SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 5 Study Guide (Exam 310-055) (Certification Press) [Paperback]

Katherine Sierra (Author), Bert Bates (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0072253606 | ISBN-13: 978-0072253603 | Publication Date: December 21, 2005 | Edition: 1

Get the book that shows you not only what to study, but how to study. The only classroom-based integrated study system for professional certification gives you complete coverage of all objectives for the Sun Certified Programmer for Java 5 exam, hundreds of practice exam questions, and hands-on exercises. The CD-ROM features full practice exam software plus an adaptive test engine.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Get the book that shows you not only what—but how—to study

• 100% complete coverage of all official objectives for Sun Java exam 310-055
• Exam Objective Highlights in every chapter point out exam objectives to ensure you're focused on passing the exam
• Real-world exercises--Step-by-step instruction modeled after the hands-on exam questions
• Exam Watch sections in every chapter highlight key exam topics covered
• Simulated exam questions match the format, tone, topics, and difficulty of the real exam

Covers all exam 310-055 topics, including: Declarations and Access Control * Object Orientation * Assignment and Initialization * Operators * Flow Control, Exceptions, and Assertions * I/O, Formatting, and Parsing * Generics * Collections * Inner Classes * Threads * Java Development

The best fully integrated study system available. CD-ROM includes:

• Complete MasterExam practice testing engine, featuring:
• One full practice exam
• Detailed answers with explanations
• Score Report performance assessment tool
• Electronic book for studying on the go
• Bonus downloadable MasterExam practice test (with free online registration)

About the Author

Kathy Sierra was lead developer for the SCJP for Java 5. Sierra worked as a Sun "master trainer," and in 1997, founded javaranch.com, the largest Java community website. Her books have won multiple Software Development Magazine awards, and she is a founding member of Sun's Java Champions program.

Bert Bates was a lead developer for several of Sun's Java certifications including the SCJP for Java 5. He is also a forum moderator on javaranch.com, a 20-year software developer veteran, and co-author of several bestselling Java books. Bert is is a founding member of Sun's Java Champions program.

Product Details

• Paperback: 825 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1 edition (December 21, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072253606
• ISBN-13: 978-0072253603
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #542,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Reviews not for Java 5, February 3, 2006

By 

Ken Loh (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 5 Study Guide (Exam 310-055) (Certification Press) (Paperback)

When I started reading the reviews, I could sence a lot of familiarity with the comments. Later I realized that the reviews were for the book of the same title but on the previous Java 1.4.

Therefore a word of caution so that readers do not take the reviews literally for this latest book on Java 5.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Passing the SCJP 1.5 Certification with Success!!, April 9, 2007

By 

derazz "derazz" (Geneva, Versoix Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 5 Study Guide (Exam 310-055) (Certification Press) (Paperback)

This certification study-resource from Authors: Sierra & Bates is a winner! As someone who recently succeeded at the SCJP 1.5 exam, i can vouch for this book. The following review is thus for those interested in preparing for the exam and not quite sure whether this book is the right tool for the job.

I am a beginner in Java, interested in becoming a Sun Certified professional java Enterprise Architect ie: SCEA. I decided to start the trek to the java-technology apex with the SCJP programmer certification, whilst actively preparing for the SCEA accreditation.

I used the following books in preparing for the SCJP exam:
(Book 1.) SCJP Study Guide - (SCJP SG )
(Book 2.) SCJP Exam for J2SE 5 - (SCJP E5) (Sanghera)
(Book 3.) Agile Java - (a 5 star book!!)
(Book 4.) Head First Java - (a 5 star book!!)

Note: (due to review real-estate constraints, i shall limit this review to (Book 1.) ie: [The SCJP Study Guide] - (the current book in question). you'll find a review for (Book 2.) on the customer review page for (Bk 2 #) using: Link to Book 2 .

Like most new-comers to java, I wanted to get-up to speed in java rather quickly. Therefore, the [SCJP E5] book from Sanghera was chosen as the first reading-reference, as it seemed concise, compact & condensed. However, if i had to do things-over, and choose which one book to use in order to scale the SCJP 1.5 exam -(whilst learning the Java language as well), I'd pick the [SCJP SG] from Sierra & Bates.

About (Book 1): [SCJP SG]: This book proved to be a more thorough read compared with the (SCJP E5) book from Sanghera. I obtained from it the finer level of details that i believe a beginner might require in order to have a better grasp Re: certain exam topics which were difficult to absorb from reading the (SCJP E5) Sanghera book alone. (Please refer to the (Book 2 #) Review link above, for details Re: the exam-topics in question.

