Customer Reviews

A Programmer's Guide to Java (tm) Certification

5 star:		(132)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I passed the Java 2 certification exam on first attempt. And I owe this convincing success to this book. The Java 2 certification exam mainly tests language fundamentals. This book covers fundamentals very very thoroughly. The chapters on difficult topics such as Threads and Inner classes are also very well written (not just glossed over as in some other books). The book is written is a simple and rigorous style, with no plaff! It is very easy to read and to understand. There is no wastage - of paper or words (like some other books in the market!) and very few typos. I found the code examples to be adequate and complete. The review questions are representative of the exam questions and a shade tougher, making the actual exam seem almost easy. The answers to the review questions are annotated leaving in no doubt the reason for the choice of answers and this I found to be very useful. The mock exam provided in the appendix has an interesting collection of questions - some of them are quite tricky. I just wish that the mock exam was provided on a CD, in a simulated exam environment. All in all an excellent first book for preparing for the Java 2 certification exam. Armed with this book and taking a few of the simulated mock exams available on the net will make passing the exam quite easy. Actually, this book is excellent for understanding Java language fundamentals that I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a sound introduction to the language!!

This book is full of information and covers each topic in great detail. For the novice, I suggest that one use this book along with Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java. Both combined make an excellent resource for the certification exam.

Pros: 1> The coverage on language fundamentals, inner classes, overriding, overloading, and event delegation model is excellent. The explanation is clear and concise. There is a steady flow from one concept to another. 2> The best part of the book is that it has review questions after every 10 pages or so. The questions are very tough but then they really test you for thorough understanding of the concepts. 3> The book with its thorough analysis of the Java language can be daunting at times (enough to give up the exam preparation). This is both a pro as well as a con of the book.

Cons: 1> AWT and I/O is better covered in Roberts' Complete Guide to Java 2 certification book. 2> Additional topics on Swing and Javadoc are not part of the exam curriculum.

Suggestions: 1> The mock exam in the book is much tougher than the real exam. 2> Take all the mock exams on the internet. See the site www.jchq.net

This review is written for readers who are in similar situation as mine.

My background:

-My experience with Java was minimal (2 University classes). -I didn't have work experience in Java.

My thoughts on the book:

This book covers everything you need for the Java 2 exam. It even covers topics such as Javadoc and Swing. You are told if a chapter is related to the exam objectives or not - the author categorizes the chapters' objectives (and sub objectives) into Main or Supplemental ones so you can skip a chapter (or a section) that you don't need for certification purposes.

The wording is concise and straight to the point. The terminologies and notations are based on the standards used in the industry (UML is used extensively in this book). The chapters are not closely tied so you can jump from one to another pretty easily. The concepts are defined and explained very thoroughly (important for certification) - this is the strongest selling point of this book. The practice questions and the mock exams are very good (make sure you do the written mock exam at the back of the book) and they expose one's weaknesses in the language quite effectively.

The book's website has corrections and a mock exam engine.

This book helps you master the language concepts in addition to passing the exam.

My preparation:

I took 3 months of 4-5 hour nights to study the material in this book. I have another book but that book looks like kindergarden material once you've read Khalid's book.

I did more than 15 mock exams and experimented with codes to clear my doubts.

My result:

Passed with 90%

Hope this helps.

Before I decided on a book to help me study for the Java 2 Certification exam I looked around. This book was definitely the best book available. After reading this book I took the Java 2 Certification exam and got a 97% (no lie).

It is a very detailed book and has great examples. I found other books (especially the one by Roberts, Heller, et al.) to be full of fluff -- some of which is incorrect. This book is very accurate. I found only a couple very minor errors.

If you want to pass the Cert Test, read this book and take notes. You will pass the test. Don't bother buying any other book. This one the absolute best available.

BTW, this book has chapters on Swing and javadoc, neither of which were covered on the Cert exam so you can ignore these chapters if you like.

