Helping You Pass the Sun Certified Mobile Application Developer Certification

What you need to do

This exam might be slightly tougher than the other exams since the technology is fairly new and the community support is limited.

Since the API set is relatively small, you can cover the topics quickly. On an average, it should take you around a week to cover each topic if you are familiar with Java and have written or attempted to write a few programs using J2ME. If you are new to wireless programming, you might want to allocate around 2-3 months (2 hours a day at least) for preparation.

To prepare for the exam, it we recommend that you do the following:

1. Download the Java Wireless Toolkit (2.0 or above).
2. If you have a J2ME enabled cell phone, download the toolkit from that vendor. For example, Nokia and Sony provide free toolkits and emulators that will help you program in those devices.
3. Download the PDF versions of the specifications mentioned above.

The best way to get an idea about wireless programming is to actually write some programs and deploy them to a cell phone. This will go a long way in your preparation, since the creation and delivery of wireless applications is quite different from that of the standard or enterprise applications. You should develop at least one program for each specification to get a feel of the API. Some of the programs you might want to develop are

1. A program that takes a name and prints out "Hello " (tests the UI API)
2. A simple game or a drawing, like the traditional Paddleball game or various geometric shapes moving in the screen (tests the Game API)
3. A program to read an image off a website and display it on the phone (tests networking)
4. A 'signed' Hello World! Application (tests security)
5. A program that plays a simple tune (tests MMAPI)
6. A program that displays a text message (tests WMA)
7. A program that calculates tip for various pre-defined scenarios (tests RMS)

To understand the concepts of J2ME programming, you can read the official J2ME tutorial, which is very comprehensive. Some useful books are also listed in the resources section.

Most of the questions will be code-based and hence, it is very important that you understand how the code is structured for various specifications.

You might want to consider purchasing the SCMAD exam simulator by Whizlabs, which contains numerous questions of varying difficulty levels spread across five mock exams and a quiz and also lots of useful tips for the exam.

Assuming that you have Whizlabs SCMAD Exam Simulator, you can use the table below as a starting point for developing your preparation timeline.

Week	Objective	Notes
0	Diagnostic Exam	Gives you a feel of what to expect
1	CLDC 1.0/1.1	Basics of the VM and its requirements
2	Application Lifecycle/Provisioning	Basics of MIPD and its requirements
3-4	MIDP UI API	Develop and deploy Program 1 after this
5	Networking	Develop and deploy Program 3 after this
6	MIDP Persistent Storage	Develop and deploy Program 7 after this
7-8	MIDP Game API	Develop and deploy Program 2 after this
9	MMAPI	Develop and deploy Program 5 after this
10	WMA	Develop and deploy Program 6 after this
11	Push Registry	Small, but complicated, and is related to WMA
11	Security	Helps in packaging applications securely
12	JTWI	Gives an understanding of how the technologies are tied together
12	Mock Exams	Test your preparation. Revise weaker sections.

Finally, you can take some mock exams to prepare yourself from a certification standpoint.

Next: Tips and pitfalls