The Exam's PurposesThe essay exam has four purposes. Sun does not state them anywhere , but I hope you'll agree that the exam serves the following purposes, instead of testing your understanding of the technology, as all the other certification exams do. First, the essay exam is a fraud buster. The evaluators will know whether you wrote the code by matching your essay answers with your actual code. For example, if your essay exam answer talks about sockets but your certification project uses RMI, you'll get a call from the secret police. By asking "How did you do such and such?" the evaluators want you to demonstrate an in-depth familiarity with your submitted solution. There is little technical challenge to answering that type of question, if you did the work yourself. Second, the essay exam assesses whether you understand the technology needed to satisfy the assignment requirements. Evaluators want to know, for example, how well you understand RMI or sockets, whichever one you chose. It is good if you can build a program using one of these technologies, but showing mastery of the technology is better. Third, the essay exam demonstrates to evaluators whether you have a good feel for how to architect a solution. Sure, the code is a better measure of this skill, but an essay can expose foggy thinking and incorrect assumptions. At times I have finally gotten a piece of code to work, but didn't understand why it worked until later ”on occasion, much later. That approach won't work here, however. Your essay description reveals how well you understand the approaches and classes you used. For example, perhaps you finally got RMI to work, but don't actually feel comfortable with its inner workings. Fourth, the essay exam shows whether you can tell someone else about Java in a way that makes sense. In the real world, communicating how technology works is a large part of a developer's job. If you can't tell an evaluator what is going on in your solution, even though you had unlimited time to prepare, you won't be effective in real projects. Therefore, it is to your advantage to prepare for the essay so that you can demonstrate familiarity with the portions of Java used in your project submission.
Table 19.1 lists the facts about the essay exam. Table 19.1. Essay Exam Facts
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