Rating: 
Summary: Good book - Only 1 complaint
Review: This is a good book and does exactly what it sets out to do: prepare you for the Java Certified Programmer Exam. It is not meant to TEACH you Java, but rather serve as a refresher for the material that you should have learned elsewhere. It does contain examples and explanations of many core Java topics, but by itself is not enough to learn Java. The sample questions do an excellent job of focusing your attention on what you need to know for the exam and help reveal those areas in which you may need more preparation. My only complaint is this: I would much rather have had the answers to the chapter tests grouped together in the back of the book. As it stands, each answer is printed immediately following its associated question and I found myself inadvertantly spotting the answer before reading the question. If you're like me and tend to subconciously "scan" a page before you read it, this could prove to be a problem in keeping yourself honest. Other than this one (albeit small) complaint, I feel this is an excellent book and serves its purpose wonderfully.
Rating: 
Summary: fulfills its promise
Review: I took and passed the exam today - I used Simon Roberts big book and this one. Took me about 8 months to intensively work through both besides my every day work. The good points about the Exam Cram are: - a lot of good test questions - great for intensive last minute brush-up e.g. one day before the test - more detailed chapters on Collections and Threads than e.g. in Simon Robert's book (Thread is supposedly a more intensively tested area since october 2000 - I can confirm this) Beware: This book alone is too condensed to get you through in my view - both books together are great
Rating: 
Summary: Okay
Review: This book has quite a few factual errors in it. If this had been my first Java book, I'd have been in trouble. However, the first book I read gave me enough information to recognize the errors in this one. This book certainly does a good job in certain areas, but not enough to compensate for its shortcomings.
Rating: 
Summary: Full of mistakes and very careless job
Review: This book has lot's of mistakes, not a good book for serious java students. Does not go in detail on important topics, which defeats purpose of exam preparation.
Rating:
Summary: Very well focused book
Review: I passed the exam!! The exam exactly covered what is stated on the Sun web page under "Objectives". There is no question on Applets!! I would even say that all of the questions concerned a function specified on those pages. So read those pages carefully! I used Bill Brodgen's Exam Cram JAVA 2 to prepare for the exam (388 pages). This book covers very well the theory. Any unnecessary bla-bla-bla. Perfect book. Though it was written for the old Java 2 exam, it is still 95% valid for the new exam (since the new exam has more code). I also coded a lot of examples, which was very useful. My score was 84%. This is mainly due to fact that I learned unnecessary staff outside the book and the Sun Objective page. I didn't concentrate on the basics. Besides, I have 10 years IT experience, 4 months extensive Java and 3 extensive weeks on the preparation (6 hours a day). Toughest questions that none of the Test examples covered on the Web: - Do{ if() continue } while( ); - while( i++ <= j & i > --j ) - All sort of code samples with i++ and j- - Two thread is started new thread( runnable ).start() + new thread( runnable ).start() (second will never get the chance to run). - Which calls may cause a thread to stop (permanently or temporarily) Other well covered areas in the exam: - Anonymous classes (static, public, private, extends, implements so on) - Interfaces (constructors, members) - Abstract classes (static, public, private, extends, implements so on) - Threads (6 questions) - File class (what method is used to see if a String is a directory) - 2 questions on MouseEvents, 2 questions on Layout (that's it on awt) - 4 questions on Streams&RWs (not too tricky) I would say that the exam is not intended to trap people but asks very intelligent questions that nobody ever asked before in the exams available on the web and in the books ....
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: I recommend Robert, Heller, and Ernst also known as "RHE". I bought Exam Cram which is pretty good but not as thorough as it needed to be to help as last minute study. I ended up relying on RHE at the bookstore. The heavyweight here and in preparation is RHE and your own notes.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for the Java certification exam
Review: This is a very condensed book with just enough details. It covers almost all the topics in the exam objectives. I had about 3 months hands-on programming in Java before preparing for the exam. This book is the only one I used, and it helped me to score 93%. As the author claims, it is for "intermediate to advanced" users, it is a bit difficult to digist for beginners. However, if you want to pass the exam, you've got to pass the beginner stage already. The questions in this book are tougher than those in the real exam, so if you can do well on them, you should not have problem in passing the certification test. There is a set of 59 sample test questions at the end to help you get a feeling of the real test. Study this book and do some mock exams (you can find lots of them from the java certificate study group: javacert.com), and you will be ready to take on the certificatin exam.
