The Exam's Purposes The 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 lateron 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 I've worked with people who had difficulty communicating They were quick at writing codevery smart in that waybut their communication skills were inadequate Too bad: They did the hard part but neglected the easy part, so their salary suffered I chose the word "neglected" carefully, meaning that they could have easily improved their communicating However, they made a career blunder by underestimating the importance of communication skills Writing about the code and your solution is nearly as important as writing the code itself It will affect your score, so do the necessary preparation by writing out answers at length before taking the essay exam Table 19.1 lists the facts about the essay exam Table 19.1 Essay Exam Facts Exam Fact Detail Exam type Essay Number of questions 5 separate essay questions Allotted test time 2 hours Average test time Less than 1 hour Test expiration after purchase 1 year Difficulty level Moderate Preparation time 4 hours of writing out the answers before taking the exam Impact on total score 10% of total score Cost $150 Exam location Prometric testing centers Exam number CX-310-027 Prerequisite Submission of certification project to CertManager before you can buy an exam voucher Wait for results 14 weeks Passing score Not applicable: The exam is assessed with your certification project Location for viewing grade Sun's CertManager site ... writing out answers at length before taking the essay exam Table 19.1 lists the facts about the essay exam Table 19.1 Essay Exam Facts Exam Fact Detail Exam type Essay Number of questions 5 separate essay questions Allotted test time 2 hours... 4 hours of writing out the answers before taking the exam Impact on total score 10% of total score Cost $150 Exam location Prometric testing centers Exam number CX-310- 027 Prerequisite Submission of certification project to CertManager before you can...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