Rating: 
Summary: Excellent at getting into many of the details
Review: I've been working with Java for about 4 years now. Not daily and since college I haven't done anything major with it; but through regular, casual use I thought I had a good handle on it. So when someone at work brought up the certification test, I thought it'd be a piece of cake. I went to a few java certification web-sites(mostly to find out how to sign up) and started into a few mock exams. hehe, sound familiar? I was lucky if I got 50% of the answers correct on the few I actually managed to finish.The reason was the details! Like many java programmers, I knew java well enough to get sufficient funtionality out of it to get by. But whether or not, for example, ArithmeticException is a checked exception would be something I'd never worry about unless the compiler complained. This book has been perfect for the kind of studying which I needed. By chapter 2 I was already learning things I had never bothered learning. (but which are tested for) One final word for any considering this book. You will get 100% more out of it by working out (at least be sure you thoroughly understand) all examples and exercises. I skipped a few of them the first time through and have ended up having to re-read those chapters because those bothersome details just won't stick any other way. Work through each chapter as if though it's a short assignment and you're well on your way to becoming a Sun Certified Java Programmer.... :-)
Rating: 
Summary: The best of the many certification books I read
Review: The only reason I didn't give 5 stars was because the book is so long. It took forever to read through the whole thing and was very tedious at times. The code and questions at the end of chapters was very helpful & challenging. Also the test at the end was quite difficult - but thats a good thing.
Rating:
Summary: Great reviewer. A must for those on the SCJP track ...
Review: I used Mughal and Rasmussen's book to complement the Simon Roberts and Jamie Jaworski reviewers I was using. That time, I've tried quite a few mock exams and was barely hitting the passing mark. However, M&R's reviewer was more comprehensive and included some rules of the Java language which are not included in the other reviewers. I believe this reviewer turned around my review that I was very confident in the actual exam. Except for some carelessness on my part, I could have hit 90+%; I got 86% anyway. Not too bad. The mock exam at the back of the book is very challenging. It's the same as the one available online although the book had explanations for the answers. If you take it the first time, don't worry if you don't pass; just enjoy learning the other language rules underlying some of the answers. Unlike the other books I have, I normally do not put my name on my reviewer books because I never intended to keep them for a long time; I planned to sell them after taking my exams. However, for this book, I plan to keep it as a reference. It's more than a reviewer, it's really a good book to learn Java.
Rating:
Summary: highly recommended
Review: I spent 3 months learning Java and another two months preparing Java certification test using this book. I passed the test recently by a very high score. The good things about this book are: (1) very comprehensive. Be aware that some chapters are out of the test scope: swing, java documentation, applet... (2) I have not found any error. (3) Exercises are much harder than real exam. So, do not be discouraged if you cannot pass the mock exam in this book. When I finished this book, I took its mock exam and failed to pass it. This is the only book I use for certification test. I also heard a lot of nice comments about this book from other people... A Sun Certified Java Programmer
Rating:
Summary: Useful, but maybe more than enough
Review: This book covers all the areas and concepts u need to know to pass the exam. If you really go through the book and try the questions, the exam is not a problem for u. (the questions in this book are more difficult than those in real exam) However, seems to me that this book is just trying to present all the facts, possiblities and combinations of java, without proper explanation or any indication on whether the concepts is required or it is just for reference. Using this book to prepare the exam requires you to memorise lots of facts and rules, in which quite a lot of them are not necessary. It is because, many of them can be deduced once u know the main principles, or just because they are not included in the exam objectives. In conclusion, the concepts discussed in this book are more that the exam required, and one may take quite a lot of time to digest them all. ( it is good for java programmer anyway =) )
Rating:
Summary: A must-have for the Java Programmer's test
Review: I was fairly new to Java and used this book as my sole reference for studying for (and passing!) the Java Programmer's Certification Test. It had everything I needed and a bit more. Great examples...both thorough and concise. Overall, well worth the money!
Rating:
Summary: Great Work!..
Review: Strictly speaking the book serves dual purpose.The best one for SCJP exam and an excellent source to reinforce the basics of the java programming language.
Rating:
Summary: Good book to learn java if you already have programming exp
Review: I found this book to be very good for someone who already has programming experience to learn the java language. It has plenty of examples and exercises. This book will also help in the future as a reference since it contains a lot of detailed information. As far as certification goes, use this book to LEARN java and then use the Complete Java 2 Certification Guide to PASS the exam. (i.e., I'd recommend buying both books).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book to Prepare for Certification
Review: Some months ago I purchased "A Programmers Guide to Java Certification". Working through it in preparation to take the Sun Programmer Certification exam, I have found this to be an excellent book, very well-written, very readable, very thorough and with excellent program code examples which illustrate the subtle points really well. I cannot praise it highly enough. I'm 50 years old, with 20 years experience of COBOL programming and should point out that I have not read any other similar books and haven't actually taken the SJPC exam yet, so cannot comment on how well it prepared me for this. However, with no commercial Java programming experience, this book has made me confident about taking the exam - an exam which Sun Microsystems says cannot be taken without programming experience. Prior to starting the book, I had completed course M874, a postgraduate course on Java, with the Open University in England. This Java 1.1 course only covered the language basics however. The book provides the rigourous, no-nonsense, complete story on each aspect of the Java language syntax. It repays close attention to the code examples. Note however that not all of the book is relevant to the exam, so you can leave some chapters (Swing, Graphics, etc) until after the exam. There is an appendix to cross-reference the exam objectives to the relevant chapters, but please note that since the first edition, the Programmer Certification exam objectives have changed, so that chapter 18 Files and Streams is now relevant to the exam. Thus the book not only covers all of the exam objectives, but also has chapters which cover other essential aspects of Java.
Rating:
Summary: Best JAVA book EVER!
Review: I am trying to learn JAVA and have read numerous books. This is by far the best book on the market. It thoroghly covers every topic, the examples are great and everyone is complete. The review questions are very well thought out and the exercises helpful. Congratulations to the authors!
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