Rating: 
Summary: excellent (precise,concise,clear,carefully written...)
Review: This is exactly the book I was searching for, a book that not only makes you able to pass the certification, but teaches you the Java language. I agree with all the other five-stars review; I may add just that the authors have taught Java before writing this book, and so they know how to effectively communicate their ideas to a technical audience, how to be precise without being unnecessary detailed, and so on ... and that alone explains why this book is so good.
The exercises themselves are excellent. They are written with the purpose of being thought-provoking (again, a by-product of the authors experience as teachers), which made me remember very well all the intricacies of the Java language (which is not a "simple" language, contrary to public opinion).
The end result ? I now consistently score 90% or more on all the mock exams I've tried ... but, much more importantly, I feel very confident with the language, and I read and write it as if it were plain italian (ooops, english)! I can't ask for more.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book to get certified
Review: This is the book to get if you want to pass the certification exam. Every little questions has been answered. The questions are tougher than the actual exam. I read this continuously for a week and I passed in the 80s and all due to the amount of effort the authors had put into this book.Sometimes after reading a book, you would want to do certain exercises and a lot of books these days don't have exercises at the end of chapters and you end up being the one making up exercises to reenforce what you have learned and most of the time, you wouldn't do it. With this book, they have done everything. Great explanation, questions to test your learning, then exercises for those who wants to further enforce their learning.
Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive and challenging; also dry and academic.
Review: This guide does have an amazingly sparse errata sheet for a certification guide. I'm impressed by the clean and rigorous treatment of code samples throughout. But the content also goes overboard on additional topic the Exam doesn't require. If you consider that stuff bonus material, you're in luck. If you want to focus, this book gives you the impression you need to know far more than what's necessary. The sample questions are much more difficult than the Exam itself; they're often highly contrived as well. They remind me very much of my college exams on programming; the test questions were based on code so tortured and twisted, I'd leave the exam room with a headache. This technique makes the Exam relatively easy, but a lot of effort goes into just unravelling really twisted code, where every variable is a single character. I'm not sure that's really how I wanted to prepare.
Rating: 
Summary: misleading, tricky, hard to learn
Review: I found it scholastic and dogmatic in the bad sense; the examples are forced out and do not make (much) sensible sense, they are there just to confuse you more. Excellent for a textbook (that the students would hate !): hard questions, poor explanations. Plus: I don't need sooo much detail about for, do, while loops, and other language constructs, since the title tells me this book is supposed to be addressed to programmers :( Don't get me wrong: these guys know their stuff, they just don't know how to teach it ! There ! Sincerely, Larry Tobos software consultant, and ex-instructor
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for the java2 exam
Review: This book along with Bill Brogan's java2 exam cram is more than adequate to pass the java2 exam. Coverage of Threads on the exam was more than the material presented. The questions and answers on all topics covered in the book are insightful & deligtful. In all an excellent resource for passing the java2 certification exam.
Rating:
Summary: Very easy to read
Review: Great book whether you are studying for the exam, or whether you just want to learn more about Java concepts. I wouldn't say this book is for beginning programmers, but if you have experience programming in other OO languages, you'll have a relatively easy time getting through this book.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: A very good, detailed study guide. I felt the book was a bit dry, though. But as the preface states, the purpose of the book is not to teach the programming techniques.
Rating:
Summary: An ideal certification book
Review: This books takes through the language very neatly and clearly. An ideal book for anyone who wants to learn Java and also complements by preparing one for the Java Certification. The review questions are pretty challenging. The mock exam included as part of the book is also a useful preparation guide for the exam. I have no hesitations in recommending this book.
Rating:
Summary: Get Certified and Get Confidence both.
Review: Passing the exam is one thing and becoming super confident in Java is another. This book will teach you the mind numbing details like no other so you get both. If you can read it, stay with it and retain it you do not need anything else to pass the exam. I did it, so can you. Great Job Khalid and Rolf.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and Thorough
Review: This book was extremely thorough in its preparation for the Certification Exam. I found it better on several topics (Threads, Collections) than several other books I read. The practice questions and sample exams were much more difficult (and therefore helpful) than others as well. Even now that I have become Certified, I keep this book around as a reference for some of the tricky language and API features. Definitely worth it, although I would supplement it with some of the good web sites and possible another book as well (I also read the Sybex one)
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