IBM SOA certification

I'm preparing for IBM SOA solution designer certification now and am a bit limited in time to post here. Certification is an interesting topic here. I have heard very different opinions to this issue. Some say "how can you get certified a way of thinking" referring to SOA. I still believe it is an architectural style or architecture pattern as IBM defines it. And thus the knowledge to apply it can be measured and certified.

I should say, pursuing this IBM certification I learned a whole bunch new things about SOA. Regardless of the fact that the provider is IBM the preparation material is to 90% vendor unspecific and has a good abstraction level. There is also an assessment test from IBM at IBM education portal , which costs only 10$ and helped me to verify my level of knowledge. At my first attempt, before studying deeply, I scored it with 52% which meant failed (and study). I have repeated the test today after accomplishing two educational sections from IBM and digging through a lot of literature. The second attempt was 72%, which means passed (and study further :-)