Customer Reviews

Sun Certified Web Component Developer Study Companion: SCWCD Java EE 5 (exams 310-083 and 310-084)

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This is a complete, no nonsense guide to the material on the Sun Certified Web Component Developer (SCWCD) exam. It is well written, and easy to read.

Last week I passed the 310-084 exam with a score of 92%. This book was one of my chief resources in preparing. I bought this book on impulse (I already had the other three big books on preparation for the SCWCD). I was pleasantly surprised. The book covers all the material on the exam in a straightforward way. For example, I found the description of deploying web applications (deployment descriptor elements) very helpful.

Readers with no background in Servlets and JSP may find the material here too detailed for an introduction. These readers may be want to look at Head First Servlets and JSP: Passing the Sun Certified Web Component Developer Exam (Brain-Friendly Guides). Once they have the big picture from the "Head First" book, this would be a great second book, filling the details needed to pass the test.

Like most exam preparation books, there are questions at the end of each chapter (over 300 total). These questions make sure that help the reader make sure that they understand the material (these questions are somewhat easier than ones on the exam). Here, each answer has a complete explanation. I found it very useful to read ALL of the answers, not just the ones I missed. This helped me find things that I misunderstood, or once in a while pointed out when I got right answer for the wrong reason.

The book contains additional material (beyond the exam objectives) on methods and topics that are useful in real world web development. Also, the final section of the book contains a description of differences between J2EE 1.5 and Java EE 5. This added material is clearly labeled, so that candidates can skip it during final preparation.

Preparing for one of Sun's certification exams will never be really easy or fun (they're too hard for that), but if you have committed yourself to passing, this book is a great resource.

Highly recommended.

I had just 2 weeks to pass the exam.Believe me I do have a coding experience but to pass the SCWCD 5 you still need to read the book.I read it twice n cleared exam in first attempt.Do solve the practise exam .This book puts the exact syllabus required for exam in neatly oriented fashion.
I loved this book & will 100% recommend to others.
Cheers!!!

I passed SCWCD 5 with the score 89%. This book is definitely necessary for your certification studying. Although the content of this book is a little bit boring (very few images, full of text, not so easy to understand if you do not have so much fundamental knowledge on JSP and servlet), it is still the best book you must read if you want to pass the exam as soon as possible. I actually have another book to help prepare the test, but finally i recognized that I have to totally digest this book before I take the test.

Good luck to your exam.

If you are really looking for the SCWCD certification, this is the ONLY book you need. If you spend enough time on this one and understand the concepts the author has laid out, you are all set to get certified! Also, this is not just for the certification. I am sure, I will be using this book as a reference down the line!

I would recommend this book. It's also a useful reference. Nevertheless, I think some diagrams are worth correcting, e.g. the sequence diagrams: Tag Excecution Flow, Simple Tag Execution Flow, and some of the "Revision Questions", which anyway are great stuff. Great job anyway, Mr. Lyons, thanks for this excellent book.

The following books/resources are imho additionally recommendable to pass the SCWCD5:
- Budi Kurniawan: Java for the Web with Servlets, JSP, and EJB (Thanks a lot to Mr. Kurniawan, great book.)
- Whizlabs.com: the exam simulator (SCWCD) (Thanks for the excellent and very motivating exam simulators.)
- Murach: Java Servlets and JSP (Great book, never has it been such easy to learn that much so fast.)
- David Bridgewater: Sun Certified Web Component Developer Study Guide (Exam 310-081) (Great professional source.)
(Uwe Krull, SCJP5, SCWCD5)

Charles Lyons has a wonderful style; he deeply understands the topic, and speaks from real experience. He is very thorough, but at the same time keeps the wit, and nice sense of humour throughout the book, which makes the necessary fun when studying hard for such challenging exam, as SCWCD certainly is.
I passed the SCWCD exam in October 2008 - thank you Mr. Lyons, great job. Highly recommended study resource!