Rating: 
Summary: Good, but should not be your only study resource
Review: Yesterday I took the Java 2 Programmer test for the first time passed with a 93% score. I have several years of programming experience with structured and OO programming languages but not much of Java. My total Java experience is about a couple of months only.The reason I like this book is its brevity. I believe a study guide should have two qualities : focus and brevity. This book has both. There are a lot of good Java books that provide general information. The reason you use a study guide for a specific exam is because you don't want to be distracted by material not needed in the exam. My suggestions for succeeding in the test are : 1. Study very carefully the exam objectives provided by Sun Education at their website. This (and not the contents of any book) is the true exam 'syllabus'. Read between the lines and into the words in the objectives and try to find out what exactly they expect you to know. The objectives change too - the whole section on 'java.io' was added recently and therefore not covered properly in any study guide. I copied and pasted the objectives in a word document and then used it frequently to search for relevant words, (e.g to find out if the atan2 function in java.lang.Math is part of the syllabus). 2. Read a good general purpose book. Since the scope of study guides is narrow they will provide you with a lot of distilled information but will also miss out some. I read the following : a) The Java Programmig Language, 2nd ed. - Gosling, Arnold. Chs. 2 - 9 and 12 - 15 are relevant for the test. This is a very good book and provides a lot of information in very few pages. b) Graphic Java 1.1 - Geary. Chs 5 and 14 for AWT c) I referred to The java Lang. Specification, 2nd ed. - Gosling, Joy, .. as the final authority to resolve any doubts. This book is not a tutorial and may be used as a final reference. 3. Read chapters 1 - 10 of the Exam Cram book (the book under review) thoroughly and do all the practice questions. 4. Read the chapter on I/0 and the four chapters on AWT from the book The Complete Java 2 Certification Guide by Roberts, Heller and Ernest. The reason I did not read the rest of the book is because its bulk intimidated me and I found the Gosling book more convenient. 5. Study the JDK documentation (and code) for at least the following : java.lang.String, java.lang.Math, java.io (according to the objectives in this section). Remember, the objectives on I/O were not published when the study guides were written, so none of these books cover I/O properly. Also, there was a question in the test on the GridbagConstraints class. You should look this class up in the JDK. 6. Take the mock exam at the end of the Exam Cram book (the book under review). For some reason, the book sets a time limit of 90 min. while the actual test allows you 120 min. I think this might be a typo, but I kept the more stringent time anyway. 7. Make sure to take some mock exams available on the web. There are some that are free. I suggest the one available at the 'sarga' website. The reason why I do not recommend Jxam is that I found many of its questions were outside of the exam objectives, e.g., all questions on applets, HTML, JARs, etc. 8. Study the cutout sheet from the Exam Cram book just before the exam as suggested by the author. The exam will require you to think a lot and analyze a lot of code. So sleep well the night before. Good luck.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Awesome, Marvellous, Fantastic, Beyond Excellence
Review: After hunting for plenty of certification books I've come accross this one. Well, trust me friends even if you have a lot of working knowlege on java JUST DO NOT TAKE THIS EXAM FOR GRANTED. I am serious. I have referred to Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide and Java 2 Exam Cram. This book is a very good supplement to the former. It does not matter if you take a few weeks more to give the exam but I personally feel you shouldn't be giving the exam just for passing but also getting all your fundamentals crystal clear. I went over all those practice questions time and again, gave several mock exams and flunked in each one of them, yes I flunked but PROGRESSIVELY. This exam is very crucial in any programmer's career if he is looking for a major break in his job. The authors have done a fantastic job. I have been through all tutorials as well and also downloaded plenty of sample questions. I would love to help all you java freaks out there with the resources I have. I have also been through amazon.com very extensively, so if you are looking for any particular book on java I can help you with the same. Please feel free to e-mail me. I have also been through the reviews of Java 2 Exam Prep written by the same authors. I would recommend that as well if you are looking for more practice and exercises. I was a bit low on cash and hence had to be content with 2 books. I wish you all the very best.
