Sun Certified Programmer & Developer for Java 2 Study Guide (Exam 310-035 & 310-027) [With CDROM]

I do strongly recommend this book for anyone willing to pass the SCJP exam, even though, it is very important for you to know that it does not cover ALL possible content you will find in the real exam, will cover most yes, but not all. If you are newbie you would not notice (dangerous) but if you do have experience, sometimes you will feel like going and find by yourself some gaps in the book. If you are the kind go for all 100% getter I do strongly recommend using additional study materials as complement and even more, use your favorite development environment to test all gaps or questions you might find which are not covered in the book. Pros: - The book covers nicely most of the exam objectives. - It is a breeze to read it, I have even had friends asking me what was this comedy about. I did really enjoy reading it. I did not find any bad jokes, I think I would enjoy a party with the authors, we have the same sense of humor. - The book is 100% reliable, perfectly accurate, if the content is in the book it is right. As far as I can tell, I did not find one single question error or wrong concept and I made all self tests in the book and I consider myself a really meticulous guy (this is a MUST requirement for any study material, there are many inaccurate books and preparation materials with flawed concepts). Not studying or keeping your concepts from experience is even better than studying it wrong, this book only does good. The authors gained my entire trust, I will look only for them when looking for further Java certification books. - After reading it I was EVEN able to spot few really flawed questions in my third-party training software!!! this speaks by itself. They (third-party training software support) were very surprised at that, I asked them how could I rely on a training software with few flawed questions and their answer was "you are really prepared, this proof you really master the concepts and that you are ready for the test", thanks to this book. Cons: - Bear in mind there are (I would say) many uncovered concepts or topics related to the exam, this book is not an exhaustive Java reference and some of the uncovered content can easily appear in the test, these bellow are the kind of questions left unanswered/uncovered that you would have to find out BY YOURSELF somewhere else and you might be surprised to find in the exam e.g. . What are Daemon type threads how they behave differently from non-daemon threads? . Are static variables initialized as instance variables with default values? . some exotic declarations e.g. can you tell about this one? "int[] a, b[];" here you have an array and a matrix. . Converting Octal/Hex/Binary/Decimal. . Operators precedence!!! . Are assertions considered as a return statement with the compiler returning the kind of "line X is unreachable because of a previous assert false;"? . Is there an inner classe

SCPJ Exam is not a walk in the park. So do all the questions in this book. When I first started doing the exercises in the book 3 months ago, I only got 4 - 6 questions right out of 20! They're really tricky and hard. The good side of it was it made me realize how hard this 1.4 exam is. Make sure to redo the practice questions before the actual test and do well in them. Else hmm....I was still new to Java when I bought the book. In addition to studying the materials for the exam, this book actually helped me to code better. It's like having a cake and eat it too!I just passed the exam a week ago. Actually I did quite well - thanks to this book. Else my chances would have been slimmer. Some people are complaining about some jokes that are attached along in this book - I call them good humor! Trust me, it helps when the materials are long and monotone - especially chapter 2! zzz...The LearnKey master exams CD included in the book really convinces me that I was going to pass the exam the first time through. The explanations for each question are provided in detail; they helped reinstating the points that I miss while reading the book.I actually read the book the first time through and then did some external readings. I just wanted to make sure that I got every point covered. Then I came back to the book, read the 2 minute drills and did the questions. One thing about this exam is: you have to test/write the codes. Else, you might not pass the exam. I actually used the codes in this book and then went from there - by writing all possible scenarios that could happened with that example code; compiling them and running them.It's hard work but the payoff is sweet...

I cannot rate this book high enough. Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates have put together a fantastic guide for passing the test. The tone is very casual, but they cover everything you need to pass the exam in depth. I had about six months of experience with Java prior to purchasing the book, and I found that it filled in many gaps in my knowledge that I hadn't known I had.The book has a set of 20 or so questions at the end of each chapter which help to cement your knowledge. Also, the book comes with 2 mock exams whose questions closely mimic the difficulty and style of those I found on the exam.I do have one caveat though...only purchase this book if you are pursuing the SCJP. This book has good information for those interested in becoming a SCJD, but the bulk of the book is devoted to preparing you to become a certified programmer, not developer.If you're pursuing the SCJP, this book should be the only one you'll need.