I have just finished reading the first complete chapter (chapter 6, one of the longer ones) of the book A Programmer's Guide to Java Certification by Khalid A. Mughal and Rolf W. Rasmussen, and I have to say that I like the book very much. It is NOT for beginners that don't know programming already, but for those that like the language presented more formally, and definitely not in the style of the "Learn Java in 21 Days" or "...in 24 hours" etc (which some people say are a waste of 21 days, 24 hours and worse of all, a waste of TREES, but I digress...). Its style is more academic than that, and I would see it being used in a four-year college for a Java class.The review questions, which are dispersed over a chapter, are really good, and the answers are very well explained in an appendix. I have not gotten to the programming exercises, which are at the end of chapters. This is a book that goes way beyond what is strictly necessary to pass the test, which is something I like. I don't believe in "bare minimums". The only time I had to e-mail the authors, their reply came promptly and to the point, including code example. This is not what you usually get with other books. Some books even by Sun/Prentice Hall don't even have an errata web page. This one, of course, does.

The philosophy of the book is to give you what you need to pass the exam, as well as a Whole Lot More about becoming a Java programmer. Which is fine if that's what you're looking for, but when I want a study guide for a particular exam, that's what I expect. Not an avalanche of additional information that distracts me from what I absolutely need to know--how to pass the test. Anyone who thinks the test is easy enough so that you can fill your head with other stuff that isn't on it, at the same time, is either mentally ill or about to produce and market safe affordable cold-fusion washing machines.

Now, I did pass with an OK score, and I did find the information accurate. Fine. But holy cow, I hope the next edition is cut down.

It's also one of the most serious, dry books I've ever read. Not that I need dancing bears to explain to me about polymorphism (though I guess I wouldn't object to it if they could do it well), but I felt like I was back at university, trying desperately to stay awake through my macroeconomics or organic chemistry texts.

So, an OK book but I really wish there were something else I could have used that was accurate and clear and everything else you need, but that would also have kept me awake.

I find this book too hard to follow. After reading every two pages, I am refering some other book also to understand the same topic. Concepts are not sufficiently explained.

I found it scholastic and dogmatic in the bad sense; the examples are forced out and do not make (much) sensible sense, they are there just to confuse you more. Excellent for a textbook (that the students would hate !): hard questions, poor explanations.

Plus: I don't need sooo much detail about for, do, while loops, and other language constructs, since the title tells me this book is supposed to be addressed to programmers :(

Don't get me wrong: these guys know their stuff, they just don't know how to teach it !

There !

Sincerely, Larry Tobos

software consultant, and ex-instructor

To my opinion, this is one of the best books on the subject from those that are on the market today. I used this book to prepare for Sun's 310-025 certification test and scored 97%. This book accounted for at least 85% of that score, while the rest was due to online tests, practice and some other books. But, this book not only prepares for the test, it actually gives some real knowledge and understnding of Java, which will not be useless in the real world.

Good points (of this book): * extremely thorough and accurate coverage of ALL test objectives; the book goes even beyond and covers some essential areas which are not on the test yet, but could be there in the nearset future (such as Swing) * Review questions at the end of each chapter * At the end of almost every chapter there is a practice programming assignment; first, I was too lazy to do them, but then I realized that there is only one or two assignments at the end of each chapter, so it's not really intimidating and actually possible to do them quickly w/o wasting too much time. * The test in the end of book is very hard; I was able to score only 81% there (with Java 2 Exam Cram practice test, which I was also studying, I scored 91%, and on real exam I got 97%)

Not-so-good points: * There are some minor mistakes (like in any other book out there) in the text and even before you start studying this book, you should download latest errata, go through the book with pencil and correct all of them. The good part is that errata is fairly accurate and frequently updated.

Conclusion: This is a fundamental work which should not be overlooked; probably, the best to date. =================

BTW, here is the recources, I was using to prepare for this exam:

* This book * Bill Brodgen's "Java 2 Exam Cram" * David Flanagans's "Java in a Nutshell" * A dozen of online tests (most notably, Java Ranch's list of links to java certification recources)

I have tried hard to go through this book twice. I was disappointed about its writing each time. I would consider that is a torture to myself to finish reading this book. Not even mentioning I still have to pass the exam. . .

The good thing about this book is its exam questions. They are well-designed questions and can test your understaning.