Rating:
Summary: Does Just What It Intends To
Review: I am attempting to convert my career over to computerprogramming and have taken to the Java langauge in particular. I hadstudied for the Java 2 Programmer exam for at least 3 months (using Bruce Eckel's outstanding "Thinking in Java") when about 4 weeks ago I picked up this Exam Cram book. It was one of the best preparation tools I have ever found for a topic. Succinct, yet somehow well-detailed, it focused on just the topics covered by the exam. The mock exam in the back was a great aid, and the author's online applet mock exam was another fine tool. I passed on my first attempt, and I can truly say that the exam is difficult enough (due mainly to the directed questions, as opposed to broad theories and design issues) that I would not have without this book. Best ( ) I ever spent. END
Rating: 
Summary: one word sums it up -- confusing
Review: The book is really confusing in the way it explains things. Sometimes even after reading the explaination to the answer to the practice questions, I would still be confused.
Rating:
Summary: Exam Cram is a great resource for Java Cert exam.
Review: This was the second certification book that I bought. It and the first book I bought, the Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide by Heller and Roberts, were both excellent. I passed with a 90 percent score on the real exam. I highly recommend using the two books in combination. The Exam Cram questions are much harder than the Heller, Roberts book and push you so that the real test will seem a bit more tame by comparison. The author also responded very quickly to a question that I submitted from the book's website, which you have to appreciate. Advice for the test -- Read the questions carefully and do a WHOLE BUNCH of practice exams (which really teaches you to read the questions carefully).
Rating:
Summary: Great "second" book
Review: This is a great supplementary book to use to prepare for the programmers exam. I recently took SCJP exam and passed with a score of 93%. This book helped me gauge the type of questions on the real exam. I would still say that the questions on the exam were a little bit more difficult than the questions in the book. However, the practice exam at the end of the book is one of the best I have seen.
Rating:
Summary: Lightweight Java Certification Assistance
Review: Don't buy this book as your sole source for Java Certification, even if you have some Java programming experience. The information is, in most cases very basic and in truth isn't much help in the exam. There's a pull out section which the author advises you to take with you to the exam and study before you start the test. If you feel the need to do that, you're better off postponing your attempt because the pull-out is of no help whatsoever. It's fine as a lightweight supplement to other, real, study texts, but nothing more.
Rating:
Summary: Just the facts
Review: I've read tons of Java books. None of them left me with as much information as this one. It is a distillation of fact. When you get tired of wading through silly examples and weeding out cute little cartoons this book is where you should turn. It is a no-nonsense guide and well worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: Only half good
Review: I just passed the Sun Certified Programmer for the Java(TM) Platform this morning after having read this book. This book was very good through chapter 6. The rest of the book gave me the impression that it was written by a Java1.0 programmer, or that the information was cut and pasted from a Java1.0 or Java1.1 exam preparation text. As a particular example, the discussion of the processEvent method of the Component class left me wondering. It's not something you usually have to deal with (use of the XXXXListener methods is preferable) except when doing custom event handling. So, I have to wonder when the event handling discussion begins with that particular topic. I do think that it was worth the $23 I paid for it because the language basics are covered very well. A main reason for my purchase was its brevity. It would not suprise me if there were better exam preparation guides available. Better coverage of the java.io package, threads and events is certainly possible.
Rating:
Summary: Effective but not guaranteed
Review: I passed my Java certification exam and I did use this book in preparation. This book is best if used after preparing from more comprehensive sources. The best book I can recommend is Java Language Specification by James Gosling, Except AWT, everything is there and every question can be answered on the certification exam if this book is used. Exam Cram is good forquick reference, a last minute studu material. As far test I would say it is easy if everything is studied, just cover every exam objective and yes IO and GridBag Layout Manager which are not in the objectives but will appear in the test.
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