Rating: 
Summary: Best Certification Book Available
Review: Before I decided on a book to help me study for the Java 2 Certification exam I looked around. This book was definitely the best book available. After reading this book I took the Java 2 Certification exam and got a 97% (no lie).
It is a very detailed book and has great examples. I found other books (especially the one by Roberts, Heller, et al.) to be full of fluff -- some of which is incorrect. This book is very accurate. I found only a couple very minor errors.
If you want to pass the Cert Test, read this book and take notes. You will pass the test. Don't bother buying any other book. This one the absolute best available.
BTW, this book has chapters on Swing and javadoc, neither of which were covered on the Cert exam so you can ignore these chapters if you like.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive amount of detail
Review: This has to be one of the better certification guides available. I think it has the right balance of theory and practical explanation required to pass the exam. I bought it based on recomendations from two colleagues on site who have passed the exam this past year. Both strongly encouraged getting the book as preperation.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I have just finished reading the first complete chapter (chapter 6, one of the longer ones) of the book A Programmer's Guide to Java Certification by Khalid A. Mughal and Rolf W. Rasmussen, and I have to say that I like the book very much. It is NOT for beginners that don't know programming already, but for those that like the language presented more formally, and definitely not in the style of the "Learn Java in 21 Days" or "...in 24 hours" etc (which some people say are a waste of 21 days, 24 hours and worse of all, a waste of TREES, but I digress...). Its style is more academic than that, and I would see it being used in a four-year college for a Java class.The review questions, which are dispersed over a chapter, are really good, and the answers are very well explained in an appendix. I have not gotten to the programming exercises, which are at the end of chapters. This is a book that goes way beyond what is strictly necessary to pass the test, which is something I like. I don't believe in "bare minimums". The only time I had to e-mail the authors, their reply came promptly and to the point, including code example. This is not what you usually get with other books. Some books even by Sun/Prentice Hall don't even have an errata web page. This one, of course, does.
Rating:
Summary: Lots and lots of detail
Review: This book provides an overwhelming amount of detail about the language. It is well organized, however, and easy to read. The code examples and sample questions are very helpful. I could not download the test engine that is mentioned in the book, but who cares... there is plenty of test engines on the Web. Anyway, this is one of the best Java 2 certification study guides I've seen.
Rating:
Summary: This book got it all.
Review: What an excellent book. So far three book available in the market for Java programmer certification. But this is really cool. At the end of each chapter, the questions are very tricky and, it gives you good concepts of each topic covered. Compared to other exam preparation book, this book gives you in-depth knowledge for each concept in Java. This book not only prepares and focuses you for the exam but also helps you to learn details of Java.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book and Mock Exam Test Engine
Review: This is a great book with lots of excellent review questions. It explains the concepts clearly and concisely. I have read the first five chapters so far, and I have not found any mistakes. The review questions are difficult enough so that you can learn a lot from them. The book includes annotated answers to the review questions that explain the subtleties well. The mock exam test engine which is now available online is very good. When I purchased this book a couple of weeks ago, the mock exam test engine was not yet available online. I found the author's email address in the book's preface and requested it. In my request, I included the code from the last page of the book. The author sent me a copy of the exam engine on the same day that I made the request.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference
Review: This book not only helped me get certified with a good score but also helped deepen my understanding of several topics that are not even touched up on by other certification books. I am going to keep this as a reference book for brushing up on everything about java. The questions in this book are tougher and trickier(maybe more than what is necessary for the programmer certification) than what comes on the actual exam.
Rating:
Summary: Best Use of UML in a Java Reference, Best Code Integration
Review: This book clearly was written by experienced instructors, not just Java savvy gurus. Three outstanding features of this book are: (1) The prose is concise and precise, with an austere clarity. (2) The extensive use of UML diagrams perfectly complements the concepts under consideration. (3) The book contains answers to all questions and solutions to programming exercises. The answers go into detail as to why alternative choices are invalid. The code snippets and examples have numerical comment tags, which are referenced in the text. These examples are neither too long, nor too short. The prose that references the examples is highly readable, and does not suffer from "reference bible bloat". Code is never pasted in verbatim without comment. Instead, it is always highly integrated with the text. For readers just learning Java, the authors point out that supplemental study of the Java APIs is needed to complete their preparation for the exam. This is not a book to learn OO programming, but the presentation of concepts is so clear that any advanced software engineer should be able to understand Java and its essence from a study of this book. This book covers the Java core concepts in sufficient depth to grasp them and pass the exam. Additional reading on advanced programming concepts, such as Java threads, is in order for those who are just learning the language. However, this book is invaluable in a study for certification. The other study guides available do not compare to its quality and standard of excellence. All in all, a great work that doubles as a core language reference.
Rating: 
Summary: Test Engine?????
Review: I was really surprised when I could not access Online Test Engine after registering the book on its website, as was promised on last page of the book. I sent an e-mail to publisher for my user-name and password but to no avail. Luckily I had 10 days exchange period, so I have moved to another book which comes with CD-ROM.
Rating:
Summary: Highle recommend it
Review: I passed the Java 2 certification exam on first attempt. And I owe this convincing success to this book. The Java 2 certification exam mainly tests language fundamentals. This book covers fundamentals very very thoroughly. The chapters on difficult topics such as Threads and Inner classes are also very well written (not just glossed over as in some other books). The book is written is a simple and rigorous style, with no plaff! It is very easy to read and to understand. There is no wastage - of paper or words (like some other books in the market!) and very few typos. I found the code examples to be adequate and complete. The review questions are representative of the exam questions and a shade tougher, making the actual exam seem almost easy. The answers to the review questions are annotated leaving in no doubt the reason for the choice of answers and this I found to be very useful. The mock exam provided in the appendix has an interesting collection of questions - some of them are quite tricky. I just wish that the mock exam was provided on a CD, in a simulated exam environment. All in all an excellent first book for preparing for the Java 2 certification exam. Armed with this book and taking a few of the simulated mock exams available on the net will make passing the exam quite easy. Actually, this book is excellent for understanding Java language fundamentals that I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a sound introduction to the language!!
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