Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: Hi,Though the title says for java certification, the book covers much more than that.This book gives a deep insight in to java fundamental concepts. Chapters like Language Fundamentals,Inner Classes, AWT are explained very well. A must read for any one preparing for the java certifiction exam.
Rating:
Summary: This book worths every penny
Review: This is an awesome book. Thank the authors for writing such a good book. I have just passed the certification by the help of this book. Here are some tips for people who are interested: 1) Read this book one more time if you feel that the ideas are still vague. I was amazed at how much I got out of it the second time I read this book from start to finish. 2) Run the programs in the book to get a more definitive understatnding. As far as the exam goes, you definitely need to understand JAVA to pass it. If you understand this book, you will do well.
Rating: 
Summary: Difficult to read, not a primer. Good to get certified
Review: Many JAVA books fall into one of two categories. 1) Not complete or "real world" enough, or 2) Written for computer scientists. This book definitely falls in the second category. If Khalid actually speaks during a lecture like this: "Precedence and associativity rules are necessary for deterministic evaluation of expressions", pity the poor students. Also the author, continually refers to sections far ahead of the page you're currently reading. However, when you're finished with this very detailed book, you should be able to pass the Java Programmer Certification. The completeness, and the abundance of review questions and program examples are why I giving this book three stars.
Rating:
Summary: Best Certification Book
Review: The best certification book I've seen. The title is very appropriate because the book is geared toward people with programming experience (i.e., very little time spent on basic programming principles as in other certification books). This book, combined with a reading of the appropriate API material and some practice exams is a recipe for success.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Java Book
Review: This book gives a very good logical view of all the concepts. It is very good for certification as well. It basically cleared all my concepts about OOP & Java language. I felt very satisfied after reading it. Its great.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!!
Review: This book is excellent! It covers all the material for the programmer's exam and explains it in a clear and understandable way! I read this book along with The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide 2nd Edition which is also a good exam prep book, but not as good as this one is. I took the exam after reading this book and doing a number of mock exams and got a 98% Even if you are an experienced Java programmer you must read this book before taking the exam. I have a lot of experience in Java and programmed with most of its APIs, but when it came to the details of casting rules, inner classes and a number of other topics in the exam, I had either not known them or forgotten them. This book covers everyting in the exam, and also covers extra stuff like Swing and JavaDoc, which are not part of the exam so don't waste your time studying them if you only intend is to get the certification.
Rating: 
Summary: good exam prep and decent resource
Review: I bought this book, spent 72 hours with it, and easily passed Java 2 cert on the first try. This is an excellent resource for people planning to take the test. For people just looking for a general Java resource, you still may do better with "Thinking in Java" or "Java 2 Core". Anyway, I was highly pleased with how well written, thorough, and precise this was compared to most IS books I've encountered. My only problem with it was, as indicated by others, that it might over-prepare you for the exam. Swing is not covered on the test, nor is JavaDoc. (At least on the one I took, which covered nothing but language fundamentals). If you can answer the (quite challenging) prep questions in this book, you will smoke the exam. btw the % for passing the test is 61%, not 71% as this book indicates.
Rating:
Summary: A Splendid book for SCJP2
Review: The Book is really Useful. The topics covered by the book are really comprehensive. All the topics are really explained well. Topics including Inner Classes,Object Lifetime,Intializer Sequence, Inheritance,Operators,java.lang,java.util,java.awt,java.io all are covered comprehensively. I appreciate the way in which authors have described each and every topic,really good. I read the book for around 40 days and gave the exam in 3rd week of Jan and got certified with 93 %. All the topics are really very good. Thanks to the authors.
Rating: 
Summary: Dangerously Erroneous at certain places
Review: I have mixed feelings regarding this book. Though it addresses the topics in a "point-blank" fashion, suitably tailored to meet the objectives of the Sun Certified Java Programmer Examination, it is providing some dangerously erroneous information as if the authors are giving us a biblical truth! For example, in what is considered to be one of the tough topics of FILES AND STREAMS (Chapter 18) and page 553, the authors say -- "..To check whether the specified file has write and read access, the following methods can be used. They throw a SecurityException if general access is not allowed, i.e. the application is not even allowed to check whether it can read or write a file.
boolean canWrite()
boolean canRead()". This is a figment of imagination of the authors. Actually, even if the file is declared Read-Only, when you use canRead() function, it returns false, and does not throw any SecurityException as stated by the authors. I don't know how many "bugs" are still lying deep there in this book. This has completely eroded the confidence in this book and the authors. I know there are mistakes everywhere, but what can I say about the authors tone and tenor on this fact, making us all believe that they had tested it before actually writing about it.
Rating:
Summary: Authors don't know what they are talking about.
Review: ..I bought the book based on reviews from here, and gotextremely disappointed after four days. I had read it from cover tocover expecting something good in the book but ended upnothing. Authors are quite wordy and repetitive. Many times I foundthey repeated similar points again, again, again, gave me animpression that they pasted materials from different books withoutknowing what are their own ideas. Some people argued at here thatinner class is explained clearly, from my point of view, this is justopposite. Most of time, compiler's error message or API documentationis much better than you find in the book. Another example is aboutGridbagLayout, they offer nothing in this area to clarify concepts. Ifyou are confused before, you are still confused after. You mightwonder how I did with real exam. I passed it with 96% and owe nocredit to this book. This book only serves to confuse me and waste mytime. It was in my garbage can after four days. To prepare Java 2exam, I used Complete Java 2 Certficate Guide, read it twice andcarefully in ten days. That book is extremely clear and right to thepoints. Authors of that book know what they are talking and understandwhat you must to know to pass the exam. I made the mistake to wastetime and money on this book based on reviews at here. You should notrepeat my mistake. However, something not good for me might be goodfor you. Just remember one lesson: Don't buy it based on otherpeople's reviews! Read one chapter at bookstore if it is available (itis not available at my local bookstores). Again, from my humbleopinion, authors don't understand Java! Juping
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