related for that matter.they have some good links to mock exams too.A fellow called Marcus Green wrote a mock exam and everyone reckons that its nearly guaranteed that youll get roughly the same score in it as the scjp.I did that mock and got 76% so its bang on.

Time for some beers