Rating:
Summary: Succinct, to the point
Review: If you have some Java experience under your belt (academic or real-world), you could probably read only this book, take its sample exam (and several other free ones available on the net), and then pass the Programmer's Exam. There is no "fluff" in this book. It ONLY covers the official exam objectives. A better overview of the Java language in a book that is also designed to help one pass the exam is Mughal & Rasmussen's book. That book also has review questions and a sample exam. (I read both in preparation for the exam and passed yesterday with an 85%...I have little real-world Java experience). The review questions and the sample exam in both this and the other book mentioned are most definitely harder than the real exam. This is a good thing. My lack of good marks on these practice questions made me nervous, but when I sat down to take the real test and saw how relatively easy the questions were I had immediate confidence. Don't waste you time on the Roberts/Heller/Ernest book: it's not detailed enough, and the questions are too easy. NOTE: The exam objectives (avaiable from Sun's site) changed along with the test on 10/4/00. The new passing grade is 61% (because it's a harder test). Make sure you print these to ensure you are covering each objective!!!
Rating:
Summary: It is just the Exam "Cram" it promises to be.
Review: Hello all! The 28:th of September 2000 I passed the SCJP2 with score 88% on first try. This book was a great help for me to do it. It is just the Exam "Cram" it promises to be. It is NOT a beginners book. You need this book for fine tuning after you have the basics from another e.g. the "Java 2 Certification Study Guide". PROS: - It stresses the "hooks" that other books doesn't mention. Just such "hooks" are in the real exam. (Example what to watch out for in a switch statement). The book pin-points what to whatch out for common errors/misunderstandings. - The test questions in each chapter have good quality (not too easy). - Contains useful practical tips about how the test works. Tactics etc. - Very good Mock exam in the end. As the author suggests you should have at least 75% on the appended exam. - This book succeeds to be packed with useful information instead of just words. In around 300 pages you will get a very good understanding what is required of you to make it. - Thin/low weight. CONS: - Evem though I had version 5 of the book it stil has some basic typos not mentioned in the correction page (be sure to read the correction page). - Some topics like Threads, AWT and IO are mentioned briefly. But as said before this is a "Cram" book. For IO, AWT and Threads: --I suggest as additions the book "Java 2 Certification Study Guide" plus the "real" Java 2 documentation from Sun and lots of test programs. My way: (I wanted to learn for life not just for the test.) - Read the excellent Java2 Certification Study Guide thoroughly. (A biginners guide). - Meanwhile make HEAPS of simple Java programs trying out things the book tries to teach. - Run your programs in debug mode to get a real feeling for it. - Make your own notes. - Read the book under review thoroughly! - Dive into the "real" Java2 documentation on some topics: IO, System, Strings. - To be comfortable I also read the javsoft trail for Collections. - Take a bunch of Mock Exams. You find a nice selection on: http://www.javaranch.com/maha/_Mock_Exams/_mock_exams.html I scored 17 on the 19 toughest questions exam on Bill Brogdens home page (http://www.lanw.com/java/javacert/) - I got several good tips in the www.sarga.com mock exams. The questions are good but the answeres have quiet a few errors. - I also found some really good hints in Mock Exam 3 by Marcus Green http://www.jchq.net/mockexams/exam3.htm All glory to ICHTYS! Hans Gyllensten Switzerland (hans_gyllensten@hotmail.com)
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I used this book in conjunction with the Java 2 Exam Cram and easily passed the exam. I highly recommend this for anyone who is looking for a study guide for the Java 2 programmer exam.
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