However, upon finishing the (SCJP SG) book and answering the questions, i didn't feel quite ready to tackle the real exam. A lot of my other green-horn friends, decided to brave the exam after using the (SCJP SG) alone & uniquely to study & pass the exam; And failed at the first attempt!

- What was missing was: good exam-revision practise material.

While the test-practise question material in Q&A guides from companies like: Testking, Fravo, Certkiller, offered good exam practise-questions, it was surprising to find that all that was done in these various Q&A documents, was to simply list the answers to the various questions wherever they could, but without providing any detailed explanations or analysis as to why any one answer was correct or another-one wrong!

searching led to a SCJP 1.5 Exam-Practise book targeted at assisting the exam-taker in this respect. SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 5 Practice Exams (Exam 310-055) (Certification Press). This book is also from Authors: Sierra & Bates. However, this book isn't due out till the 4th quarter of 2007 ie: (December 1, 2007)! (others): Java Programmer Certification Mock Exam.

-what i did about it: I had to go away and put-together my own exam-practise guide! based on a composite of various exam-revision material encountered during all of my time revising. I found that the time spent coding and verifying references, together with re-reading material about the J2SE5 spec and including detailed & verifiable (explanations + references) in the exam-guide compiled, proved indispensable.

As space is short, i shall include only a few of the key exam-revision practise resources which really helped below: (for details Re: other key resources used, u might want to refer to my customer review posting for (Book 2 ); see Link to (Book 2 #) Review above.

(1a.) The eplanet Study Guide For The SCJP Certification. Google: [ "tech groups yahoo + SCJP-Sun-Certified-Java-Programmer" ]; Is a good Q&A exam-practise + study-guide offering detailed explanations.
(1b.) Fravo SCJP 310-055 [fravo] (-OR-) Testking [testkingonline], (-OR-) Certkiller. They all offer the same compendium of 180 (Q&A)'s, featuring code-exhibits & simulations.
(1c.) For those who are able to, i'd equally recommend getting the 310-055(.pdf) Q&A document from Actualtests. It is a compendium of 224 exam-practise questions. you can download it for free from the ExamCollection site. This is an awesome site for exam takers! It would be even better if u could download the "(.VCE)" version of the Q & A pdf document , but u will need to download a copy of the VCE manager application as well, in order to view the questions. hint : ...Google: "vce manager"
(1d.) Turn to the Java certification success guide (Part 1: SCJP) from the (IBM.Com) site. Its free but, u'll normally need to do an email registration in order to download it. Google: ["developerworks + java certification success"]. It is a short and concise (.pdf) document from the whizlabs group, useful in preparations for the SCJP 5 exam.

understand the stuff & leave no stone unturned.

Schedule, Sit and Ace the exam in 2hrs:55mins, when u've finished with these various exam-practise questions and study-guides.
The exam is comprised of 72 questions of which several are fashioned as drag & drop coding-scenario questions. Although, the pass mark is 59%, I think most people -(myself included!), view the exam as tough, because of its code intensive nature. I think reading, tackling & spotting possible coding errors in code-samples 6-30 lines long is tough under such time-constrained exam conditions, Plus, No credit is given for partial answers. However, on the up-side, it is do-able with the appropriate revision preparation regime.

for those wondering, i took the SCJP 1.5 exam on March 19th 2007. the passing-score achieved was: 98% ie: (71 out of 72 questions ). The pass-mark is 59%.

Good Luck!

next stops: SCBCD, SCWCD, SCEA, SCJWSD.

Cheers :-)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Of the Top Two SCJP Books, June 10, 2006

By 

Vin - See all my reviews

This review is from: SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 5 Study Guide (Exam 310-055) (Certification Press) (Paperback)

In the last two years, I have explored all the SCJP books, and I find the following two books very useful:

1. This Book:
This is a very comprehensive book and the focus on the exam objectives is pretty good. There are lots of praises already done for this book. So, I only want to point out from the Introduction inside the book that this is NOT the book for the beginners, it's only for advanced programmers.

2. The SCJP Exam for J2SE 5 by Paul Sanghera (Apress).
This book is new, so not many people know about it. The special thing about this book is that the way material is presented, this book is also good for beginners and intermediate programmers. It also has an excellent focus on the exam objectives. Another special feature of the book that I liked is that it presents complete runnable code examples distributed over all the chapters. You can downlaod the code examples and experiment with them. This can be very useful for the beginners because the SCJP exam is very code intensive. Bottom line: You can prepare for the exam while learning Java programming. If you are advanced programmer, skip the first chapter.
This book does not have a CD but a complete practice exam with well explained answers to the exam questions is given in an Appendix.
Both books re excellent books by their own virtue and get 5 stars from me.