Sonntag, 13. Mai 2012

Passing OCMJEA Exam Part I

Passing OCMJEA Exam Part I

I recently passed the Oracle Certified Master Java EE 5 Enterprise Architect (OCMJEA) exam part I with 93%. I would like to share some hints on how to prepare for the multiple-choice test.

General information:

  • There are 64 questions in the exam.
  • You have 2 hours time, which is more than enough.
  • Passing score is 57%.
  • You are always given the number of correct answers (usually 1 to 3 out of 4 or 5 choices).

Tips for the exam:

  • You should have plenty of time. Carefully read each question (the text can span several lines).
  • Look for hints in the question text, e.g. do we have experienced developers, is there synchronous or asynchronous processing, is future-proofing important, etc.
  • Use the 'strike-out' function (right mouse key) to eliminate answers that are obviously wrong. Sometimes it's easier to find the correct answers by eliminating all the wrong ones.
  • Use the 'Mark for review' checkbox to review difficult questions after you answered all the other questions.

 How to prepare:

  • Just reading the Cade/Sheil book is definitly not enough. It only provides an overview about what to learn and examples of what exam questions can look like.
  • You need to know about the most important features and characteristics of all the technologies and APIs mentioned in the book. This includes seldom-used technologies like RMI, JCA or JAXR.
  • Good knowledge of the 'modern' technologies like JSF, JPA and JMS is recommended.
  • Very good knowledge about design patterns is required. Again, forget the information in Cade/Sheil book, you'll need more than that. Expect questions like 'What is a characteristic of the XXX pattern?' or 'Which design pattern is most suitable for ...?'.
  • Very good knowledge about non-functional requirements is required. You must know what scalability, availability, maintainability etc. really mean, especially when comparing 2-tier and 3-tier architectures.
  • Use Google to search for information by people who have passed the test. Try search terms like 'OCMJEA exam hints' or 'SCEA exam preparation'. Most search results will point to ads for test software, but some will lead you to sites like this one.

Good luck for your exam.