Reviews for Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for J2EE Technology: Study Guide (Sun Microsystems Press)

1. Focussed, uncluttered and clear

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2008

   Having abandoned preparation with another book I was advised to get a copy of this one and was not disappointed.
   
   It covers all parts of the Part 1 exam with one exception (see below) in a clear and concise style, leaving the reader to decide which areas they need to read in to further. If like me you have a lot of experience in systems development and integration, you probably won't need another book.
   
   It also gives useful guidance on the modelling you should expect to undertake as part of the assignment.
   
   The only flaw in this book (which is not suitable by itself for the JEE 5 exams as they have moved on somewhat) is that it misses out JMS (possibly because it was written pre-J2EE 1.3) and skates over some of the EJB details a bit too much. I had a copy of Head Start EJB which allowed me to fill the gaps in both these areas and sail through the exam.
   
   Please note that people who do not have much J2EE experience will need to do further reading beyond this book to be comfortable with some of the subject matter covered. I don't see this as a weakness as the architect certification is not designed for people who haven't already walked the walk and talked the talk - and this is stated clearly in the book's preface.
   
   Good luck!

2. Very well written but a little thin on content

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, August 12th, 2004

   This book is very well written and works well as a review book for the Architect exam. It doesn't really contain enough to cover the whole exam but it is a very good start. Some exam objectives are missing and others are just skimmed over. If this book contained double the material it would be excellent. It is much better written then the Paul Allen book.

3. Its a guide, and its just that

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, October 12st, 2003

   I am quite happy with this book – it’s a good starting point, and authors lets the reader know that the level of expertise is expected from them by posting sample questions at the end of every chapter. The sample questions actually requires a lot more reading than the chapter it precedes, and that just tells the reader that this book itself is not sufficient, unlike Certification Study guides for Programmer (SCJP) certification.

4. Yesterday's newspaper is more useful than this book

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2003

   If you're preparing for the Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for J2EE exam, then this book is not for you. These are the reasons:

   1) It doesn't cover all exam objectives :-0 "Common Architecture", "Legacy Connectivity", and "Messaging" are absent from the book. And that could be 30% of the exam;
   2) Even the topics that the authors do cover, they do so superficially. So much so that half of the sample questions at the end of the book cannot be answered with information from the book alone;
   3) Talking of sample questions, there are only 9 of them in the book. You can't get a feel for what the exam is like with that little.<