Back in January of 2009 I attended the Core Spring] training. It was a solid four days of Spring Framework reference manual stuffed in your face. The most valuable part was the little bit of Q&A time that occurred, otherwise you could have sat and read the entire Spring Framework reference manual and probably have gotten all that you need. But honestly, it personally helped me because it forced me to sit and read, explore and discuss the Spring Framework from beginning to end...something I wouldn't have just done on my own.

After attending the training I formed a SIG (special interest group) along with several other people to meet monthly to discuss and learn about the Spring Framework. After a couple of months someone suggested that the group have some sort of goal in mind to help drive attendance and interest in the SIG each month. As a group we decided that each month 2 people would cover two topics from the certification study guide (there were 10 topics) so that by the end of 2009 we would be ready to take the exam.

On Monday, December 21, 2009 I went and took the SpringSource Certified Spring Professional exam and passed! The exam did touch on every topic that was listed in their study guide which surprised me since the exam only consisted of 50 questions.

The downside here is that many of the people involved in the Spring SIG haven't attended the Core Spring training. So they'll have to try and meet one of the other prerequisites to be eligible for the certification exam which is pretty lame-o!