I had just passed the Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 1.4 Platform exam (with a score of 80%), and I want to help prospective test takers in finding the "right" Java study guide. I was bewildered by the number of books available, and I had to try many of them before I settled on the right one. Here are my short reviews for each of the major Java study guides:"Sun Certified Programmer & Developer for Java 2 Study Guide" by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates (five stars): I felt this book was the best among all the Java study guides. Both the authors were responsible for the Java certification exam's development, and the practice questions are *very* similar to the actual exam. The authors also cover exactly what will be on the 1.4 exam, pointing out potential topics, questions, and pitfalls. I can't recommend this book highly enough."A Programmer's Guide to Java Certification" by Khalid Mughal and Rolf Rasmussen (four stars): This is a good choice if you plan on taking the 1.2 exam. The book also has a dual purpose of teaching Java and sometimes goes beyond the actual scope of the exam, but it is nonetheless excellent. However, as the title suggests, this isn't the book for you if you don't have any programming experience. Also, the book's practice questions are much, much harder than the actual exam."Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide (3rd Edition)" by Philip Heller and Simon Roberts (two stars): This was the most disappointing book of all. I don't know why so many people swear by it, but the book appeared to have been rushed into production. Many of the errors and typos have been updated in the book's second printing, but the book's coverage of topics is quite weak. Lastly, the practice questions were not only too easy, but they don't look very similar to how questions look on the real test. It's not a terrible book (many people appear to have passed the exam with just this book), but there are better options."Java 2 Exam Prep" by Bill Brodgen (three stars): This compact study guide isn't a bad choice for prospective test takers with a good Java foundation. It covers all the exam's topics succinctly, but as another reviewer noted, it should not be your primary study guide. I personally did not find the book particularly useful.Lastly, sign up for Sun's ePractice practice exams. You'll get three sample tests, and they will help you prepare for the exam by showing you how the questions will look and what type of questions they will ask. I didn't like the idea of spending the extra money, but the practice exams definitely helped me prepare for the real thing.

I was on a beta review team for this book, and it was the book I wish I'd had when I was preparing for the exam. Things that were not made clear to me from other books were suddenly lightbulbs turning on. One of the authors was apparently on the team that actually CREATED the real Sun exam (at least the latest one, for 1.4, I think), so the topics and sample questions are exactly in line with what the real exam is like. There are a few new things (assertions) that were not on the exam when I took it, so I can't speak to how well those match the new exam, but from everything I can remember, this book is dead on.The tone of the writing is very friendly, casual and informal. If you're looking for a computer science text book, this is not it. This book sounds like having the guy in the next cube sit down and talk to you about how things REALLY work, and if you don't get it he just keeps trying.There were a few errors when we proof-read it, so hopefully these were all fixed, but they were mostly typos that did not hurt your ability to learn and prepare for the exam. Also, it does *not* cover material that is not on the exam. I happen to like this about it -- if I want to learn more and more about Java I'll read something else, thank you very much. My big concern when I was studying for the exam was to PASS THE FRICKIN THING. It makes it clear over and over that the book is about helping you get through the exam. Period. But -- not everyone likes this approach, and if you want a more comprehensive (but very dry and textbook-like) discussion of Java overall, then you might want one of the other exam books.I thought the two most helpful parts are the "Exam Tip" (or 'exam watch", something like that) highlights that point out traps or pitfalls or key things about the way a particular thing might be shown on the exam, and also the Two Minute Summary (which takes a lot more than two minutes) that is a list of the key bullet points from the chapter. The summary is a perfect thing for cramming. I would photocopy these and carry them around with me if I were preparing for the exam now.And the mock/sample exam questions are very, very realistic. When I took the test, I had been studying with another book -- the Roberts and Heller book -- which was excellent, but the questions in that book did not prepare me completely for how shocking (hard) some of the *real* questions were on the exam.I think it covers most of the topics in exactly the right level of detail, although there were a few areas where the explanations started from the very beginning, as though I'd never seen Java before. They didn't make too many assumptions about how much I already knew, so sometimes there will probably be parts you can skip over because you already know it, but it still moves all the way through to the advanced parts of the topic, small step by small step.I'm a software developer with a long background in C, but I hadn't had much OO and Java when I first started trying to learn J