Rating: 
Summary: Concise - sees the exam objectives from a different angle.
Review: I took the SJCP last week, so this review is fresh!This book is very concise and much smaller and manageable than "The complete Java Certification study guide". It's great for carrying around for when you have a spare minute or two to quickly go over your Java rules. I bought this book "Exam Cram" about a month before I was due to take the SJCP exam (310-025). Up until then, I had been using "The complete Java Certification study guide" as my main source of study. I was hoping that another book by a different author would provide a well-rounded preparation, not just focusing on areas that just one book deemed as important. The emphasis in this book is slightly different to "The complete Java Certification study guide" and this is probably down to interpretation of the Sun Objectives as well as the fact that it is a "cram" rather than a "guide". Strangely, although smaller than "The complete Java Certification study guide", it actually seems to cover more ground than it. For the most part, this extra information and different emphasis on areas seems superfluous, as the extra parts did not come up in the real exam for me. But maybe, I was just lucky, as I can't speak for everyone's exams. One thing in particular that I would not have known about if it were not for Exam Cram is the join() method. Not covered in "The complete Java Certification study guide", it WAS mentioned in the exam that I took last week. As for the sample final exam, it was easier than most of the (pretty tough) end of chapter questions but the result matched pretty closely to what I got for the real thing. Sample final exam: 74%
Real exam result: 79% Warning - just because I did better on the day does not mean that the real exam is easier than the sample exam provided. If anything it was harder as it took me nearly the full 2 hour allocation to complete, whereas the sample exam took just over an hour. In summary, this is a well-written and concise set of notes for the SJCP. I'm only giving it 4 stars however as the content and emphasis in "The complete Java Certification study guide" seemed to match the real exam more closely than this book. On it's own, this book is probably not enough to prepare but in conjunction with a good study guide, it almost plays devils advocate, asking you to think about things from another angle, placing a stronger emphasis on what may not have seemed that important in the first book.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time on this book
Review: The concept of this cram guide is to give minimal explanations so you don't have to spend time studying, but the promise is definitely not fulfulled. The author covers all the main concepts, but as for details (which are THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WITH THE EXAM) he leaves too much unsaid. The book is supposed to be for people who already know Java, so he should ONLY focus on the details. A really useless book if this is what you are buying it for. A far better book which covers everything in depth is the Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Study Guide by Syngress. It covers 100% of the exam, including the details. If you want to do poorly on the exam, get Exam Cram.
Rating: 
Summary: Necessary but annoying sometimes
Review: Like the other reviewers, I agree you need this for the most efficient path toward passing the exam. BUT it has several ( 3 so far in 1st half of book) imprecise explanations which can lead to incorrect answers on the exam.
I was not so critical until I received a rather terse reply from the author. He wrote "you know what I mean".
I suggest if that is what the author truly feels and he wasn't just having a bad day, then you should not rely on this as your only guide. Get something that is more definitive ( e.g. Java 2 certification study guide )to double check the definitions and explanations in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Effective
Review: This book is more carefully (and accurately) done than several of the other java certification books I have seen. The coverage is just the right amount and the questions do a good job of illustrating the important concepts. The only two complaints I have is that several questions have a "Trick question" icon next to them.. Those questions really aren't more difficult than the others and even if they were the fact is that the "trick" questions on the real exam don't have that icon next to them, so it defeats the practice purpose of having those kinds of questions. Also I agree with the other reviewer that having the answers next to the questions is a pain. Overall it is a good choice at about half the price of Stanek's Java 2 Certification and Syngress' Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Study Guide, both of which are full of errors.
Rating:
Summary: Good Support for SCJP
Review: If your planning on taking this exam this book will help you tackle some of the quirks of the language. Read Mughal's first and read this and you'll have an excellent base. I read Mughal's twice. Took Mughal's exam and realized I still had more work to do so I let Brogden do it for me. Took his exam and was not quite where I wanted to be (probably could have passed). good luck my friends.
Rating:
Summary: Serves its purpose!
Review: Use this book to supplement any additional learning resources for SCJP Exam. Chapters are short and to the point. Great for quick review and reminder. Did find a few paragraph's which where not clear and up-to-par but in general, this book serves it purpose of quick review. Don't think many people will learn Java or pass the exam with just this book alone. A decent purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: I found this book excellent for exam point of view.
Rating:
Summary: OK Book
Review: Brogden is a nice guy. He answers questions posted at jchq.net. So he gets 5 stars. If you need a Book 2, then this is the book. I used this and Khalid's book to get through. First time, 81%. Not that I got a job.... ah ah ah....
Rating:
Summary: pretty bad
Review: this book covers a lot of topics in java, but does so pretty briefly, and leaves out a lot of information. It leaves you having to write lots of small sample tests in order to figure things out. Its sample questions are decent, but the explanations describing which answers are correct absolutely suck.
Here's an example from page 57:
"Because answer a is correct, answer b is obviously incorrect."
Give me a break. It's as if having to explain why answer b was wrong wasn't worth the 30 seconds it would have taken him. He does this more than a few times throughout the book. Its coverage of packages and visibility is pretty bad, about 10 lines long. you get the idea. This is the first exam prep book I've looked at, so I can't say if any of the other books are any better.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Review: Like another reviewer, I also found the chapter on threading to be appallingly confusing. I continuously referred to Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java and the Java 2 Platform docs in an attempt to understand what Mr. Brogden was trying to say. Overall, most of the examples were weak and not conducive to learning or retaining the material. The chapter questions often highlighted subtle points more clearly than the main text. Such things should be explained well up front, not reserved for the quiz. More effort should be made to help the reader understand. A study guide such as this should include mnemonic devices too, clever ways of reinforcing esoteric ideas. I wish I had purchased the book by Mughal and Rasmussen instead.
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