Whizlabs SCMAD Exam Simulator (CX-310-110)

When some big corporation's educational services announces the release of a new certification exam, you can be certain that the Whizlabs team won't be that far away. After many successful simulator releases in 2003 and before (SCBCD, SCJP 1.4, etc), Whizlabs now wants to make you MAD (that is, a Mobile Application Developer ) by complementing their product suite with another exam simulator for Sun's new certification exam targeted at the Micro Edition of the Java 2 Platform (J2ME). Whizlabs' simulators essentially pursue the following goals:

1. to provide a huge question bank in order to best train the exam taker, and
2. to closely mimic real exam conditions.

Basically, the user interface hasn't change much compared to what I have experienced with other simulators from Whizlabs' product line. While some display bugs have been eliminated, a few ones are still on the edge eargerly waiting to be terminated. Furthermore, when looking back at Lasse Koskela's review of their SCJP 1.4 simulator last December, it appears that Whizlabs has done much of its homework:

• I haven't experienced any problems during the installation process, and
• the code is well indented (even though monospace font is still not used for displaying code snippets.)

Regarding the content itself, you will find a total of 490 questions evenly distributed across 5 mock exams (68 questions each) and 1 quiz (150 questions). You can even create your own mock exams with the built-in test customizer that allows you to select any questions in the bank to help you focus on a specific area of your choice. Besides, all questions come with very exhaustive explanations and links to sections of the relevant specifications. Once you finish an exam you are offered the opportunity to review some answers you were unsure about or to directly go to the exam report and see if you have passed or failed. On the reports you will find a good deal of very comprehensive information. For each question, you will be able to see the objective to which the question relates, the level of difficulty, the type of the question (i.e., multiple choice, DnD, fill-in, etc) and whether you answered it correctly or not. Wait, that's not all!! The help menu will direct you to a complete user guide and some help content on how to use the tool itself. As always, Whizlabs has also bundled a Tips'N'Trick cheat sheet and quick revision notes for you to read just before taking the exam. On the downside, it's just unfortunate that you can't print out these helpful notes from the tool and take them with you to the test center to do some last minute brush up... Maybe, they'll consider adding that to future versions of their tools. Who knows...

A cool new feature has been added to the simulator: If you ever have a doubt about a question or an explanation or if you want to report some problem you experienced, you can do it by clicking on the "Discuss it" button and you will be forwarded to a dedicated SCMAD forum on Whizlabs website. Once you have logged in, you will just have to write your message. Of course, a live Internet connection is required in order to take advantage of this feature.

Finally, I think that this new exam simulator is well worth the money spent ($79.95 for new customers and $63.95 for existing ones) for the reasons enumerated below:

• The simulator is very efficient and is of great support for exam takers
• You get free upgrades for 6 months
• You get free technical support from the authors
• There are very few SCMAD mock exams out there yet (check out this link)
• And... (drum rolls) You'll get your money back if you don't pass the exam anyway

Don't hesitate to download the free trial edition to get a feeling of the exam simulator before buying it. I definitely recommend this outstanding resource to any respectful J2ME developer willing to tackle the SCMAD exam.

Resources
Whizlabs homepage
Whizlabs SCMAD exam simulator
SCMAD Certification Primer