Getting ready for SCMAD? It is time to exercise!

Hi all,

Many people may think of passing in a certification exam is complicated, almost impossible for ordinary people. Just high skilled professionals are capable of passing. If you think that way, I must say you are wrong! I can assure that if you really want to pass, you will. It is just a matter of struggling on that you aim to achieve. A basic recipe is study and practice. That's what the high skilled professionals usually do. It is not magic: it is hard work!

I have passed in some exams in the last years. For instance, the latest one was a PMP certification. Quite complicated, BTW! This one demanded me much study and mainly practice. When I say practice, I mean, answering questions. For me, that's the most important part of a certification process. You really need to be prepared for the types of questions you will have to answer. In addition, you also learn a lot answering questions.

So if you are getting ready for SCMAD exam, you are also supposed to follow these tips too. Regarding the practice, I would recommend these good options for you:

• www.scmad.com
• www.whizlabs.com
• www.ucertify.com

The 1st option is a website maintained by the own community, where you will find many materials, e.g., mock exams, tools, guides, notes, etc, to help you out on your study. However, it seems not be updated lately, because there are many broken links there. But you will find good tips there. It is worth the visit!

The 2nd option is a prepKit from Whizlabs. PrepKit is a kind of software to simulate a real exam. It is very worth to use this type of tool, since it simulates what you will find on exam's day. Whizlabs SCMAD is a good tool. It provides many questions; you can choose to practice just with questions from a certain area (e.g. JTWI or CLDC 1.1). In addition, there are some quizzes you can take and a report progress showing how you have improved your knowledge for the exam.

A curious thing is that I am no longer finding the download link for this tool, on Whizlabs' website. Did they discontinue this product? Curious! But you can find a trial version on Google. The full version costs about USD 60.

The 3rd option is a prepKit from uCertify: SCX310-110: Sun Certified Mobile Application Developer, version 1.0. This one provides a total of 140 questions (it could have more) for you practice, which are from the same style as SCMAD exam’s ones. You can choose questions from a given knowledge are, for instance, providing you a way to exercise a certain area which you are not that proficient. There are either quick tests (~15 questions) that you can take quickly, just to warm up; or longer tests (~40), where you can answer questions from all knowledge areas. In addition, you can track your progress along the tests you take, in order to see whether you are ready or not for the exam. In other words, regarding the test taking simulation, you have all you need in this tool.

I liked the most the functionality that provides some explanations about each exam’s objectives. It can be used to make a review before the exam, since it is very short, but contains very useful information. In addition, all the questions have a full explanation, case you get in doubt with the right answer.

This tool also provides a type of test called Adaptive Test: as you start answering correctly, the next questions get harder; otherwise, they get easier. It is an interesting feature for those who want to achieve 100% on the exam. However, I did not like the way to create a customized test, the interface is intuitive. I took some moments to understand how it works.

The uCertify’s tool costs USD 49.99. But whether you use this code UCPREP, you will have a 10% discount. For the trial version, you can download it here.

I hope all you guys succeed on your exams. Here are the tips, now let’s study!

See you in the next post…