Much later than planned (check my post when I revealed my intent to pass SCWCD) I managed to get this certificate. The result (94%) is in my opinion more than good 🙂 Preparations began a fairly long time ago (over a year ago) but since this time there were some unexpected circumstances (mainly a project which seemed to grow and grow) and that’s why SCWCD mission took me so long.
I started preparations as usual, by downloading specifications and adding API to Firefox bookmarks (list of links here). Then I bought Head First Servlets and JSP, the most recommended book for this certificate. I had ambitiously assumed that I would be able to write more detailed posts about what I learnt but unfortunately lack of time didn’t allow me to do it.
I read the book twice in a fairly considerable period of time. The first reading was to revise servlets and read about areas I hadn’t met before (mainly Custom Tags). This time I didn’t concentrate on details, it was the purpose of the second reading. Simultaneously with reading I started experimenting with NetBeans and writing simple JSPs, creating web.xml manually, etc.
The final impulse to take the exam was a promotion from Sun connected with Kirk Pepperdine’s talk at Warsaw JUG (more about this promotion in Polish can be found at Jacek Laskowski’s blog). I saved about 300 Polish Zlotys, bought an exam voucher and an e-simulator with example questions which at the end turned out to be very similar to the real exam (not surprising at all 🙂). This simulator, free mocks and notes available at JavaRanch Forum and questions from Head First book were more than enough and this time I didn’t buy a simulator from WhizLabs or Enthuware.
And what do I think about SCWCD itself? Unfortunately I didn’t like it as much as SCJP. That time I felt that everything I was learning would be useful, and now at SCWCD learning path, I had to memorize things I DEFINITELY won’t use in real projects (custom tags especially). Although some chapters were interesting and I think every developer should know how to manually build a web application, how a servlet works and what design patterns could be useful for various scenarios. Obviously knowledge about JSP tags is also desirable, especially when you are joining an older project written in this technology.
To sum up, SCWCD certificate is good to have but some stuff you have to familiarize yourself with could make you sad/sick/depressed/angry (choose at least one).
